Team AMBR: Finding Redemption
by Mojo1586
Summary: The story of Beacon's newest problem child Team AMBR, consisting of a criminal trying to overcome his violent past, a sadistic Faunus with power she can barely control, a chatty rogue with a chip on his shoulder, and a silent girl looking for answers to questions even she fears to find. Will they succeed together...maybe, but they'll take on anything that says otherwise! [OC/Yang]
1. Chapter 1

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**"…" – Spoken**

**'_Italics'_ \- Thought**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its characters, they belong to Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth Productions, and those characters you see not from the show, like the main character, are my own OCs for the purpose of the story. Enjoy) - Mojo1586**

ARRIVAL

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'God... I hate this dream...'_

* * *

**(Four Years Earlier)**

"Come on, how much longer is this gonna take?" I whispered in an exasperated voice, as the councilman droned on in the same boring monotone he'd had for the last hour now. "I've only got a week off from classes, you know."

My mother sighed in the seat next to me, shaking her head as she tucked a strand of long chocolate brown hair, same as my own, behind her ear and, smoothed out some wrinkles in her simple black dress, turning to face me with stern, pale grey eyes._ "_Joel, this ceremony is big for your father. Don't slouch, and..." She reached out, grabbing at knot I'd made of my tie, "learn to straighten one of these things, will you? It's a suit, not a noose."

_"_Seriously, though, is it supposed to go this long?" I grumbled under my breath as the man started on some tangent about honor, and... the _weather!?_

_'Does this guy even **remember** what he's going on about, at this point!?'_

"It was actually supposed to be done a half hour ago," she smiled working out the knot into some semblance of neatness. "Just bear with it. Here, look at Jake." She gestured next to me, where my little brother was sitting down, silently gazing at the speech behind a pair of sunglasses. "He's not complaining, is he?"

"That's 'cause he's _asleep,_" I said with a grin, waving a hand in front of his face, only to unsurprisingly get no response. "Want me to wake him up?"

She then sighed resignedly, leaning back into her seat as she shook her head. "No... Just leave him. Frankly, he has the right idea." She then inched her head up to look around the podium, as if looking for something. "Someone should be... Ah, there we are!" As she spoke, an attendant ran forward, shepherding the aging official away from the podium, much to the relief of everyone present.

A portly man in a pinstripe suit and balding dark hair stepped forward, rubbing two meaty hands together. "Thank you, Councilor, for that... _riveting_ speech. I'm sure no one here will soon forget it..." He then coughed into his hand before continuing. "Now, as you all know, we are here to honor the efforts of Bastion's police force, whose tireless efforts, alongside those of our Huntsmen, has led to the recent capture and imprisonment of yet another White Fang cell trying to gain a foothold in our beloved city." At that, applause arose again, this time a little more genuine, and not out of professional courtesy. He paused for a second, letting the cheers that had started up quiet down, before continuing. "Special commendation for these triumphs goes to the man responsible for leading the task force. A man whose service, and unyielding determination, will not go unacknowledged, and has helped make our city a safer place." The man smiled widely, gesturing back as my father stood up from his seat behind him, straightening his dress uniform nervously, running a hand through his trimmed black hair, blue eyes beaming as he stepped forward. "Sergeant Thomas Ambrose... Our city needs more men like you standing up for its protection."

"Thank you, sir..." Dad bowed his head. "But it was a team effort, and the assistance of Bastion's Huntsmen was most appreciated." He glanced over to where we were seated, shooting Mom a quick lopsided grin that she returned.

"That may be, but as the man who put it all together, your superiors and I feel you deserve a fitting reward! Congratulations on your promotion... _Lieutenant._" Everything else, event he councilor's boring speech, was worth it to see the shock on Dad's face as applause rose from all corners of the room, standing on their feet to recognize the man's achievement.

"I... T-_thank you, sir!_ I-I don't... I don't know what to say..." he stammered out weakly as he shook the mayor's hand.

"Say 'yes,' so we can all finally get to the food already." That got more than enough sentiment from the rest of the audience, if the laughter was any indication.

A short time and a few unscheduled press photos later found me sitting at a pristine white table, watching my parents socialize about, as hundreds milled about the extravagant ball room set aside for the award banquet. They both deserved a party; a chance to relax and let loose after months of stress during this whole investigation.

_'You guys have earned it.' _I smiled proudly as Mom caught Jake trying to sneak off, and dragged him towards the dance floor.

"Is that... No... It can't be! Joel Ambrose! Hello, my boy!"

I spun around to see the man who had saved us all from that speech and had congratulated Dad clearing a wall of cameras and dignitaries, his pink eyes fixed on me. He was accompanied by a small girl with similar dark hair streaked liberally with blue, who was looking back at me from behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with the same eyes as her father's.

"M-Mayor Corbell!" I leapt up clumsily, almost falling out of my seat in my haste. "I-It's good to see you, and... Nat! Hehe, I-I didn't know you were gonna be here." I waved nervously at the girl, who smiled back warmly, if a bit hesitantly herself.

"Please, none of that 'Mayor' business! 'Nathan' is just fine; let's not stand on ceremony here," he corrected me with a false serious finger waggling. "Natalie's been filling me in on your progress at Aegis, but she didn't mention just how _big_ you were getting." The man clapped me on the back, looking me up and down. Natalie, meanwhile, just shrugged behind him, shooting me an apologetic look. "Taking after your father and grandfather in that regard, I see. Good on you!"

"With how small I was, I had to be due for a growth spurt at _some_ point," I laughed nervously, scratching the back of my head awkwardly. "But, uh... Yeah, things have been going well, so far..."

"'_Well?_' Only a second-year, and _already_ racking up quite the kill count!" he went on, his grip like that of iron on my shoulder. "Just like your mother; a future hero of Remnant!"

"It was just a pack of Beowolves, sir. Nothing too special," I shrugged, "Anyone with proper training could have managed it."

"Well, that's a pack of Grimm more than I've ever hunted, eh? Why, you must tell me the story of how you..."

"Calm down, Dad..." Natalie interrupted pulling him off me, grabbing hold of my arm in the process. "You two can catch up later. Joel, let's go dance."

"Yes, yes, of course!" Nathan chortled. "Enjoy the festivities, you two. It _is_ your break, after all." He winked at me slyly before adding, "Just keep your hands where I can see them, alright?"

"_DAD!_" she shrieked, face reddening as she pulled me away into the throng of people on the dance floor, at least for enough that his ears would not hear us. "Sorry about him... Dads, right?" she muttered quietly as she guided my hands into position.

"He's fine!" I laughed, desperately trying to remember how to waltz as we started moving. "My dad's just as bad with that sort of thing." I cringed as my foot accidentally stepped on hers. "Ah... Sorry if I get your feet. Still a little awkward at this..."

"Just let me lead," she replied with smile. I had no problem with that, as I was too busy trying to avoid her toes. "How is it that you can fight so well, but something as easy as dancing is beyond you?"

"No idea. But, hey, I'm making the attempt, at least." I glanced back at my parents. They were still talking with what must have been friends from Dad's work, before focusing on the very pretty girl in front of me wearing her strapless silver dress, that, if anything, only added to her... I felt my cheeks redden. "Y-you look nice!... I like the dress," I added quickly, hoping my blush wasn't too visible.

"Thanks..." She looked down, blushing slightly. "You too."

_'Wait... **She's** blushing... That's good, right?'_

We danced for a few more minutes, chatting amicably about classes and the like, before heading out to a deserted table on the edge of the room. On the way, I reached over, to the side, grabbing some food off a passing Faunus waiter's tray, and missing the cross look he shot me.

"Enjoying the party?" I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Could have done without the speech at the start... but I think it's come out alright."

I then recalled that her shoulders were also bare... _'Focus!'_

I leaned back in the chair next to her, stretching out my sore feet. "Thank your dad for me, will you?" I hesitated for a second, frowning to myself and looking away, before turning my eyes towards her again and continuing. "I know I've been a bit scarce since the hunting trip... Things have been pretty hectic lately with the White Fang and my parents..."

"It's alright," Nat sighed. She was leaning against my right shoulder now, I realized.

_'When did...?'_

"I _did_ sort of drop that on you with no warning, didn't I?... I thought I might've scared you off, to be honest..."

"It wasn't too much of a shock, looking back." I could face down a charging Ursa, yet _THIS_ was somehow more terrifying. "We were fast friends. I helped you learn to manage your Semblance, and you never gave me shit about my family legacy, or how I needed to 'live up to their glory.'"

My arm was over her shoulder now. I could smell her perfume at this point; it clouded my senses._ 'Sweet... Some sort of flower, maybe?'_

"Y'know... I never _did_ get a proper answer." She had taken off her glasses, and her face was now dangerously close to mine, her pink eyes staring deep into my own blue.

I chuckled nervously, but felt a confidence in me that was making me braver. "You sure you want to hear it here? In front of all these people?"

She giggled at that. It was a sound that I found I enjoyed. "It's rude to leave a girl hanging, Joel..."

"Well, _that's_ no good." I grinned, extending my left hand to her cheek, and leaning forward, drawing her closer...

All of that ended a second later when I pushed her down with me, as an explosion blew through the room in a sea of multi-colored flames, and frightened cries that split the air. Shattered wood flew into the air, and twisted metal screamed...

* * *

**(Present)**

"_Ah!_" I was jolted awake as the armored van ran over another pothole, sending my head crashing into the steel wall lining the back, shocking me into awareness. "Argh... Damn it..." I muttered while rubbing my head gingerly. I had to lean forward awkwardly to reach the bruised area; the chain linking my handcuffs to the floor didn't have much slack, and the itchy gloves and coveralls they had me wearing didn't help, either.

_'Thought I was past this...'_

"Finally awake, are you?" one of the armored officers said dryly, looking me up and down. "We were going to get you earlier, but it looked like you were having _such_ a _nice_ dream."

I sighed, leaning back against the hard wall. "Thanks... It usually starts well enough."

"We're only a few minutes out from Beacon," the one next to me, the one in charge, judging by the sergeant's patch affixed on his shoulder, said gruffly, chewing on the end of a thick, unlit cigar. "You'll be their problem soon enough, Ambrose."

"Aw, but you guys have been such _great _company," I said sarcastically, jingling the chain on my cuffs at them. "And to think I believed we were actually bonding, here..."

"_Shove it!_ It's 'cause of you the bruises on my ass have bruises!" the one sporting a short mohawk across from me spat out, glaring my way. "Damn Huntsmen... Have to put their stupid school in the middle of nowhere..."

"I don't see why I couldn't just be transported by air like the other new students. I mean, I _was_ the one that volunteered to attend, after all." I gestured to the van at large, cutting off the man's whining before he could gain momentum. "It's not like you're all forcing me to do this..."

The sergeant chuckled softly. "And let you on an internationally-rated airship, just so you can escape and be well on your way to Vacuo within hours? Not a damn chance."

"Nah... Vacuo's _wayyyy_ too hot for me. Too many sandstorms... Though I do hear Mistral has great weather this time of year." I winced as Mohawk kicked me in the shin hard. "Joking; I'm _joking!..._ You do realize that, to take that airship, I'd have to take on _dozens_ of _highly-trained_ students, security personnel, and learn how to fly something that size all at once, _and_ unarmed? Aren't you guys giving me too much credit?"

"Better more credit, than not enough..." The sergeant looked down at his watch, flashing a signal to his men. "Never do know with you Trappers, after all. I've heard the stories." The truck came to a slow stop, finally settling with a long hiss. A few seconds afterwards, series of thumps rang out from behind the door. "Answer back," the sergeant ordered Mohawk.

He nodded, replying back with his own prearranged series of knocks, slamming his fist against the doors. It was all arranged beforehand; a knock and an answer. If they didn't get the right series of knocks in time, then the doors would not open. I guess the guy managed it, because the door opened after about half a dozen clicks, blinding me as light poured into the confined space. Another click and a rattle followed that, as I felt the chain holding my cuffs fall to the floor.

"Move it!" A gloved hand pulled me to my feet, and shoved me out the door roughly, sending me stumbling onto a neat cobblestone avenue.

I had to blink for a few seconds to clear up my eyes. Months of low light had taken its toll, though the view was definitely worth it. I couldn't help but whistle at the impressive sight of Beacon Academy looming above me, its ramparts reaching high into the clouds.

"Definitely bigger than Mom made it out to be..." I muttered.

"...It all _does_ seem rather larger than life, doesn't it?" a calm voice spoke up from behind me. I turned around to find a pale, middle-aged man with tousled gray hair and glasses, sporting a black suit, a black buttoned vest with a green undershirt underneath, and an ornate-looking cane in hand looking back at me from my left side.

_'Well, someone hasn't changed much...'_ I rested on the balls of my feet, watching calmly as the great Professor Ozpin himself, Headmaster of Beacon Academy and living legend, made his way towards our group with a steady gait, looking quite the same as he had a month before when he'd first come to see me about this little offer of his. _'Hard to believe he runs all this...'_

Standing a few steps behind him, however, was an unfamiliar woman, with light blonde hair tied back in a tight bun, but with a curl hanging down the side of her face. She was chatting with the driver, probably wondering if I had been any trouble to them during the trip. She was nice looking, in a mature, professional sort of way. Bright green eyes behind a pair of ovular glasses, and wearing clothes that frankly looked more at home in an office setting then at a Huntsman Academy... Well, at least aside from the black and purple tattered cape she wore across her shoulders. What drew my attention almost instinctively, however, was the object hanging off at her thigh. It was a holster that was too out of place to be anything but some sort of weapon, though what it was exactly, I couldn't quite make out.

_'A Dust Mage, maybe?... She doesn't seem like a melee type...'_

"I'm sure it must be a little jarring for you. Especially after what you've been through these past few months," Ozpin suddenly said, drawing my attention away from the Huntress.

The sergeant strode towards him and saluted. "Professor Ozpin, Sergeant Johnson of the Vale Military Police Force. We've dropped the prisoner off, as per your instruction."

"Thank you, Sergeant, for you and your men's hard work. I know it wasn't an easy trip," the man replied, nodding to each of the assembled men in turn. "I'll be sure to make a note of this to your superiors after things are settled here... Now, would you please remove Mr. Ambrose's bonds?"

The man's statement got some of the other men to look startled. I even heard a few gasps slip their mouths.

"S-_sir?_ I-I _must_ protest...!" Johnson started, but a quick far off glare from the Huntress present silenced any misgivings quickly enough. Relenting, he instead nodded to Mohawk, and gestured towards me. "Private, uncuff him!"

The man moved forward slowly, hand on a thin baton hanging off his belt. "No sudden moves, murderer."

I just shrugged at him, holding out my hands expectantly while giving him a small grin as he undid the cuffs. When they were gone, I spread my arms widely, stretching out my sore muscles, working out the kinks in my back that had accumulated during the trip, before breathing in the clean air of Sanas in blissful contentment.

Unexpectedly, he then leaned toward my right ear. "Don't get too comfortable; I'm certain I'll be seeing you again _real soon,_" he sneered just loudly enough to avoid being overheard.

I massaged my knuckles, nodding along absently as he pulled back. As soon as I saw his body relax, I lashed out with an open palm strike with my right hand, catching the unsuspecting guard full in the face, and snapping his head back with a loud crack. The man made to grab for his nose with a shocked squeal, before I followed up with a right sweeping leg kick that sent him to the ground hard in a choking heap. As he gasped raggedly for breath, my heel wound up on his windpipe, applying gentle pressure.

I would've likely continued, but the simultaneous clack of weapons being drawn gave me pause. I noticed laser sights dotting my clothes, the other guards in position around me having their fingers on the trigger. The woman, on the other hand, had a short riding crop in her hand, held loosely like a wand or sword.

_'So **that's** what it was...'_

I raised my hands up slowly, backing away from the whimpering guard, who gulped for air gratefully as I removed my foot from his neck. "Sorry... Guy kinda deserved it. He's been spitting in my food for months." The guards hadn't dropped their weapons yet, but that didn't faze me much.

"Stand down, Sergeant!" Ozpin evenly called out while stepping forward, bringing his cane down with a loud clap on the stone pavement. "Collect your man, and be on your way... You have my sincerest apologies. We will be sure to cover his medical expenses."

Johnson, having taken his eyes off of me, sighed, before moving forward, and dragging the private to his feet. He shot me a last minute glare, before making his way back to the truck along with the rest of his men. I kept my eyes on him even after he'd entered the truck, looking away only after I was sure it was departing peacefully.

_'Old habits die hard, I guess...' _I chastised myself inwardly.

"And as for you, Mr. Ambrose..." the Headmaster started, glancing back at me sternly. "I'd prefer it if you could avoid repeating such actions in the future. Unsanctioned acts of violence will _not_ be tolerated at this establishment... Do I make myself clear?"

The air suddenly felt somewhat colder as the man narrowed his eyes, a tightening pressure gripping my lungs. Still, I didn't know what was more intimidating: his glare, or the cool, even way he'd addressed the warning. Either way, both were more than a little unnerving, and enough to send a chill of panic down my spine.

"R-right, sir... Understood," I stammered out quickly, giving him a short nod.

The Professor returned it, his expression finally relaxing. He gestured for me to follow him. I did so, and the woman with him followed behind me. It was likely to make sure I wouldn't try to escape. As if I even wanted to...

I followed him into one of the buildings inside the massive campus, leading me through winding corridors, and more than a few flights of stairs. Eventually, he ushered me into a large, darkened room with no windows, and a metal desk with two chairs spaced in the middle. It looked frighteningly enough like an interrogation room, albeit lacking the chains or barely-concealed bloodstains I was used to.

Ozpin entered after me, taking a seat behind the desk while dropping a large pile of folders he'd taken from his blonde aid, or whatever she was. I recognized a few of the files as transcripts and personal information likely concerning other students. The one I saw plainly was those namely belonging to a... Ruby Rose, if I was reading that right. She must have bern some sort of prodigy for the Headmaster himself to be taking interest. I took the seat across from him unprompted. The woman then placed a glass of clean Valean water in front of me, which I greedily gulped down a second later.

"Joel Ambrose. 18 years old..." the woman read methodically off of her Scroll in a measured tone. "You were born within the Frontier City of Bastion to Thomas and Patrice Ambrose. Attended Aegis Huntsman Academy with high marks, until being caught up in a terrorist attack instigated by the White Fang, that claimed the lives of both parents and nearly two hundred others, including the city's mayor, Nathan Corbell."

I must have tensed noticeably, because she paused for a few seconds before continuing.

"You were reported as missing shortly afterwards, but later resurfaced as an agent, or by the common term 'Trapper,' of the Red Hand, a radical pro-humanist group formed by victims of similar attacks dedicated to eliminating the White Fang and its members by any means necessary..."

"Want me to finish that for you?" I spoke up, cutting her off before she could move on. I earned a sharp "tsk" from her in the process. "I'm guessing something along the lines of 'willingly surrendered himself to police custody, promising information on the Red Hand in exchange for the full pardon of one of his accomplices, and was given a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole...' That about sum it up?"

"Now, now, Mr. Ambrose. She's merely stating facts for the record. She doesn't mean any offense... Now, let us get straight to the point..." Ozpin started affably. " As you know, I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of this Academy, and this woman here is Glynda Goodwitch, my aid in charge of student affairs, and one of your future teachers."

"I know; I've heard the stories. You two are legends here in Vale."

"And we've heard a great deal about you, as well..." the older Huntsman replied as Glynda placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of him. "I actually knew of your mother; I don't think I mentioned that the last time we met. Patrice was both a fine woman and a remarkable Huntress." He took a quick swig, seemingly unaware of my clenching fists. "She didn't deserve to meet her end in such a way..."

"...Thank you, sir, but I didn't come here to discuss my mother..." I remarked, a note of bitterness entering my voice. "I'd prefer to get to the matter at hand."

"As you wish... Glynda, please fetch the boy's effects."

"Right away, Professor." She adjusted her glasses, giving me a harsh glare before leaving the room.

"...You'll have to forgive her. She was one of the faculty members that was against the idea of bringing you here. She feels that it's dangerous to place you amongst the student population."

"It's alright... Not like I can't see where she's coming from... It's a perfectly reasonable reaction, in my book."

"To be perfectly honest, many of those who know of this decision are against it, as well," the Professor continued. "It took many of my connections within the Valean Council, as well as more than a few promises to acquaintances in other Kingdoms, to arrange your release from prison after only a mere five months."

"Which begs the question of _why_ you chose to go through all of this trouble, just so I could attend your academy?" I responded calmly, body tensing slightly.

"...I've always been a man who believed in second chances, as I'm sure you've gathered from our last meeting, Mr. Ambrose. Your abilities, if what we have on you is to be believed, are extraordinary for one your age. I believe that such talent is better spent facing the Grimm, saving lives, and doing good, rather than wallowing away inside a jail cell, wasting away. Before this, however, I do have some more questions of my own that I wish to ask you... If you'll allow me?"

"...Ask away."

"Why did you surrender yourself to the police, and, now that you are here, will any Faunus students be in danger because of you?"

I contemplated the question, taking a few seconds to sip on any remaining water in my glass, as well as working out how I would describe my answer, seeing as it was obviously critical to me staying here.

After thinking to myself for almost a good minute, I took a deep breath and answered him. "I won't go into specifics..." I started, staring into the man's face, and trying to meet his gaze. "I've done a lot of bad things in the name of vengeance... I left because I realized that that path had made me into the very thing I was fighting to destroy..." I bowed my head as a great feeling of shame washed over in my chest. "As for your other question... I've _never_ hated the Faunus themselves. Never blamed them for what the White Fang did, unlike many of my former comrades... Part of why I left was because the organization started to lose sight of the difference..." Most Faunus would probably share my views on the Fang, if less extreme, come to think of it. "But I swear to you, sir... On whatever shred of honor I have left in me, they won't have any trouble from me..."

I leaned back in the chair as the blonde professor reentered the room carrying a cloth bag under her arm. I accepted the bundle with a polite 'thank you,' smiling internally as her expression softened somewhat.

"...A passable answer," the Headmaster said with a warm smile. "Your weapons and equipment are all there, along with what personal effects you had with you at the time of your surrender..." Ozpin noted, pointing at the large bundle with a free finger, tapping away at a desk-mounted Scroll with the other. "We took the liberty of obtaining a new set of combat gear for you to use. For anonymity's sake, of course."

"I appreciate it. The mask might've made things difficult," I quipped, but was surprised when Goodwitch produced a black metal half-circle, and held it out to me.

"Place this on your neck in the most comfortable way you can," the older Huntress ordered curtly.

I hesitated for a second, before taking the circle, and bringing it up to just below my Adam's apple. Suddenly, I drew in a quick intake of breath as the circle latched onto my neck. The thing stretched until it completely encircled my neck, each seam blending in perfectly, and leaving no indent visible.

"W-what the...!?" I clutched at the strange device as it conformed to my neck's shape, almost drawing on my Aura right then and there. "You...!?"

"That is a tracking collar designed with Aura-enhanced prisoners in mind," Goodwitch explained, keying in some figures to her Scroll. I noticed a few bio-metrics pulsing rhythmically in time. "It's powered by your own Aura. The collar relays a signal directly to mine and the Headmaster's Scrolls, giving us access to your current location and medical status, and allowing us to keep better track of you." She glanced up as I kept fiddling with it awkwardly. "It's nigh indestructible, even with a Semblance like yours. That collar will only come off if we take it off, or you die."

"All in all, I would advise against making any sort of escape attempt while that collar is still functional," Ozpin added, setting aside his mug, and leaning forward to rest his chin on his hands.

"What, is there a bomb set to blow my head off if I try to leave without permission?" I asked as I poked at it with a careful finger, the strange device already feeling light as air and warmed to my temperature. If I'd had my eyes closed, I probably wouldn't even notice it. "...There's _not,_ is there?" I asked a bit more unsurely.

"Nothing so barbaric..." Ozpin assured as he gave me a reassuring grin. "If you try to escape, we'll merely send Professor Goodwitch to collect you... in which case, I'm certain you _will wish_ the collar had an explosive in it."

I glanced up at the bespectacled woman, shivering slightly at the implication. _'Note to self... **Do not** screw with this woman.'_

"...I'll keep that in mind."

"Excellent. Then let me be the first to welcome you to Beacon Academy." He stood up, holding out a hand towards me. I took it, but was surprised at how strong his grip was. "I expect great things from you, Mr. Ambrose. I look forward to working with you."

* * *

_'...Well, this day hasn't gone as badly as I thought it would._' I thought lazily as I stepped out of the locker room shower, staring at my reflection in the steam-fogged mirror for the first time in what felt like months...

Actually, it _had_ been months.

I ran a hand through my short-cropped, stark white hair, blue eyes watching as I pulled a razor from the kit Ozpin had given me with the other hand. I quickly shaved off what dark stubble had built up over the last few months. Once that was finished, a quick peek at the Scroll sitting on the counter next to me indicated that it was almost noon.

"Other students should be showing up pretty soon..." I sighed, pulling out the gear the Professor had provided.

Aside from two sets of the standard Beacon uniform, Ozpin had provided a pair of grey jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a short-sleeved black hoodie, along with a pair of finger-less gloves and combat boots. I also found a collapsible blue ballistic chest plate, along with pairs of knee and elbow plate pads that I strapped on over the outfit. I did a few quick punches and stretches, finding that the armor did little to restrict my own movements, and would actually help considering my fighting style. Last, but not least, I pulled _Storm Circuit_ out from the side pocket, staring down at the nearly two-foot long cylinder, before tracing the weighted silver ridges spaced evenly along its length. The weapon had served me well enough against the White Fang. I could only hope it would handle Grimm just as effectively. Strapping the weapon to my back using a thick sheath, I also placed two small rectangular dispensers at my sides on each hip.

Feeling satisfied with my appearance, I left the bathroom, making my way to a small garden just outside the main building. Looking out towards the front of the campus, I watched as the fleet of airships nearing the school in tight formation, before looking on to the others that had already landed.

"Been a while since my last first day of school... It feels like a lifetime ago..." I muttered under my breath, reminiscing on my earlier days in Aegis, before shrugging as I made my way towards the nearest airship docking station. "Might as well look like I came in with everyone el...!"

A loud explosion rang out from the direction of the station along the main entrance way where the rest of the first years were docking.

A twinge of panic shot through me, hand reaching for my weapon, before I ran towards the direction of the explosion. I sprinted the rest of the way, coming to a stop outside the school, before looking around. "_Where!?_ Where did...!" There were indications of scoring on the pavement, but from the signs of it, I realized that that whatever the explosion had been, it had been very light. Like a small Dust explosion, or weapon misfire.

"Oh..." I sagged slightly in embarrassment, making sure to put my weapon's compact form back in its sheath. It had been five months since I left the Hand, but it seems that a lot of the old habits were still ingrained in me. _'Old habits **do** die hard...'_

Still, a part of me was curious about whether or not anyone got hurt. It was a bad sign if the school year started with a terrible tragedy. Unfortunately, there was no sign of anyone who might have been involved, or might have seen what had happened.

No one... except...

"Hey you, up in the tree!" I glanced up at where a girl sat up amidst the branches reading a book. However, since I called out to her, she was now looking at me with a surprised look on her face.

She had a very light complexion, to the point of being almost pale. She long, wavy, ebony black hair, complete with a black bow on the top, which seemed to stand out, if only because it was the most unassuming part of her attire. Aside from that, she had a black buttoned vest with coattails, along with a white undershirt that exposed her midriff. On her legs were a pair of white shorts and dark colored stockings. They started with the color black at the top, but faded steadily into violet as they ran down her legs, and depicted some sort of white flower emblem. _'Not as flashy as most Kingdom-trained Huntresses these days, at least.'_ What really caught my attention were the eyes, however. They were amber-colored, but slightly tinted upwards, like that of a cat's, almost glowing in the shadow cast by the overhanging branches.

"...You noticed me?" she asked, sounding genuinely impressed.

_'Definitely a ninja, this one.'_

"I have pretty good ears," I replied, walking up to the base of the tree, tapping my head. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened here? I heard an explosion, and came running as fast as I could."

"'Came running?'" she said, a note of amusement in her voice this time. "Not a lot of people just come running towards explosions."

"Guess I'm not a lot of people," I shrugged, scratching the back of my head, while also hoping I was doing a good job of hiding the fact that my earlier haste was because of harsh conditioning. "And it sounds like you know what happened. Mind sharing?... For curiosity's sake..."

"...Some girl in red was getting a lecture from Miss Weiss Schnee, herself, about the dangers of Dust, when she sneezed, setting off some powder she was carrying." The girl's eyes looked me up and down, settling on my face for maybe a second, before she turned her gaze back to her book. "She stormed off afterwards, while the girl went somewhere with another boy. They're probably at Orientation by now. "

"..._Weiss Schnee!?_..." I responded, mentally cringing at the harsh surprise in my tone.

"Yeah..." she answered, looking back at me with an arched eyebrow. "You know her?"

I quickly shook my head, doing my best to sound convincing. "_No!_ No, I just... Uh... I'm just confused. I mean, isn't she from Atlas?... _And_ a Schnee? What would she be doing at a place like Vale?"

She merely rolled her eyes, looking back at the book in her hands. "Your guess is as good as mine."

I nodded with a hum, before frowning as I realized something. "Wait... Orientation's going on _now!?_"

"Yep..."

"Oh, crap, I'm gonna be late!" At that I quickly twisted around to head for the amphitheater, before stopping and looking back to her curiously. "Uh... Don't you want to start heading for Orientation, too?"

She shook her head at me, never taking her eyes off of her book. "Don't worry. I'll get there on time."

"...O... Kay," I relented, about to go head for the main hall, before looking back at her. "Say... You got a name?" I inquired to the girl on the tree.

"Blake," the ninja supplied, flipping a page absently, glancing up at me again curiously.

"Cool. Name's Joel... Well, I suppose I'll be seeing you?"

"Seems likely." She went back to her book immediately after. I knew enough about women to know that this meant she was done talking, and so I went on my way.

Weiss Schnee... The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company was here at Beacon... The Red Hand had done a job for her father about a year and a half before I'd been arrested, that had involved me acting as her bodyguard. Despite spending months around her, the girl had barely said a word to me, apart from orders and insults. A bit arrogant, that one. The most meaningful conversation we'd ever had had basically gone along the lines of _"You fight pretty well, Miss Schnee,_" followed by "_Why are you talking to me, creep!? Just do your job."_

Not the most entertaining task I've been assigned.

_'And now she's here, of all places...'_ I mused to myself. _'...I wonder why...'_

* * *

My ears were bombarded by by the voices of many students, as I entered into the amphitheater. Various peoples of different races, sizes, appearances, and genders stood before me, each either talking amongst others, or minding their own business. I briefly looked up to glance around the room, seeing that the seats on top around the room were empty, before sighing deeply, and making my way into the crowd.

"Uh, excuse me... Sorry... Pardon me..."

I weaved through the sea of people to stop somewhere near the front, but not directly in the front row. My eyes looked directly at the stage at the center of the room. I saw a microphone, there, but no sign of anyone actually going to speak.

_'I wonder what's taking him?... It wasn't some extra stuff about me, was it?...'_

Looking to my left, I arched an eyebrow. I saw what looked to be a a blonde girl carrying a girl with black hair in her arms. It was kind of silly, like something one would see in one of those morning cartoons from the weekends. My eyes then narrowed at who the two were cringing away from.

_'So she **is** here...'_ I could make out that white, off-center ponytail of hers anywhere. It seemed she was holding out something to them... A pamphlet? _'What the...?'_

I slowly looked away. She wasn't paying attention to me, but I didn't want to risk her recognizing me. Still... I wore a mask in my days as her bodyguard, so there would be little to no chance she would recognize me. Regardless, the paranoid in me won over.

_'Gonna be **very hard** to kill those old habits...'_

I then looked in the other direction, looking out amongst the heads in the crowd. One managed to stop me, if only because of what the person was doing. It was a blonde head of hair, short and spiked. The person, a boy I realized, was looking to his left side, and talking as he looked down.

This act confused me slightly. _'Is he... talking to himself?'_

"_Move!_"

My observation was cut off as someone, a girl judging by the pitch of the voice, shoved me roughly to the side, moving past me to go to the front. Looking back indignantly, I saw a flash of red hair, as well as what appeared to be a pair of ears on top of the head... A pair of dog ears only found in Faunus.

That alone sent a chill through me, much to my own displeasure, frustration, and shame.

"H-hey!" I cried, annoyance apparent in my voice.

Before I could speak further, she cut me off with a sharp snap, and a very obvious middle finger right to my face. "Shut it, asshole!"

Gritting my teeth in anger, I was about to tell the girl off, when a loud screeched echoed from the stereos through out the room, making me cringe, as it was a rather unpleasant sound for one with ears like mine. A loud cough, the type used to clear one's throat, caught my and everyone else's attention, making us all look to Professor Ozpin, who now stood on the stage behind the microphone. Glynda Goodwitch was standing right behind him to his left.

"I'll... keep this brief," he began, tilting the glasses perched over his nose. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft, and acquire new skills. And when you've finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

I crossed my arms as I listened to his speech, focusing on his words. In my case, my skills and craft were already pretty honed. If anything, this was more rehabilitation and conditioning, than anything else.

_'And a sentence...'_ I reminded myself, tugging on the collar on my neck lightly. _'...With an arrangement I probably don't deserve...'_

His next words caught me slightly off guard, if only because it was somewhat having the opposite effect of what he should have been trying to convey. "But I look amongst you... and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose; direction."

If he was hoping to gain everyone's undivided attention, he certainly got it with that.

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far... It is up to _you_ to take the first step..."

With that, he stepped away from the mic, indicating that his speech was over. Goodwitch then walked up to the microphone. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your Initiation begins. Be ready... You are dismissed!" With that, throngs of people already began to move out of the stage.

Meanwhile, I stood there, watching the two adults leave the area, before looking down at my right hand, flexing it.

_'Wasted energy... That's all I really was these past few years,'_ I thought to myself, staring directly into my hand as I unclenched it, before twisting it around to look at the forehand.

A brief memory flashed through my mind. A pool of blood. Three bodies, with my hands over the chest of one of them. Bear ears...

My face cringed as I groaned, closing my eyes, before shaking my head. When I opened them again, I was still in the amphitheater, and there were still students leaving.

Taking a few deeps, a swallowed and exhaled from my nose. _'The first step... I've already made it.'_ I then looked down at my hand again. _'But... will I be able to follow through with it?...'_

* * *

Night fell pretty quickly, and I soon found myself camped out in the ballroom with the rest of the first years, sleeping on the floor in a loose shirt that I'd pawned off another student and shorts, using my duffel as a pillow. From what I'd gathered from a few of the other students, we needed to complete the some sort of Initiation activity the next day, or we wouldn't be able to stay at Beacon.

'_Which basically means I'll go back to jail if I don't pass... **Yay**_**.**_'_

I groaned as I sat up. At the rate my thoughts were bothering me, not to mention certain snores my ears picked up despite the earbuds I was wearing, sleep wouldn't be happening. I then noticed a bit of candlelight shining at the other end of the hall through the corner of my eye. Deciding I might as well investigate it, seeing as I had nothing better to do, I stood up, and made my way across to that area, carefully avoiding stepping on the sleeping students. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face reading by the candle in a black yukata.

"Oh, it's you."

The ninja from earlier looked up from her book. "Hey... Joel, right? You aren't stalking me, are you?"

"Nope. Just a weird coincidence, with a bit of curiosity on the side, I swear," I explained. "Blake, right? Sorry. I couldn't sleep, and saw your candle's light from where I was laying down. I wanted to see if it was quiet enough to listen to my music peacefully... It kinda is, to be honest." I then frowned when I realized something from the slight shift in her eye. "But if it bothers you, I can go somewhere else, if you want. I don't mind."

"...No, no, it's alright," she sighed after thinking to herself for a few seconds. Blake then gestured to the spot next to her. "Just don't make too much noise, okay?"

"Thanks. I won't; I promise," I nodded with a small smile, before sitting down gingerly, pulling out my new Scroll, along with the pair of earbuds that had come with it. Switching on one of the tracks I had downloaded a few hours before, my head bobbed to the steady beat before I knew it.

We spent a few minutes like this in peaceful silence. In prison, it had been, for the most part, just me alone in a cell, with nothing else to do but exercise and meditate for hours and hours on end. Still, even that got boring after a while. It did teach me that you didn't have to speak to someone, though. Sometimes, just having people be present was enough.

A light tap broke me out of my reverie, making me blinked wildly as I tried registered what had disturbed my peace. Looking up, I saw a girl with a blonde, wild mane of hair, which almost seemed to glow in the dim light, wearing an orange tank top looking down at me with a pair of curious lilac-colored eyes. Another smaller figure nearby, who was talking with Blake about her book, had black hair tipped with red highlights, and had... Silver eyes? That was something that I'd never seen before. Aside from that, she had a black tank top with what seemed to be a heart-shaped... Beowolf? Yeah, definitely eccentric.

"Sup, big guy?" the blonde grinned, somewhat breaking me out of my observations, flashing me an appraising look. "Name's Yang. And _this..._" She indicated the girl next to her. "Is my little sister, Ruby. Nice to meetcha!"

"Uh... Hi there...?" I just stared back and forth between them dumbly, before fully snapping back to reality.

_'Ruby... The girl from the file?'_

"You alright?" Blake asked, a concerned look crossing her face. "You kind of zoned out through our whole conversation."

"Sorry..." I apologized, blushing slightly. "I tend to get wrapped up in my music, sometimes. It's... been awhile since I've been able to just sit back, and enjoy it."

The raven-haired girl nodded, accepting the excuse, while our blonde guest examined the pair of us. Her sister, Ruby, looked as if she'd rather be somewhere else, as long as it wasn't here. "So... are you two friends? I'm sorta helping this one out," Yang asked, pointing between me and Blake as she hauled Ruby out from behind her, the girl letting out a small squeak of fright from the action.

We glanced at each other quickly before I answered for us. "Not exactly. We just met today... I suppose 'acquaintances' is more accurate." Blake nodded in agreement, eyes darting back to her book.

_'Thanks. Abandon me to do the talking, why don't you?'_

"Really?... Huh. I thought you two might've known each other. You know... like some dom-sub thing you guys got going on, or something," she explained while grinning evilly and pointing towards her neck.

I reached up, remembering the tracking collar I was still wearing. I'd actually somehow managed to forget it was there, funny enough. "I-it's just jewelry," I said quickly, blushing lightly. Blake remained stonily silent, face suddenly buried in her book, though I noticed more than a little red there, too.

"_Yang!_ You just can't say that to people!" the smaller girl said frantically. "It's rude!"

"Really? My bad!" Yang laughed loudly, patting Ruby on the head and ruffling her hair playfully.

"...Anyway, Joel, this is the girl you were looking for earlier," Blake said, indicating Ruby, who jumped.

I blinked in confusion, before recalling our first encounter. "What? The one who exploded?"

"_DOES **EVERYONE **KNOW ABOUT THAT!?_" Ruby cried out, her face now matching the color her highlights. "_IT WAS AN **ACCIDENT!** BUT SHE STILL YELLED, EVEN AFTER I READ THAT STUPID PAMPHLET SHE GAVE ME!_" She was getting louder, almost to the point where the entire hall was going to wake if this kept up.

"Well, Ruby, Yang... It's been a plea..." Blake tried to calm her down. However, before she could finish...

"What is going on, over here!? Don't you realize some of us are trying to _sleep!?_" An annoyed voice called out as a white haired girl, long hair hanging down around her face, wearing a faded blue nightgown, stormed towards our group pale blue eyes glaring daggers at us. I didn't really need the snowflake symbol on her upper right chest, the logo of the Schnee Dust Company, to know exactly who this was. The crooked scar across her eye threw me for a loop, however, as it hadn't there when I'd left. I resisted the urge to grimace upon seeing it.

Aside from that, and a few other barely noticeable changes, Weiss Schnee hadn't changed much in the past two years, it seemed. I turned away slightly, trying to stay out of her focus, though, thankfully for me, her focus seemed to be fixed on the pair standing before us.

**"OH, NOT _YOU_ AGAIN!"** Yang and the heiress screamed simultaneously while Ruby tried to keep the peace. Well... keep Yang from ripping off the heiress' head, by the sound of it.

_'Guess I now know who it was she was snapping at during Orientation.'_

"Hey, I'm gonna call it a night." I waved goodbye to Blake as she set her book aside with a sigh, reaching for the candelabra. "Thanks for letting me hang around. I hope I wasn't too much trouble."

"Not at all. It wasn't your fault." Blake blew out the flames, plunging the room into darkness, making Ruby cry out a last minute shriek.

I made my way back to my bed, doing my best not to laugh.

* * *

"_You!_ White hair, by the locker!" a commanding voice called out from over my shoulder as I tightened the last strap on the chest plate, giving it a firm rap with a closed fist.

"Huh?" I looked over to see Weiss stalking towards me. _'Here we go...'_

She had changed to an attire that I was more familiar with: namely her somewhat impractical "combat dress" that she'd used for her training sessions. She was wearing a pale blue, long sleeve vest, with red on the inside, and frills on the end of the sleeves. I couldn't see it, since she was facing me fully, but I knew that there was a white Schnee Crest on the back of her vest. Underneath it was a similar pale blue thigh-length skirt - a _skirt,_ no matter what fancy name she gave it - with her Multi Action Dust Rapier attached to her left hip.

_'Still wearing heels to a fight, I see...' _Not that I had much of a problem with it seeing as she could more then handle herself even with the impractical footwear she wore. Her hair was no longer hanging loosely, having instead opted for an off-center ponytail held together by a fancy tiara.

She held a thick binder and pen in her arms with a serious expression on her face. I pulled _Storm Circuit_ out, placing it on my back, before shutting the locker, quickly turning to face her with my arms crossed.

"Are you... talking to me?" I asked while feigning ignorance, pointing to my chest as the heiress stopped in front of me, standing to her full height, and trying to look imposing and official. Admittedly, the effect was a bit lacking, seeing as I was still more than a head above her, easy. And that was her height whilst wearing her boots; she was shorter without them.

"You were the boy hanging around with that one girl the other night. The one talking to those annoyances, correct?" she stated more than asked, icy blue eyes staring into mine like daggers. It was unlikely that the girl remembered me from one short conversation over a year ago, but it still had me on edge.

"If you mean Blake, Ruby, and Yang, then yeah, I am. Joel Ambrose," I greeted hesitantly, leaning back against the locker. "Did you, uh... want me for anything?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress of the prestigious Schnee Dust Company..." She opened up her binder, turning to a fresh page, with pen primed in her free hand. "It's common knowledge that students at Beacon are placed into teams of four for the length of their time here. I have already secured Pyrrha Nikos as a teammate, and am currently evaluating other students in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she finished haughtily.

"Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Yes. Pyrrha Nikos. Top of her class at Sanctum, renowned for winning the Mistral Regional Tournament for four years in a row, setting a new all-time record. She's widely considered to be one of the most successful upcoming..."

"Oh right!... Hey, isn't she the girl on the Pumpkin Pete's box?"

"..._Yes_... Yes, she is..." Weiss answered, though it almost sounded like a growl. "She and I will be partners."

* * *

**_-Weiss Schnee-_**

_'And from there, our partnership will be one that generations will look back on with reverence. Students will be talking all about the smartest girl in class and her partner, the strongest student in class. We'll be amazing! We'll be untouchable! Celebrities among the students! They'll all line up to just grovel at our feet! We'll...!'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

I found myself arching an eyebrow, as the heiress suddenly had closed her binder and looked to the side. I could sort of make out her face, which, oddly enough, looked almost like that of a mad scientist.

_'She's doing it again...'_ I thought to myself. During my time as her bodyguard, there were a few times when she got a good idea, and often over-romanticized it in her head. Thanks to the mask I wore, she didn't know that I saw when those moments happened, though, honestly, seeing how she spaced out...

"_Okaaay_... So, Weiss..."

"Miss Schnee," she corrected quickly, cutting me off. I blinked in bewilderment. That girl had gone from her reverie back to her harsh approach within _milliseconds_.

"_...Miss Schnee..._" I amended quickly. "Let me get this straight... You want to interview me to see if I'm good enough, by your standards, to be on your team. Yes?"

"Was that not clear?"

I shook my head, shooting her an amused grin. "No, no, I get it. So, uh, when do we do this interview? The Initiation's in an hour."

"It's already started," she said icily, hand already scribbling frantically on the piece of paper, muttering under her breath. "Observational skills are somewhat limited. Asks questions..." She grit her teeth at that one. "What school did you attend before coming to Beacon?" she asked suddenly, shocking me into action.

"I attended Aegis Academy in the city of Bastion, a while back. You ever heard of it?"

"Of course." She sounded as if she were offended I would even ask such a question. Judging from what I've seen of her, she probably was. "Subject has attended well-known Huntsman Academy. Likely possesses requisite skill for position, but must account for Aegis Huntsmen's lack of willingness to act in groups, or in a command structure."

"Subject what...?" I began to ask before being cut off by another quick question.

"Do you have difficulty following orders from a superior?"

"Depends on the superior, I suppose."

"Subject is unsure of answer..."

"Alright, can you _stop_ with the subject talk, for a minute!?" I interrupted her, now visibly annoyed. However, I yelped shortly after, as she smacked the tip of my nose with the end of her pen, before continuing to write.

"Aggressive and irritable when generalized... Will have to be rectified, if selected..."

Her eyes narrowed suddenly, as she leaned in close to me, pulling my hand away from the nose I was nursing. "...Do I know you?"

My heart froze, but I kept my face calm, trying to give her a look of honest confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about," I lied quickly, giving her an innocent smile. "Not even sure how that would be possible."

"I'm not sure... It's just, I could've sworn..." Weiss muttered, leaning back as I breathed an internal sigh of relief. "No matter. Now, back to the next question. Have you ever..."

She was stopped by Glynda Goodwitch's voice ringing out over the loudspeaker._ "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation? Again, all first year-students report to Beacon Cliff, immediately."_

"Well, gotta go! Good luck on Initiation!" I said quickly, making my escape while Weiss was distracted, ignoring her calls for me to come back.

"Please, please, _please_ don't let me end up on her team..." I muttered, running pell-mell towards the cliffs, and trying to ignore the fact that if I didn't pass this test, my world would go back to being a whole lot smaller.

* * *

"For years, you have trained to become warriors," Ozpin spoke as he faced all of us assembled students lined up along the cliff on a series of stone platforms. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams," Goodwitch continued, holding a Scroll in her hand. "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... _Today,_" she noted, staring intently at each of us.

The news sent a flurry of excitement rippling down the line, except for maybe a small squeak from Ruby. To be honest, I didn't much care who my teammates were. I'd adjust and move on, no matter who I was paired with.

_'Getting paired with Yang or Blake might be nice... Maybe Ruby, too, if she's okay with it,'_ I thought to myself, glancing quickly over to the girls in question, before looking away. _'As long as it isn't Weiss. I don't think I could take that higher-than-thou attitude for very long...'_

Judging from what the Headmaster was saying, the first person I make eye contact with in the forest would be my partner for the next four years. From there, it was just a matter of getting past the Grimm, and retrieving a relic from a temple at the northern edge of the forest. The whole "instructors will not intervene" thing was a bit sketchy, though not unexpected. Aegis had been full of sink or swim assignments when it came to Grimm hunting.

"Are there any questions?" Ozpin asked after finishing his speech.

A blond haired boy in white plate armor raised his hand, trying to get his attention. "Yeah, um... Sir?" he said weakly, moving forward slightly.

"Good!" Ozpin finished, ignoring the young knight completely. "Now, take your positions."

I felt a slight rumble in the platform beneath me. Realizing what was about to happen, I crouched down, drawing on my Aura for the first time in five months. I smiled widely as the world suddenly seemed so much clearer, more vibrant, and my body pulsed with raw energy. Blue arcs of electricity sparked to life across my body, kicking up dust, and sending the students on the platforms next to me inching back in alarm.

_'**God,** I missed this...'_

I noticed Goodwitch staring at me out of the corner of one eye, as a red flash emanated from one of the screens on her Scroll. _'So she's going to be keeping an eye on me, huh?... Well, let's give her a show!'_ I thought gleefully as the platform jolted upwards, sending me flying through the air, as the forest flashed below me, growing steadily closer.

_'**LET'S GO WILD!**'_

-END

**_-CODEX-_**

**The Frontier-** A common name for lands considered outside of a Kingdom's influence or protection, the dragon continent on the upper left of Remnant acting as a prime example. Treacherous weather, hostile Grimm, and hosts of other dangers plague the region, though through the efforts of brave settlers and Kingdom assistance in return for resources found, settlements popularly known as "Frontier Cities" have begun to reappear sporadically in the region, creating a foothold. Walled off and well defended, these sites represent Mankind's will to take back Remnant from the tyranny of the Grimm.

**Bastion-** One of the oldest, largest, and wealthiest of the Frontier Cities for its silver and Dust mines - both great assets against the Grimm - Bastion has stood strong for generations in hostile territory, fighting Grimm and nature alike. It is a beacon of hope that represents the notion that Remnant's reclamation is possible. Situated farther in the Frontier than most, Bastion, as a result, has developed a culture well apart from the Kingdoms. Wealthy families descended from its founders, large business owners, and its defenders, the Huntsmen, stand at the top of society, just underneath the elected Mayor and Councilman, who act as the city's link to the Kingdoms, as well as in running the city's affairs. With the proximity to Grimm and the danger they present, skilled Huntsmen are treated almost like celebrities, becoming household names to its citizens, and popularizing Aegis Academy, the city's Huntsman Academy.

**Aegis Academy-** The sole Huntsman Academy in the region, and one of Bastion's most famous landmark, Aegis stands simultaneously as one of the most well-respected, and most demanding Huntsman Academies on the face of Remnant. It recruits qualified persons at the age of 14, though with the harsh trials placed on Initiation, most hopefuls train for a lengthy period even beforehand in preparation. The school acts as a primary and secondary school. Due to Bastion's traditions, the school has a tendency to focus more on personal performance and glory, encouraging harsh competition between its students, in an attempt to push them to their best and stand out. These practices makes the school rival even Beacon in its reputation for creating superior Huntsmen with greater individual skill, but with often limited team effectiveness as a result.

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Joel Ambrose - Max Mittleman

Patrice Ambrose - Colleen Clinkenbeard

Thomas Ambrose - Jason Douglas

Nathan Corbell - Christopher R. Sabat

Natalie Corbell - Cristina Vee

**A/N: Hey everyone, this is a sort of alpha story I'd been fleshing out alongside Lost Memories, New Horizons but never really wrote anything for it until recently and if it gets a good reaction I'll continue it alongside the other story. It'll feature the same OCs and created locations but with different backgrounds and in Joel's case, different abilities so if you see similarities they are intentional, like an AU to my AU. I do not own RWBY, its characters or storyline, all OCs are mine or other's influence. Enjoy****.**


	2. Chapter 2

**E****Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its characters, they belong to Monty Oum of Roosterteeth Productions, and those characters you see not from the show like the main character are my own OCs for the purpose of the story. Enjoy) - Mojo1586**

**So I'm trying something new out with this chapter's dialogue, it's not a big change though. "-" indicates spoken, '_italics_' handles internal thoughts or observations. A friend showed me a Mass Effect fic _Mass Effect: Testament of the Last American Soldier_by _Blade8821_ that uses this format and I thought it was creative and would save me the trouble of having to awkwardly explain it's a thought. Anyway Enjoy and feel welcome to leave thoughts and comments.**

MEETING NEW ALLIES

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"_OH SHIT!_" I yelled, barely dodging some kind of bird as it blew past me. A distant squawk told me one of the other students hadn't been so lucky.

_'Need to focus on my own situation, right now,"_ I thought rapidly, grabbing _Storm Circuit _from its sling, and spreading my arms and legs wide to slow my descent.

"This might suck a bit..." I grimaced, twisting in mid-air, before aiming _Circuit _away from me as I keyed a button, releasing an eight-inch dagger from the tip of one side. Another press sent the blade flying off, trailing a thick-woven silver fiber cord linking it to the tube behind it as it flew. The blade embedded itself in a massive tree trunk with a loud thunk. My momentum then carried me in a circle around the tree, narrowly missing a few large branches, until I jerked the weapon back, recalling the blade as the cord rewound itself, shredding deep furrows in the trunk, and sending up sparks. I was in free fall for a short ways more before rolling onto the ground to kill momentum, coming up on my knees, ans breathing heavily shortly afterward. After a few seconds, I got to my feet shakily, dusting myself off, and glancing back at savaged tree with a mix of disbelief and pride.

"That... actually wasn't too bad, really," I grinned. "Not bad at...!?"

As I started moving along to be on my way, however, my foot caught itself in a tree root just in front of me, tripping me, and sending me tumbling face first down a sharp hill. My Aura protected me from any real physical damage, though it did a lot less for my pride as I lay sprawled in a brightly lit clearing.

"_Okay... _Too confident... Probably deserved that," I muttered to myself depreciatively, spitting out some dead leaves. "Have to get back in the swing of things..."

I heard a whoop of excitement and a large boom from above. Looking up, I saw a yellow blur fly above me, laughing the whole way. _'Well, there's Yang, at least...'_

I was on sudden alert as I heard a noise nearby, making me gaze around at my environment intently. Ozpin had said there would be a great deal of Grimm in this forest, and sure enough, I noticed a pair of glowing red eyes staring back at me from the shadows... No. Make that _three_ pairs, as a group of Ursa trundled into the clearing in front of me. They were large monsters that looked like bears, but covered in black fur and bone-like spikes, complete with the skull-like mask all Grimm wore. I took a slow step backward, a twinge of primal fear threatening to shoot through me as their eyes fell on me. I'd forgotten how intimidating it could be, standing face-to-face with one of the Creatures of Grimm.

I quickly suppressed it, and pressed another switch on the weapon, watching as the weapon extended into a long staff tipped with a blade at both ends. "_Bring it!_" I cried out as they charged forward with a loud roar.

I ducked underneath the first one's paw, bringing the staff up in an upward arc, and grinning at the dull hiss and thump that I felt, as the still-twitching appendage fell to the ground behind me, only to dissolve a moment later with a low hiss. The beast itself stumbled back with a howl of pain. One horizontal swipe from the bottom end of my staff later silenced the pitiful creature with a bloody gurgle. Twisting quickly, I aimed the staff head carefully, firing one of the blade wires into the tree, before grasping tightly as the wire pulled me out of the way, just as one of the other Ursa leapt at me.

This rush... I'd forgotten what it felt like sitting in that cell... The feeling of letting loose after so long...

I twisted in the air, hitting the tree feet first, and used it as a board, rebounding towards the Ursa that had attacked. In mid-air, I hit another switch on my weapon, making_ Circuit_ retract again, before spitting down the middle, forming two knives attached by a thin silvery wire. Cartwheeling in mid-air, I slashed the back of the closest Ursa's neck, landing in a neat roll as the creature fell to the forest floor.

"Just you and me, big guy..." I stood up flicking off the trace amounts of quickly decaying blood, before reconfiguring the weapon back into its storage mode, placing it back in its sheath. I held out a hand and flipped off the bear-like monster with a wide smile on my face. "I _swear_ I'll make it quick."

I'd been cooped up so long, I couldn't resist the challenge.

The beast stared at me hesitantly, probably weighing its options. At least if it had half a brain, anyway. It charged forward suddenly, teeth flashing brightly. I dodged left, reaching down to thumb the dispenser on my belt, before dislodging a small chip that extended into a thin throwing knife. The monster reared back to try again, but I moved forward, stabbing the dagger deep into its stomach. Silver seared through the thick folds of fat and muscle like butter.

"This is gonna hurt a lot!" I muttered, tapping into my Aura, feeling my hair stand on end as I discharged my Semblance, my _Conduction,_ directly into its body. The Ursa jerked violently for a few seconds, roaring in pain, before falling backwards, its body smoking lightly.

I sighed, not bothering to retrieve the knife from the corpse. _'Probably fried anyway.'_

I shrugged, looking down at my handiwork, before a loud crash made me look up. It had come from a short ways away, if my guess was right. Another student, most likely, and, judging by the rapid firing, they were either up against some large odds, or just plain trigger-happy.

* * *

**_-Professor Ozpin-_**

"How is our special student doing?" I asked Glynda, gazing out at the carpet of green beneath us. The students had encountered their first Grimm, if the far-off sounds of explosives and gunfire were any indication.

"I have a camera on him now, and the collar is transmitting perfectly." Glynda's Scroll gave a short beep as she swiped the screen. "It seems he ran into an Ursa pack, and removed them without much difficulty. A bit rusty, it seems, but I attribute that to the time spent imprisoned, rather than personal ability."

"So he impressed you?" I said, shooting her a smug grin.

"I'll admit, Professor..." She adjusted her glasses, giving me a stern glance. "Your plan to enroll Mr. Ambrose isn't entirely without merit, it seems. However..." She gazed down at her Scroll, eyes widening slightly. A slight crack in her usual professional facade that I didn't miss.

"What's wrong, Glynda?..."

"It seems Mr. Ambrose is on the move. Perhaps responding to a conflict close by?" She began typing furiously at the Scroll. "I'll see who the student closest to him is... Hmm..." She paused, eyes narrowing in obvious concern. "This _might_ pose a problem..."

"Oh?"

"It's Miss Argus," she relayed, shaking her head slowly. "Incredible..."

"As I recall, Glynda, you were against me accepting Miss Argus, as well," I stated, pleasantly surprised at this turn of events. "Fate does seem to have a strange sense of humor..."

"You do realize Miss Argus would've barely passed the psych review of her entrance examination, Professor, if you hadn't spoken out for her?" Glynda shot back defensively, "But despite her... tendencies... there's still the matter of their compatibility if they meet up."

"He's given us his assurance, and his word, that his past will not influence his behavior in regards to the Faunus..." I gazed back at the forest, noting a small black cloud in the distance. A fire, perhaps?

"I'm not talking about matters of race here, Professor!" She turned me around to face her, eyes set. "I'm talking about two of the most potentially _dangerous_ students we've seen this year being put on the _same team!_ Both lack any real experience working in groups, as it is!"

"Things will play out as they will, Glynda..." I set a hand on her shoulder, giving her a warm smile. "I have faith that these two will succeed. Remnant needs strength like theirs."

"I just hope that they direct that strength towards the Grimm, rather than at each other," she muttered, still seemingly unconvinced, though for the moment the topic was dropped.

'_She does present a good point, though,_' I thought to myself, sighing as I stared at the far off smoke clouds. '_I do hope Maxine has mellowed out since we last talked...'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Run, little bitches! _RUN!_" I screamed loudly, gripping the pair of carmine colored submachine guns I held in my hands tightly, spraying round after round in quick bursts at the Beowolves circling around me, and laughing with every body that hit the leafy floor of the clearing I'd landed in. An area that had been generously occupied by a large Beowolf pack.

"_Goddamn,_ I love Beacon!" I cried, ears twitching as they picked up the sound of a Beowolf coming at me from behind. _'Nice try!'_

I swung around to slice through the Grimm's carotid with the heavy bayonet affixed beneath the length of the weapon's barrel, sending blood glittering through the air like rubies splattering across my face with a comfortable warmth, before they dissolved entirely. I stared around at the remaining toys I had. I counted five Beowolves; two bleeding from severed limbs and/or bullet holes.

"Aw, looks like the fun's almost over..." I pouted sadly. That was the sad problem with fodder. There was always a ton of them in one place, but they always ended up dying before I could really start enjoying myself.

I shrugged as two of the Beowolves charged forward, jaws frothing madly. "I could just shoot them like the rest, I suppose... But what would be the fun in_ that!?_"

Grinning, I clicked the two guns together, as a short handle extended from the buttes of the guns, while the bayonets on both sides stretched outwards, shifting themselves into sharpened axe blades, and finishing both guns' fusion into a heavy battle axe.

"Come on, boy! Time to play!..." I whispered lovingly to the weapon, before dropping into a crouch, weapon reared back.

I brought the axe around in a low sweeping arc that removed the legs from right underneath the first Grimm that reached me. The beast howled in agony as it flailed overhead, landing behind me in a thrashing heap. The next Grimm tried to attack me while I was off balance, but found its head on the ground shortly after, as the axe changed direction in mid-air faster than it could react, bisecting it in a shower of arterial gore and torn sinew.

"_Ohhh_ **_yes..._**"

My eyes fell on the remaining three. They were hanging back, watching me intently.

"C'mon, it's no fun if you guys don't join in!"

I motioned towards the crippled beast behind me, whining almost pitifully as it tried to crawl away. The Grimm didn't take the bait. They were growling, but also... _backing away!?_

"Shit..." I growled, anger quickly overriding pleasure as I took in the sight before me. "Pussying out at the end like this!? Are you _fucking_ _kidding me!?_"

Suddenly, the pair of monsters nearest to me spasmed wildly, before slumping forward to the ground. I spotted tiny bits of silver embedded in their backs.

"What the...?"

A figure leapt down from one of the trees, and nearly decapitated the last one with a long, dual bladed staff, taking it down before it could even hope to react. The newcomer landed in a crouch a short ways in front of me. It must have been one of the other students; a human guy dressed in dark clothes, with blue-colored armor plates on the chest, knees, elbows, and some strange metallic collar. What drew my attention was the hair, trimmed short, messy, and as stark white as a blank canvas.

"You alright?" he asked, looking me up and down as he worked his weapon, pausing slightly on the pair of dog ears sticking out of my hair. But unlike most who scowled at the sight of me, he just seemed curious. "Heard fighting, and thought you might need the help." The staff compressed with a series of rapid clicks before he placed it in a sheath hanging off his back.

"...Well, I'm fine," I said curtly, resting the axe on my shoulder, and taking a look back at where I'd left the crippled Grimm, disappointed to see that it had managed to crawl off on its own while I'd been distracted. It didn't matter much, though. With no legs, it wouldn't be getting too far. By the end of the day, it would have either bled out, or get torn apart by some other predator. "I had things handled. Now kindly shove off."

"Little bit hostile, aren't we?... You sure you're okay?" he asked with a note of concern, stepping down from the corpse. He was lean, but a big one, nonetheless, standing almost a head over me, not counting my ears. "You look a bit flushed..."

_'Fuck him for noticing!'_

"I said I'm fine!" I scowled pushing my way past him, and heading for the closest copse of trees. "I didn't ask for your help!"

"You're right, you didn't..." the student shrugged, wrenching the silver weapons from his kills, which I saw were thin daggers, now that I looked closely. He compressed them into small rectangular slots, before slotting them into a container on his belt with a click. "But you _do_ realize you're going the wrong way, right?"

"...Huh?"

"That's South," he said matter-of-factly, nodding towards the direction I was heading. "Ozpin said we're supposed to be heading _North._"

"And that's what _I'M_ doing. Heading North." I spun around, growling at him. "_YOU_ just showed up out nowhere, unasked. So I don't see how _WE_ have to do anything."

"No, you're heading _South..._" He pointed a thumb towards a nearby tree, the trunk covered in a thick green moss. "And our eyes met. So, according to the rules, that makes us _partners._ And as your partner, I say we actually go North... Unless you have someone else here, and they're just invisible."

"Our eyes didn't meet, if I didn't _say_ they've met!" I spat on the ground angrily, hefting the large axe until I held it out in front of me, glowing red with Aura. "I'm better off on my own! More fun for me, that way."

"...Well, to be honest, I'd prefer that, too..." the boy said, shaking his head. He was remarkably unintimidated for someone having an axe pointed at him. "But we both know that if we want to stay at Beacon, it's gonna be on a team. So we have to at least _try_ to run through the motions. And besides..." He glanced up, looking at the near top of a thin oak tree. I followed his line of sight, before quickly spotting the small shine hidden in an upper branch. "I think we'll both have a hard time explaining to the professors why we didn't pair up..."

I wanted to argue - _really_ wanted - but as much as I didn't want to admit it, the guy had a point. One of Ozpin's conditions for helping me pass the entrance exams had been that I learn to play well with others... But someone like _this_ for a partner, though? I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about him gave me a bad feeling. He was tall, but not too physically intimidating. Something about him just put me on edge, however. It was instinctive, almost.

_'He's **dangerous...**'_

"Damn it...!" I gritted my teeth, seething at what I had to do, before turning on my heels and moving past him, doing my best to avoid looking him in the eyes as I did. "Since I guess it looks like I've got no other choice, I suppose we're stuck together... Just don't get in my way, got it!?"

"Sounds good to me," he said, crossing his arms behind his head, before moving to follow me. "Name's Joel, by the way. Joel Ambrose. And you are?"

"Pissed off..."

"_Damn._ How'd you ever get by with a name like _that?_" he laughed.

"_Fuck you!_" I growled, gripping the haft of my weapon even tighter. "It's Max! There, happy now!?"

"Downright elated, actually."

_'Scratch that earlier thought. Beacon was really starting to **suck.**'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'Alrighty, then... Inhale... Exhale. In... and out.'_

I sighted down the crosshairs, focusing in on a patch of brush a few hundred meters away.

"Right there?" I asked the girl next to me, waiting for an affirmative tap before flaring my Aura, my eyes glowing a brilliant emerald green behind my goggles, and confirming her assumption as I took a deep breath.

_'Three... Two... One...'_

I depressed the trigger, _Hangman's Glory _jolting back hard as it send an 8.6mm Dust-charged round rocketing towards the bush, blowing the head clean off of an Ursa just as it burst from behind it. I adjusted my aim instantly, firing again just in time to catch its fellow as it came through to check its fallen friend.

"Boom." Satisfied, I exhaled slowly, letting my Aura fall back to its normal level as I got to my feet. I brushed off the faded green poncho I was wearing over a padded, tan, long sleeve shirt, with my emblem, a green cross hairs with a cracked deputy star in the middle, emblazoned over the heart. There were several dark leather belts above my dark brown cargo pants, each laden with packs bearing ammo and other tools.

I sighed in relief as I slung the long hunting rifle over my bandaged shoulder. "That's the last of 'em," I declared with relief.

I looked down, noticing Reika still hunched over on her knees, violet eyes closed, with her brow furrowed beneath ebony hair that hung loosely down her back, body glowing with a deep purplish energy. That was as much as I could tell in terms of facial features, with the lower half of her face concealed behind a thick metal mask depicting the jaws of a Beowolf. The girl was small, barely coming up to my chest at her full height. She was wearing black shorts, and a tight-fitting sleeveless shirt underneath a shortened, violet yukata depicting her sakura flower emblem on the back, complete with a pink sash. On her feet were short black boots, with a round steel tip at the toes. Her eyes opened as the glow of her Aura faded, looking up at me with a curious glance, before pointing off to the west of us.

"..."

"Students?" I asked, receiving a quick nod from the girl. "Is it that new power you felt a few minutes back?"

She shook her head, flashing me a quick flurry of hand motions.

"...Two close by, then, huh?... Well, if you're sure." I helped her up, giving her a quick nod. "I say we check 'em out. Thinkin' I'd rather have two bodies between us and the Grimm, anyway."

"..."

I held my arms up defensively as she shot me a sharp glare. "Kiddin'; I'm kiddin'! You need to be so literal, all the time?"

She shook her head once, before leaping off to the next branch, navigating the thick upper branches with a rapid pace I was barely able to match whilst lugging my gun around . We continued on like this for a few minutes, until she suddenly stopped, stretching out an arm to stop me before I could go forward any farther.

'_Shit!' _I spun in mid-air to avoid hitting her, fumbling out with my bandaged right arm to catch the branch and spin up onto it. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I quickly rounded on my partner. "Dammit, Reika! Maybe you could give me a little warning before you do that next ti... _Eck!_"

Her palm lashed out, clapping against my mouth hard to silence me, while she used her free hand to point ahead. "..." she put two fingers in front of her mouth, or at least where her mouth must've been.

"...Just up ahead, huh?" I nodded at her, letting her know that I had also picked up the sound of voices now that I was focusing on our surroundings, anyway. Crouching down, I slipped my goggles over my eyes again, clicking one of the side buttons to activate the right lens' zoom-in feature. Sure enough, I could make out two figures, a male and a female, judging by their shapes, walking side by side. And judging by the tone of their voices...

'_Guessin' there's some issues, there...'_

I raised the magnification a touch and brought them into greater focus. The girl was a Faunus, some kind of canine, judging by the ears. She was lightly tanned, with auburn hair that fell down to her shoulders in waves, and reddish-brown eyes. She was dressed in a pair of torn red jeans, black converses, and black finger-less gloves. The nails on her hands were also colored differently. Each one was a mix of red, blue, green yellow, and purple. She also wore a white t-shirt covered in dark stains that left much of her midriff exposed. Around the chest area was an emblem of a red dog head facing forward, with a human skull in its sharp jaws. '_Not bad...not bad at all.'_ Over her shirt was an open crimson padded flak jacket. Heavy front-liner type, seeing as she was packing a large, double-edged battle axe on her shoulder, the weapons length covered in crimson plates, and vivid spray painted designs of blue, orange, green, yellow, black, purple, etc. If there was red, it was hard to see.

The other guy, though...

I slid the goggles up quickly and got to my feet, startling the small girl next to me. "Damn..." I muttered under my breath. "That might change things, a bit..."

Reika shot me a quick flurry of signs, eyebrow raised up in confusion.

"Hey, just trust me, okay?..." I shot her a sly grin and a wink. "And let me do the talkin'?"

"..."

"...Sorry. Couldn't resist."

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"_So..._ Max... That short for something?"

"Maxine..." the Faunus grunted back at me, keeping her head forward as she led us through the undergrowth.

_'A Faunus... Some celestial entity in the universe had to be laughing its ass off, at that one... Well, this is nice,'_ I thought sarcastically, rubbing my eyes gently. It had been a half hour since I'd met my... partner, and I was just now getting a full name. '_Progress_.'

"You usually this chatty with everyone, or is it just me?"

"...There are certain types of people I don't like..." she started, ears twitching irritably. "People who don't shut up when I want them to, and people who think that just because they're Human means they're better than me. You're doing a pretty good job with the first, at least."

"Well, _sorry_ I want to get to know the person I'll have to spend _four years of my life_ with." I kicked at a few loose leaves. "But if you really want me to back off, I will," I said, grabbing her shoulder and turning her around to face me. "As for being above you..."

"Haven't met many Humans that didn't put themselves up there after they see these." She rubbed one of her ears with a free hand. "Nothing against you Humans - not really - but I won't have someone lording over me, or hating me for being what I am."

"Don't worry about that," I laughed, surprising her. "I don't hate Faunus like most people. I personally try to keep my hate unbiased and reserved for people who've actually done something to me." She looked away, spitting on the ground at my feet. "Anyway, judging by the last half hour with you, I doubt your being a Faunus is going be the issue with us working together."

"What, don't like my attitude? _Tough._"

I was about to bite back a retort when a voice called out from the tree above us, startling us both into action.

"_Trouble in paradise, you two?_"

Within seconds, Max held two heavy submachine guns in her hands, while I held a thin knife in my right, each of us aiming at a boy with spiked blonde hair sporting goggles, a tattered green poncho, and what looked to be a large rifle strapped across his back just stepped from behind a tree ahead of us holding his arms up in a gesture of surrender. His right arm was covered in bandages that ended at his shoulder.

"Easy, easy! I come in peace!" the student said hurriedly, jumping down to land in front of us, hands still raised, "We're all students here, aren't we?"

I glanced over at Max, who did the same to me, gesturing with her head towards the strange student. I shrugged, lowering my knife, while the Faunus took slightly longer.

A look of relief crossed the student's face, as he put his arms to his sides, nodding to both of us. "Good... Had me worried there, for a second," he laughed nervously.

"Great. _Another_ one..." I heard Maxine growl under her breath. I noticed she still had her fingers on her weapons triggers. "Just what I needed."

"Hear that more than you think, beautiful..." Her eyebrows rose as she opened her mouth in a flushed snarl, but he cut her off. "Anyway, name's Benjamin Carson." He held out a hand towards me. "Though my friends just call me Ben. Was thinkin', since we've got the same goal in mind, maybe you two wanted to team up with us and get the relics? It'll make it that much easier for all of us to pass!..."

"So, essentially, you want us as meat shields between you and the Grimm," Max growled. "Why would we even want your help?"

"I take it you guys have no idea where the temple is, do ya?" he inquired, eyes flashing as Max grit her teeth. "Or were you guys just gonna keep goin' North and see what happens? It'll be dark in a few hours. Not enough time for a full sweep. We can help you help _us._"

"Or better idea..." The Dog Faunus hefted one of her guns, pointing it in the other student's face, and clicking off the safety. "You tell me where it is, and this doesn't get ugly... And what the hell do you mean by '_us!?_'"

Ben closed his eyes and sighed. "Hoo... I'd put that down, if I was you... She doesn't like it when people point weapons at me."

"Who are you...!?"

"_Max!_" I extended out my arm to push the gun away, but paused as the loud click rang out from behind us. A masked yukata-clad girl had appeared behind the Faunus, with a violet-colored pistol-tonfa in her hand pressed against the back of Max's skull.

_'I didn't even hear her!'_

The girl had managed to get the drop on us completely, her eyes focused intently on me as I lowered my hand slowly. I could almost feel the rage emanating from Max, but in the end, she lowered her weapon again, though I could hear the creaking of her weapon's grip as she did so.

"Call her off, Carson!" I demanded,

"...Reika, it's okay." The girl glanced at the other boy, making a few wild gestures with her hand towards him. "Look, I know she's trouble..."

"_HEY!_"

"But we can't just fly off the handle, here! We're askin' them for help, after all," Ben finished. He smiled a moment later, as the girl lowered her weapon and stepped back. Even as she did that, she continued to glare daggers at Max.

"There, see? _Friends._" He smiled sheepishly. "Well, now you've met my partner in crime, Reika Murasaki..." He moved forward, putting his bandaged hand on her shoulder, before wincing as she delivered a solid hit to his ribs. "_Ah!_"

"Nice to meet you," I greeted, nodding towards the small girl. "My name's Joel Ambrose, and this is Maxine. She hasn't deigned to give me a last name, yet."

"Argus!" the Faunus spat out venomously.

"...What she said," I finished lamely

The girl just stared back at me blankly. My eyebrows dipped in confusion, before Ben quickly stepped in.

"She... doesn't really talk much... Or at all, really. I've known her for a few years, now, and I've never heard her say one word." He glanced down at his hand, shrugging. "We worked out these hand signs as a way to communicate, though I can usually understand what she means, regardless... Well, usually..." He then clapped his hands together loudly, though I picked up a dulled ring accompanying it, like metal on flesh. "Though, that's not the point! We can get to the relics, but we'd prefer it if you guys helped us out."

"You sure you need us?" Max asked, pointing towards the masked girl roughly. "Your bodyguard there seems pretty good in a fight on her own."

"Reika has her specialties, sure, but she's still one person, and I only have so much ammo. We're more the 'strike fast, get out' types, not frontline fighters like you two seem to be." He eyed our weapons with an appraising look. "'Sides, I don't believe in leavin' important things to chance, and more bodies means a better chance of us gettin' through these woods safely, with a relic in each hand."

'_Not a bad thought, actually,' _I silent agreed. I then took a glanced at the assembled group. I knew Max could fight, judging by the carnage she'd left in her wake when I'd first met her. And if Ben was anything like his partner, we'd be in pretty good shape.

"...Alright, Ben. We accept."

"Don't just decide that!" Max rounded on me indignantly, eyes flashing red. "These guys basically try to force us into carrying them the whole damn way, point a gun at me, and you actually wanna go along with it!?"

"Why not?" I retorted sternly. "You aimed your weapon first, not to mention that he has a point. Right now, we're just walking North, with no obvious direction. Hell, we could have passed it by now, for all we know. Forgive me for not wanting to stay in this forest past nightfall with the Grimm."

"Just because you're a little _bitch_..."

"Okay, that's _it!_ The _fuck's_ your problem with me!?"

"_OI!_" Carson cut us off before we could continue, inserting himself between us. "Your buddy here has a point, Miss. You guys would've missed it completely, if you kept on this way."

"And how do you know that!?" Max shoved him out of the way, sending him stumbling back. "You got a map, or something?"

"Better, actually..." he affirmed through gritted teeth, pointing a finger back at his partner. "Reika's Semblance is _Sense._ She can feel Aura presences, or the lack of 'em, in the world around her. In other words, she can feel the location of other students, and even _Grimm_, to an extent."

"Cute. Still doesn't explain how you know where the place is."

"Well... we don't know _exactly_. But accordin' to Reika, a few strong Aura presences have converged on a single spot throughout the day, and then left the forest. Probably students who were either lucky and found it by chance, or flew farther than we all did when Ozzy kicked us off the cliff."

Max shot me a burning glare. "So you don't know for sure if this is even the right place!? You just said you don't like leaving things to chance a minute ago!"

Ben's expression hardened visibly, eyes narrowing. "I trust Reika with my _life._ If she believes something's there, then something's _there_. Plain and simple," he explained, voice filled with a strange conviction. Even his partner seemed shocked at that.

"Well, if she's so sure..." I started before Max could get off another word, "then we'll take your word for it. Until we get to the temple, we're a team."

Max didn't sound pleased at the prospect, but said nothing, instead turning on her heels and striding away. Reika followed after her quickly, obviously intent on keeping an eye on her.

"Sorry about her..." I said to Ben, giving him an apologetic look. "I don't think she plays very well with others."

"Not a problem, man." He held out a hand towards me. "Reika's not that big on social graces, herself, but I'm sure they'll get along, eventually."

I grasped his hand, giving it a firm shake. "Here's hoping."

I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw an odd glint in his eye as he stared back at me.

'_Here's hoping I don't regret this..."_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Maxine Argus - Erica Mendez

Benjamin Carson - Robbie Daymond

**A/N: Bit of background from the story, Joel's weapon _Storm Circuit _is pretty much a fusion of the original staff/dual weapon combo I used in Lost Memories combined with the 3D gear from Attack on Titan, always thought it would make for a nice simple element to a weapon in this world and ran with it. Reika's an OC from a friend of mine while Ben was actually an early concept of Joel that I modified later, and all the while Maxine sort of developed on her own**


	3. Chapter 3

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**"…" – Spoken**

**'_Italics'_ \- Thought**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its characters, they belong to Monty Oum of Roosterteeth Productions, and those characters you see not from the show like the main character are my own OCs for the purpose of the story. Enjoy) - Mojo1586**

TEAM AMBR

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"_Duck low!_" Ben shouted at me from his position in the trees a short ways away. I crouched down just as a piercing shot rang through the battle, the high-impact round splattering the head of a Beowolf behind me across a tree trunk.

'_Not bad,_' I mused, getting to my feet just in time to avoid another lunging Grimm, before slitting its throat with one of _Circuit's _dagger blades as it passed with a quick upward cut. _'Sniping's hard enough, but this guy knows how to place his shots, and make it look easy...'_

I gazed intently around at the brawl going on around me. Max was a short ways away, swinging her weapon like it weighed nothing at all, dismembering Grimm in what could only be described as barely contained chaos with a manic grin fixed on her face. Between the two of us, we had the bulk of the pack handled, each of us marking out our own section to deal with.

Reika, on the other hand, stuck near Ben like a shadow. She took down any Grimm that got too close to him with a deadly combination of pistol fire and explosive blows, the tonfa acting as some sort of pile driver. I'd already seen the effectiveness of such a weapon in the bloody results lying on the ground. The way it worked was that a cylinder in the body would extend just before she lashed out with the head, blowing anything in front of it away in bursts of gore. Definitely a one-shot punch weapon. Overall, I couldn't help but be somewhat impressed by how easily we were managing.

I snapped my focus back to my own situation. A good half dozen large, furry, and _very_ angry Beowolves, including an Alpha, prowled in front of me, seeking an opening. "You know..." I said in a raised voice to the assembled Grimm, reassembling the staff and pointing a bladed end straight at the leader. "Fighting Grimm for a change is actually quite refreshing!"

I flared my Aura, and spun through the air. _'There!' _I took two of them out with perfectly placed throwing knives to the forehead, not even needing my _Conduction,_and dispatched a third and fourth with a pair quick swipes as I landed. '_Like taking out the trash...' _I casually sidestepped a clumsy swipe, spinning behind the beast as it moved forward, before driving a blade through its back. Pulling the weapon free with a wet squelching sound, I turned to face the Alpha, its red eyes following my every move.

Sighing, I planted _Circuit_ in the ground, rolling my shoulders lazily. Cracking my neck, I stepped forward, raising my fists in front of me.

_'Come get me, big guy...' _I grinned, arcs of light sparking along my arms._ 'I need the practice.'_

The Grimm let loose a blood-curdling howl as I dashed forward in to striking range, ducking beneath its outstretched claws to deliver a hard punch to its side. The monster reeled back from the blow, fur smoking at the point of contact.

'_Thicker skin... Looks like I'll need to take it up a notch...'_

The Alpha growled angrily, moving to tackle me rather than use its claws. Working off of instinct and training, I maneuvered myself forward, gripping an arm and the fur on its chest. I flipped it over me onto its back with no small amount of effort and a touch of Aura. Before the Grimm knew what had happened, my hand slammed down on its furry face.

'_Thanks, Dad...' _I thought, pulsing my Semblance one last time as the Alpha jerked wildly for a few moments, before falling still. '_That police training did come in handy.'_

"Holy..." I looked up as Ben came walking over through the carnage with his rifle slung over his shoulders. "I thought you might be good, considerin' you made it to this damn school. But an _Alpha?_ And on your own?... _Damn._" He held out a hand that I took gratefully.

"You aren't bad, yourself," I replied letting him pull me to my feet. I retrieved my weapon from where I left it, and placed it on my back. "Nice sho...!"

The sound of renewed bursts of gunfire and manic laughter cut me off, as we both spun around to see the what had been a massacre seconds ago. Maxine stood over the body of a larger than average Beowolf, even bigger than the Alpha had been. Her weapons were smoking in her hand, a wide grin plastered on their wielder's face. That's when I noticed the Grimm was still moving and whining weakly, bleeding from a dozen bullet wounds. Not placed to kill, but to cause pain.

"Come on, get up! _GET UP!_" the Faunus cried out, unloading another burst into its legs, and eliciting another pained bark. "That was nothing!" She kicked the beast savagely, a loud crack indicating she'd met bone. "I said _COME ON!_"

She raised her gun to fire again, but leapt back as my knife thudded into the Grimm's skull, piercing the bone plate and silencing it once and for all.

"What the hell do you think you're- _AH!_" I started, but was stopped as her fist crashed against my Aura, putting me on the ground in a shocked heap, with her above me, weapon aimed at my face.

"Don't _EVER_... interrupt my fun," she growled, voice tinged with anger and... disappointment?

"'_Fun!?_'" I shoved the gun out of my face, and pushed her away roughly. "You were _torturing_ it!"

There was a flush in her cheeks._'Embarrassment? No... She's getting off on this!?'_

"Who gives a shit? It's a _Grimm!_" she shot back defensively, skin glowing a deep red with Aura. "We're supposed to kill it, anyway! What does it matter how we do it!?"

"Because..." I started, fist clenched, before hesitating.

_'Damn it... Who am I to talk? I never did it for sport, but it wasn't like I just had a pleasant chat with White Fang Agents when I caught them...'_

"Damn it... Look, do what you want, okay? Just keep it on your own time, and out of combat. That reasonable?"

She gave me a withering look, one of her ears twitching slightly, but in the end relented. She reinforced the sentiment by reassembling her axe and placing it back on her shoulder, before stomping off.

'_Great_...' I thought as I watched her go, rubbing my sore cheek tenderly. '_She hates me... **and** happens to have a bit of a sadistic streak. Great way to start four years, Joel.'_

"That was... interestin'." Carson walked next to me, with Reika at his side shooting the Faunus a nervous glare.

"Yeah... Let's just move on."

"Wanna talk 'bout it?"

"Nope."

* * *

"So, Psycho..." Ben noted casually as we made our way through a particularly thick brush. We'd been at it about a half hour, following the sounds of fighting that, according to the small girl leading us silently through the wood, originated from our destination.

"Huh?" I retorted, shoot him a weird look. "...What did you just call me?"

"Psycho," he shrugged, flashing me a sly grin. "I give nicknames to new folks I meet. Bit of a habit I picked up. You'll get used to it."

"...Okay, but why am I 'Psycho?'"

"Oh, I dunno. Might have somethin' to do with the fact that you took on a Grimm willingly. _And_ barehanded," he chuckled genially, rubbing his nose. "I mean, if you don't think you deserve the title..."

'_Have to give him that. Wasn't my sanest decision ever. Besides, it could be my old one.'_

"Wasn't exactly barehanded. I had a slight edge."

"Yeah, that's what I mean. You throw knives that don't hit vitals, but still manage to kill 'em, and the things you touch die. Can't help it if I'm a bit curious if you have somethin' goin' for ya."

"You're right," I held up an open hand while drawing on my Semblance, blue arcs of electricity crackling between my stretched fingers. "Let's say Reika has her tricks, and I've got mine."

"Nice..." He reached out with his unbandaged hand, jerking it back as a stray spark caught him. "Seems pretty handy."

"Yeah, it is. I can convert my Aura into electricity, and have a good resistance to outside sources," I explained, running the flow down my arm, feeling the hairs stand on end. "There are other uses, but the big problem is I need to have physical contact, or something to run the current along, for it to be much use in a fight."

"So the knives..."

"A friend developed them for me." I slid one out to show him. "They're of a much higher quality concentrated silver than _Storm Circuit's _blades, but a lot less durable. They act like miniature lightning rods, allowing me to project a weakened pulse over longer distances. The wires in _Circuit _are the same. Each part of my weapons is a potential conduit."

"Weakened?" he said in surprise, eyeing my arm warily. "It drops Grimm like a bug zapper, and you call it 'weakened!?'"

"Depending on how close I am, it's a lot worse at the source. Trust me."

"...Remind me never to spook you, then," he nodded. "Does it... I dunno, hurt? When you do it?" he asked nervously

I released the flow reluctantly, watching the motes of light die down steadily. "It used to... I've got countermeasures, now, and my resistance has only grown. Barely even feel it anymore, unless I go overboard."

"Good to know," the sharpshooter said, before stopping suddenly, bringing the group to a halt.

"What's the hold up!?" Max called back. "Aren't we close?"

"Need to take a leak." He turned to me with a sheepish look on his face. "Mind watchin' my back?"

"Why do you need him?" Max questioned, as she gestured towards Reika. "Take your shadow with you, if you're scared."

"Forgive me if I'm not leapin' for the chance to have a Grimm get me with my pants down!" he laughed. clapping me on the shoulder. "Besides, I wouldn't ask a lady to subject herself to such a task... You, though..." He shot her a wink.

"_Fine!_ Take him. Just don't take too long!" she scowled, flipping him off.

"Whatever. Let's get this over with," I sighed, following the man into the brush a good ways off. "I'll be right here. Do you need some space?"

"Would you be so kind?" I nodded, turning around to stare at the copse of trees, before I heard the sure sounds of liquid hitting the forest floor. "Sorry. I'm a bit shy."

Sighing exasperatedly, I took a few steps away from him, looking away from his urinating out of courtesy. "Really?"

"_Hell no._" I made to look back at him, but the audible click behind me gave me pause.

'_He pulled his gun on me!?' _I managed a glimpse back. Ben stood behind me, gun aimed straight for my heart. A canteen was tipped on its side, hanging from a tree. '_Sly son of a...'_

"The hell is this!?" I asked, keeping my voice leveled as I scanned my surroundings. _'No way I can pull a weapon fast enough. Nowhere to go, either...'_

"Don't try it!" he barked out, clicking back the lever on his rifle. "You've seen how accurate I can be. And from this range, your Aura won't stand a _chance_ up against these shells."

"...Well, then... I guess you have my attention," I sighed. He was just out of my range too. From where I stood, I could maybe tickle him with static if I tried hard enough. Maybe mess up his hair, at best.

"Good. Now, this is how things is gonna play out. I'm gonna ask you a few questions, and you're gonna give me answers... If I like 'em, then we head back to the group like nothin' happened. If I don't..."

"What? You'll shoot me?"

"I'd give you the chance to leave, but if you forced the issue, then a Grimm'll happen to attack, draggin' you off as I fire off a desperate shot in surprise, tryin' to save ya. I'm sure your partner won't care much."

Sadly, I was almost certain he had a point there.

"Alright, point taken... What did you want to know?"

"Pretty simple, really..." He tapped a finger at his neck. "I was just wonderin' why you were wearin' that tracking collar."

"I-it's not...!" I stammered out, but he held up his gun, finger poised on the trigger.

"You get _one_ pass. Next time you try to lie, a bullet hits your heart!" he growled, articulating each word slowly and clearly. "My name's Benjamin Carson, son of Bill 'Hangman' Carson. You probably wouldn't know of him here in Vale, but he made a pretty big splash in the Badlands for raidin' SDC Dust shipments."

"And that involves me, because...?"

"Well, one day, somethin' happened that made my father turn himself over to the authorities. And in return for a few benefits, one of which bein' mine and Reika's attendance here, he was allowed freedom to act as an Indentured Huntsman, trackin' Grimm as a part of his sentence. The big thing was that, whenever he was out in the wild, he had to wear a collar, just like the one you have, so that they could keep an eye on him." He shook his head slowly as he rounded to my front, before gazing me straight in the eye, green eyes watching my every move. "So I wanna know what you did to earn that collar."

"Does it really matter that much to you?" I asked questioningly with an even tone. "Why do you care about why I'm here?"

"I care because, beyond a possibly fake name and a powerful Semblance, I know little about you other than what that collar means."

I couldn't help but laugh at that last bit. "Yeah. That I did a bad thing."

"That, and it means that Ozpin, or whoever it was who organized your release, thought you were worth the effort to train here... which means Reika and I would rather have you on our side helpin' us. Though, yeah, have to be careful, too... Now tell me what you did."

I said nothing at first, pondering about what I would say, or whether I even wanted to tell him, even if he had a gun to my face. Still, reason prevailed, and I decided to come clean... Somewhat.

"You don't need specifics... But... I did quite a bit," I revealed with a shrug, thinking back to my trial bitterly. "Though I suppose the big one that I got put away for, primarily, was _murder..._ That answer your question?"

Ben gave a short whistle of surprise; he might have even had his eyebrows raised from my confession. "Damn... Didn't expect that... Who was the poor sod?" My expression must've betrayed something, as his eyebrows rose even further. "Poor _sods..._ Well, aren't you are a dangerous one."

"You gonna shoot, or what? Because our resident sadist is going to bust in here pretty soon, wondering what's taking so long."

Ben was silent for a few seconds, before suddenly speaking again. "You regret it?" he asked, as he lowered his rifle.

"Huh?"

"Do you regret what you did?" he repeated. "Simple question."

I thought about it for a long moment, internally asking myself the very same thing. It hadn't been the first time I'd asked myself that. Finally, after a few seconds of consideration, I responded truthfully.

"I've been asked that question before... And I'll tell you the same thing I told them." I moved forward, making me stand directly in front of him. "I regret the innocents that got hurt in the process. Maybe there were better ways I could've done things... But I can't say I regret what happened to the ones I meant to kill. They chose their path... And I chose mine. We just bumped into each other along the way..."

* * *

"The hell took you two so long!?" Max railed on us as soon as we cleared the brush. "I heard you two chatting. What about?"

"A gentleman's discussion promotin' your lovely eyes, of course," Ben excused, as he bowed low. "They shine like jewels in the..."

"Fine, be an ass!" she growled, before striding off ahead of us.

I noticed Ben give a slight nod to the masked girl. Reika returned it, before running off to catch up to Max and pulling the Faunus along by the arm.

"Deceptively strong, that one," I mused, as Ben gave a short chuckle, before looking back to me.

"We good, Psycho?"

I put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a firm shake. "Yeah, we're good."

He grinned from the gesture. A moment later, however, he let out a loud yelp, jerking away from me as my hand sparked brightly, running a light shock down his arm.

"But _don't_ pull a gun on me again."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Stupid Humans..." I muttered darkly, glancing over my shoulder at the two behind me. I noted that the new guy was giving the white-haired fake a wide berth. "Now I'm _surrounded_ by them..."

I shot the little masked bitch a sharp glare. '_She better know where we're going, or I swear I'll rip her apart myself.'_

She raised a hand, flashing Mr. Poncho a short hand sign, and gesturing ahead of us.

"It's just up ahead," he translated, grabbing his rifle and making for a large tree. His body glowed green as he pulled himself up the tree with his one unbandaged arm, performing a series of jumps and leaps, before landing on a thick branch. "Uh... You guys have _gotta_ see this."

He wasn't kidding. As we entered the large field, the first thing I noticed was how messed up it was. There were furrows of displaced earth all over the space, along with a line of feather-like arrows, and a...

"Is this ice?" I set my hand against an enormous half melted shard of ice, recoiling at the brutal cold.

'_Must've been some fight.'_

"Tracks are huge," Joel said, leaning down to examine one of the large holes, before moving to another. "Death Stalker, judging from the venom scoring left behind."

I could smell that he was right. Their stench was all over the place, along with...

"There were eight separate people," I said suddenly, drawing the group's attention. "Along with one Death Stalker, a Nevermore, and a dead Ursa somewhere over there." I pointed further along the treeline. I got not no response, other than the confused looks on the faces of those idiots after I spoke. I groaned with annoyance. "What? Dog Faunus, remember?" I took another long breath. "Anyway, it happened about an hour ago."

"And here I thought you were just a crazy bruiser with an axe," Poncho said, looking impressed as I gripped the handle of my axe even tighter. "Those must be the relics over there," he observed, as he pointed to a stone circle dotted with pedestals.

"Chess pieces?" I muttered, following him over to the temple. I'd heard of chess, of course, but had hardly ever played it before. Too slow, too boring for my tastes. I grabbed the closest piece, and stowed it away in the compact satchel strapped to my back, while Poncho did the same on his belt.

"There. We're done." I called back to White Head, Joel, I think his name was. He stared dumbly at me before a look of pure relief spread across his face.

'_He's hiding something, I know it...'_

He seemed alright, acting better than most Humans, anyway, which essentially meant that he hadn't tried spouting any slurs out, asked me to carry his gear, or other stupid shit like that. However, he couldn't act his way past his scent. Some things never wash out completely. They were just overshadowed in time. And no matter what this one said to the contrary, he still reeked of blood, Faunus and Human alike. Not to mention the fact that he _definitely_ did not arrive with the other First Years on the airship.

I also noticed the masked girl grip her head gingerly, eyes closed tightly. Before I could comment, the Scroll the school had given me vibrated suddenly. Pulling it out, I noticed an incoming call from... Professor Glynda Goodwitch.

'_The blonde woman who had been with the Headmaster?'_

Looking up, I noticed the others had their Scrolls out, as well. I clicked the accept button, shocked to see a miniature holographic image of the schoolmistress appear above the device, staring at me intently. The woman had been with Ozpin the day he recruited me, though I hadn't spoken to her at the time. I remembered her coming in afterwards though, towards the end bit of the Headmaster's little pitch.

_'Didn't seem the care much for my hobbies,'_ I recalled, as the woman began to speak.

_"Attention, students. Congratulations on passing the Initiation. As the other candidates have either dropped out, or were deemed unable to continue, your two pairs will be the last. We are dispatching an aircraft to your position, which should arrive shortly. Please..." _Her face turned as someone began relaying something to her off screen. _"**...What!?** How did it... Get the Professor, right away! He **must** be informed!" _She turned back to us, face pale and panicked.

"Uh, Teach?... Somethin' goin' on, over there?" Poncho asked nervously, glancing around at each of us. His eyes then rested on Reika as she opened her eyes wide. "Reika, what's the matter?"

_"Students, get away from that position, right **now**!"_

"Professor Goodwitch?" Joel said in confused tone, glancing at me.

I shook my head before a gust of wind rippled through the clearing from the East, as something roared in the distance, sending up whole flocks of birds. That's when I smelled it: something I'd never picked up before, but unmistakably Grimm.

_"Mister Ambrose, this is a** direct order!**Make your way out of your current position immediately! There is a juvenile **Chimera** on route!"_

"A-a _Chimera!?_ Are you serious!? Why...!?"

She ended the transmission before he could finish, the feed on her end shutting down instantly. He lowered the device slowly, taking a deep breath.

"Uh, guys?..." Poncho said, kneeling down in front of his Shadow, trying to follow the flurry of signs she was making. "She's right. Reika says somethin' big's on its way here, fast. _Really fast!_ Like, _'we won't be able to outrun it'_ fast!... The hell's a Chimera!?"

"Very rare, _very_ _vicious_ species of Grimm," the white-haired boy replied stonily. "They come in different varieties, but for the most part, they usually stick to the regions between Kingdoms. Big problem for anyone who encroaches on their territory, but they usually stick to themselves."

"Then why would this one be here?" I asked, glancing at the treeline wonderingly.

He stretched upwards, cracking his back loudly. "The Professor said it was a juvenile, so it may have just wandered from its territory. Happens occasionally if hunting gets scarce."

Wow, a great example of useless information that wouldn't help fuck all.

"She also suggested_ runnin'!_" the sniper pointed out. "We should leave while we have the chance."

"No, Reika's right. This thing's faster than us. It's hungry; probably just looking to pick off anyone else it thinks will be coming this way. But once it smells live prey, it'll be on us, picking us off while we try to get away."

"Then we fight it?" I asked, shooting him a wild grin. Whatever this Chimera thing was, it sounded goddamn awesome. "There's four of us, and one of it!"

"Wouldn't suggest it if it was an adult. Even teams of seasoned Huntsmen have trouble with those..." He drew his weapon, extending it. "...But if we hit it hard enough, though... we can probably take on one this young."

"'Probably,' huh?... So I suppose we're doin' this, then?" Poncho groaned putting a hand to his face. "Disobeyin' a direct order to retreat?"

"You got a problem with that?"

Carson said nothing for a few seconds, before sighing dramatically, and making a show of unslinging his rifle. "Nah, you kiddin'? I kill whatever this Chimera thing is, and I'll have to fight admirers off in _droves_."

Joel nodded, staring at the rifle skeptically. "Sniping isn't gonna help much, though. You'll want to keep moving."

"Not gonna be an issue," the other boy said, flipping a switch, and causing the rifle's long barrel to retract, similar to a telescope. The long green barrel had shifted to a smaller one. "_Glory _here's adaptable to unexpected situations." A bayonet shot out from beneath the weapon, now a heavy assault rifle, as the gunner pulled a magazine from his belt sliding it home to its compartment that had opened right before the trigger with a sharp click.

"Maintain your distance, and cover Max and I as we get close." He gave Joel a lazy salute and ran off. "Reika, watch his back," he added, before turning to me. "We're gonna try to bring this thing down fast. Don't let up, and _don't_ play around."

"I get it!..." I pushed past him roughly. "Don't try and give me orders. And if you get in my way, I'll butcher you and this Grimm."

"Glad to see we're on the same page. And watch out for the tail," he muttered as he followed behind me towards the treeline.

'_Time for some fun!' _I thought gleefully, baring my teeth tightly. '_Wait... Tail?'_

That was when the whole world exploded in one bone-wrenching howl.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

'_Aw, hell...' _I thought to myself, gaping at the monstrosity rearing just in front of me.

I'd seen plenty of Grimm in the Badlands. From Death Stalkers, Taijitsu nests, and the stray Nevermore here and there. But this... _thing's_ presence? It scared me more than anything I'd seen before. About the size of an adult Death Stalker, the Chimera resembled a horned lion sporting a black-furred mane and razor sharp teeth, though coated in scales rather than hair. Black wings rose from its back like an overgrown crow, along with an armored snake-like tail.

_'That thing's a **kid!?**'_

The only one not seemingly paralyzed with awe was Psycho, picking himself off the ground instantly, and making a run towards Argus. He managed to scoop her up just as a clawed foot smashed down where they'd previously stood, cratering the earth with a loud crash. I snapped myself out of my stupor, before taking aim, and letting loose a quick burst that only seemed to annoy the creature.

'_They die, I die...' _I thought, dodging away quickly as its tail lashed out towards me, firing as I ran back. '_Need a bigger boom.'_

_"_Why's this thing not flying!? It has wings, doesn't it!?" Argus shouted, splitting her axe into the two guns she'd had earlier, and unloading on the creature with little more success then I'd had.

"They don't start flying until they hit adolescence!" Psycho replied, swearing as he narrowly dodged a fast moving clawed hand the size of a small car. "Are you _seriously_ complaining about that, right now!?"

'_And these two were partners?'_

Speaking of partners, Reika managed to sidestep her attack and counter, landing a heavy blow with her tonfa, the mass-driven blow impacting hard on the creature's limb. Instead of breaking, however, the beast merely swatted her away like an annoying fly, sending her crashing across the field in a heap. The creature gave a roar of triumph, moving to fight off Ambrose and Argus as they tried to hit it from both sides. The tail however, was, focused on the injured girl.

"_Ooooh_, no, ya don't!" I found myself standing over her, wincing as the snake-headed appendage clamped down on my right arm. It tried to bite down further, but to its obvious confusion, it couldn't manage it.

"What!? Don't like the taste!?" I asked it, pulling at the bandages to reveal the bronze-colored, metal prosthetic arm beneath. "Doesn't beat flesh, I know, but it still has its advantages!" I focused my Aura into the arm, ejecting a thin serrated knife from beneath the wrist. Using all of my strength, I pulled back and slashed the inside of the creature's mouth, causing both tail and body to howl in pain and fury, before it leapt away.

_'Don't mess with my partner, jackass!'_

I helped the mute girl to her feet, and retreated several yards to examine her injuries. The Huntress' arm was definitely broken, hanging limply at an odd angle. Her eyes had a pained look to them, but she said nothing as she made to retrieve her weapon.

"Nope..." I held her back with the metal hand as she struggled feebly. "You stay out of this. You've done enough for today, and that injury'll just slow you down. And you..." I waved off her rapid hand movements, lazily cringing as Argus cried out to me. "Go work on that injury. We'll finish up here." I could tell she wasn't happy about it, but she finally nodded, giving me a rough punch to the side. "_Ah!_Yeah, I'll be fine! Those two seem pretty tough."

"Oi, Poncho! What's the hold-up!?" the Faunus shouted angrily again, sporting a bleeding scratch on her cheek and shoulder. "Sort of busy, here!"

I gave Reika a last minute grin, before running towards the Chimera, eager for some payback. I noticed the others shoot my arm a strange look, but they kept fighting, opening a space in their attack pattern.

_'Assault rifle won't cut it...'_ I thought to myself as the beast caught sight of me and lunged. I flipped the switch again, shifting the gun back into hunting rifle form, and flaring my Aura even higher. The world itself seemed to slow to a crawl as I ran forward, easily tracking the beast and fell to a quick knee at the last moment, squeezing off two shots to its face in the span of a few seconds, putting cracks in both of its horns, and skidding off as it shook its face with a pained hiss. I laughed, trying to stand on my feet, but faltering as my limbs quaked like jelly.

_'Damn, this Semblance is a pain to manage like this...'_

"How'd you manage that?" Joel, landing next to me after delivering a deep slash to Grimm's back, asked with a confused expression on his face. Thankfully, he only focused on my last action rather than my arm, which was a blessing, I suppose.

"My little party trick," I answered back, taking a quick shot that impacted the tail just as it was about to grab Miss Sadist. "Takes the sensory enhancement of Aura, and cranks it up even more, allowin' me to perceive how an enemy's gonna move in an instant. I call it_ Draw,_ like how you would a pistol."

Argus laughed gleefully in the background, slicing the tail's head off in a spurt of gore while it was distracted. "How's that for watching out for the tail, bitch!? _HA!_"

"From there, it's just a matter of pushin' my Aura to raise my reaction rate and keep up. Doin' it in bursts takes a lot outta me, though," I finished, legitimately scared of the dog-eared girl in front of me.

"...Can you do it again?" he asked me, gazing thoughtfully at the creature, his muscles tensing. "If I keep in a straight line, can you keep that thing off me long enough to get behind it?"

"...Sure, I suppose." I slipped a fresh magazine into the rifle. "Never found anythin' that Explosive Dust rounds couldn't take care of. You got a good plan?"

"'Good' might not be the best word for it. The Chimera's got scales all over its body, except for a space near the mane." He pointed forward at the thin space between it's neck and the mask. "If I can get a good hold on it, then I can bring it down. But I need you and Max to keep it from moving too much."

"If you're gonna do something, do it! _Crap!_" Argus cried out, as she cut deeply into it's leg, before somehow moving the large axe blade to knock its fangs away when it struck from behind her. "This has gone from fun to annoying, fast!"

"Don't miss," Psycho said simply, staring me in the eyes dangerously, before making a mad dash towards the large Grimm.

I aimed down my right lens scope from my goggles as it took notice of him, lashing out with its headless tail, only to have it knocked back by one of my shots. It glared at me, ready to pounce, but a purple figure hit it from the side, catching its attention again.

_'Damn it, Murasaki! I told you to stay out of this!...'_ I groaned internally. Firing up my _Draw_ again, I sent two rounds rocketing straight to the eyes, blinding it.

The monster reared back, howling in pain as Ambrose aimed the staff at it, firing some sort of tether into the ground behind it. He ducked a wild strike from the tail, and slid underneath the Chimera itself. The cable retracted in a hail of sparks. Once he was clear, he pulled the hook free, and jumped backwards with an Aura-enhanced leap, twisting through the air, and splitting the staff into its dual form.

"_Damn,_" I muttered as I watch him go, falling to my knees as I did do, my legs giving out from under me. "Holy..."

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

'_Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. **SHIT!' **_my mind screamed as I hurtled towards the Grimm's back, aiming for that one small patch. '_Why do I always do this!? Dumb, stupid, crazy, reckless plans, and I keep volunteering!'_

I landed hard, air crushed out of my lungs as I jabbed the points of the blades down to miraculously pierce flesh, rather than the steel-like scales. My new ride screeched, jerking from side to side in an attempt to shake me off. Just as I was about to let go, Reika swooped down from above, slamming into it's head, and unloading a full clip into its mask, sending bits of bone and blood flying. Max, meanwhile, finally separated a limb with a loud cry of triumph. I seized my chance, pulling my last knife from my belt, and ramming it in alongside _Circuit_. With one hand on the knife's handle, and the other clutching the connecting wire for _Circuit's _halves, I drew upon every ounce of power I had left.

"Everyone back off! _NOW!_" I cried out, limbs sparking with raw energy. The smell of ozone permeated the air, as I amped up the voltage.

'_Dammit, this hurts!' _my mind screamed as electricity coursed down my arms and into the beast, sending it reeling and tumbling towards the forest ruins. _'**DIE!**' _With a final keening whine, the Chimera fell, sending me rolling off in a smoking tumble onto the grass, lying against the side of the stone structure.

"Ho... Oh my God..." I laughed in disbelief. The pain slowly subsided, leaving me feeling as if I'd just sprinted ten miles uphill with weights attached to my feet, and smoking slightly from a dozen small burns across my clothes. "That was a thing... Note to self: _NEVER AGAIN._"

"Good luck with that," Ben remarked, as he fell back against the wall shakily. Reika was beside him, with her arm in a makeshift sling from a torn piece of her yukata. "If this school's anythin' like the rumors say, then it's only gonna get rougher from here..."

"What? You guys're tired _already?_" Max asked incredulously as she stood over us, covered head to toe in dirt and her own blood, likely from those heavy hits from trying to strike the Grimm, which had missed and had hit the ground. She showed her canines with a menacing smirk on her face, and her axe on her shoulder. "I want another one."

"Max?..." I muttered, drifting off as the whine of a Dust engine approached from above. "Shut up..."

* * *

"Joel Ambrose. Maxine Argus. Benjamin Carson. Reika Murasaki. Step forward." Ozpin announced from his position on the stage, glancing down at each of us in turn.

The groups before us were met with applause as they were announced. However, as soon as we made our way to the stage, the applause faltered, and it was noticeable. Whispers rose up from all around us as people took in our appearance. Due to how late we'd finished the Initiation, we hadn't looked much different from how we'd looked when we'd slain the Chimera. In fact, we pretty much looked _exactly_ how we looked after we'd slain the Chimera. Ben actually seemed the most normal. Ruffled and a bit dusty, but normal. Me, on the other hand? I just looked a bit singed. My injuries were minor, but healing slower than normal due to Aura exhaustion. Reika and Maxine, however, stood out a bit. Reika wore a cast, and some of her clothing had been torn during the battle. Max, on the other hand...

"Couldn't you have at least washed your blood off?" I whispered quietly to the Faunus, knowing full well she would pick it up with those ears. "You're freaking people out."

"And I give a shit why?" she replied, staring intently at the Headmaster.

"Didn't think so," I relented, focusing my attention back on the aged Huntsman, and wiping at a spot of blood that had rubbed off from her.

"You four retrieved the white pawn pieces..." Ozpin continued as our profiles appeared on the large screen, along with a series of letters. Oddly, I wasn't surprised that Ben's picture was the only one out of our group smiling back. Everyone else kept rather neutral expressions when we had gotten our photos taken the day before, though Reika had worn her mask when she took hers. As for the letters, recalling the groups that had went before us, I knew that they were letters that were found in our names.

Ozpin went on to finish our Initiation ceremony. "From this day forth, you will work together as... Team AMBR. Led by... Joel Ambrose!"

Upon hearing those words leave his mouth, my neutral expression fell completely, instead giving one of shock. "Wait... _What!?_"

The older man nodded at me. "Congratulations, Joel. I'm sure you'll do all of us proud."

A loud whoop rose up from the area, where the newly christened Team RWBY stood. Yang cheered alongside Ruby. I gave the sisters a friendly wave, trying to ignore the rising sense of dread with a confident smile.

'_Leading a team... Me? Is he** insane!?**' _I glanced over at my new teammates, all of whom stared back at me in surprise.

'_Okay... A violent Faunus... A cyborg rogue... A mute killing machine with insane strength... And me, a former killer, as their acting leader... What could possibly go wrong?'_

-END

**_-CODEX-_**

**The Badlands- **The given name for the region spanning the uncivilized landmass between Vale and Vacuo on the continent of Sanus, similar to the Frontier. While technically within Kingdom jurisdiction on both sides politically, these areas are wild, and permanent settlements are few and far between, often competing with hosts of wild Grimm and other dangers for what few resources that exist that have not already been claimed by the Schnee Dust Company. It has also attained somewhat of a reputation for banditry and other criminal activities, especially towards the networks of trains ferrying items such as food, Dust, and other supplies between the Kingdoms.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, Ben's arm was inspired by FMA, couldn't resist. Also, Max's guns look like red versions of the sub-machine guns from Halo, with the bayonets looking like the blades on the Brute Spiker.**

**Hey guy's thanks for reading, now that school's back on submissions for all RWBY stories are going to be a bit hectic. I'm still writing both this and _Lost Memories_ however it might be awhile depending on the workload. Feel free to leave comments, they only make the story better and help me improve. Until next time all. - Mojo1586**


	4. Chapter 4

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**"…" – Spoken**

**'_Italics'_ \- Thought**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its characters, they belong to Monty Oum of Roosterteeth Productions, and those characters you see not from the show like the main character are my own OCs for the purpose of the story. Enjoy) - Mojo1586**

FIRST DAY

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"_Kill the them all with extreme prejudice! Leave **none** alive!"_

_"Joel, they're coming! We have to go!"_

_"Filthy animals, trying to rise above their place in the world..."_

_"You promised me we'd be safe, Joel! You **promised**!"_

_"Human scum! Why can't you leave us alone!?"_

_"**DADDY!**"_

* * *

My eyes snapped open to the sound of a buzzing alarm ringing throughout the room, heart beating as I sat up with a deep calming breath. I rubbed my bleary eyes as the clock cut out with a loud crash from Max's side. Sparing a glance at the rest of my team, with the exception of Reika, who was already up and making her way from the room dressed in the uniform they'd provided us along with her mask, each swore curses as they woke up.

'_My team... **MY** team... That's gonna take some getting used to...'_

"Alright. Everyone up!" I swung my legs out and got to my feet. Ben groaned above me as he covered his head with his pillow with his good hand, the robotic arm hanging on the wall next to him on a sling, the rogue having spent a good portion of last night cleaning the thing to a dull shine after our little project.

"Hey, Psycho... You know how I suggested we make bunk beds to get some extra space, and you thought we wouldn't get enough sleep?" he muttered, voice slightly muffled.

"Yeah, I remember."

"...You were goddamn right... I hate school..."

I sighed to myself, tapping the thick ropes that held the bed together. _'I wonder why this stuff was in the closet?'_ I shrugged it off as I got up, stretching with a pop of freeing joints.

It had been a pain, but I supposed it helped getting the room set up early, so we weren't rushing to get it done now. It also didn't help that we'd all gotten called in after the team assignment for an uncomfortable hour with Goodwitch, or just "Witch," in Ben's case. She discussed our "insubordination" from fighting the Chimera after she'd told us to run away. Ozpin apparently let us off with a warning, as everyone got out okay, and because we actually succeeded in killing the thing. Still, she made it perfectly clear that we'd be in detention cleaning hallways for the rest of our time at Beacon if she heard even one rumor regarding Chimeras in the Emerald Forest.

"What's on tap for today, Boss?"

"Well, first class is Grimm Studies, with Professor..." I checked the Scroll on the bedside table as I pulled on my blazer. "Port... Sounds somewhat interesting, I suppose." I glanced up at the partitioned curtain we'd hung up in the middle of the room to give ourselves some privacy. "Max, that alarm... Didn't we use your Scroll?"

"Stupid skirt... Oh, _damn it!_"

_'Well, I guess that answers **that** question,' _I thought, as a long string of curses followed. '_She's certainly... creative.'_

"I'm sure we can get a replacement. Doesn't matter, anyway. We're all in the same class to start with, with the exception of Reika." I mentioned reassuringly, straightening out the tie with only a fair bit of difficulty. You'd think for a Huntsman Academy, the uniforms would offer a bit more comfort. "It's at nine, so we still have a bit of time. I'm grabbing a quick breakfast."

"_Shove it, Ambrose!_" A hand shot through the curtain, flipping me off succinctly.

"Sure thing, Boss," Ben confirmed, shooting me a mock salute as I reached the door, trying to sneak a peek over the curtain, only to jump back as a book embedded itself in the ceiling above him. I could've sworn that the impact sent cracks rippling through the ceiling.

'_My team, everyone...' _I groaned inwardly, cursing Ozpin as I scratched at the skin near the collar, making a note to put in a work order to fix that.

* * *

After grabbing a slice of toast and eggs, I sat outside on one of the benches leading to the mess hall, and stared out at the garden. The campus definitely had its perks.

"Definitely a step up from bars and concrete..." I muttered, taking a deep breath whilst savoring the warm meal. "Hmm... Food's better, too." Anything was better then gruel served through a thin slit along the floor.

"Enjoying the view?"

I jumped from my spot, startled from the new voice. Looking up, I found Ozpin standing next to me, working on a steaming mug in one hand, and his cane in the other. '_How did he... Ugh, never mind.'_

"Being locked up in a small cell for a few months does give you an appreciation for the fresh air," I replied, shrugging lazily as I took another bite of my toast. "Actually, considering what I was doing for the past few years, this does make for a nice change of pace. It's more peaceful."

"I'm glad you approve. It's always nice to hear that students are happy and content."

"'Content' might be too strong a word," I laughed glancing at my Scroll. "That team you put me in charge of can be a bit... difficult."

"Your group, admittedly, does have quite a few interesting figures. I'm really quite surprised by how things turned out. Your partner in particular," he nodded, shooting me an apologetic smile.

"Oh, you mean the Faunus girl? Yeah, I see the irony in that, Professor. I do. A Faunus girl who likes to play with her food before she eats it. Yep, I noticed that little tidbit."

"I'll admit, Miss Argus can be a bit of a handful... But you are hardly in any position to talk about violent tendencies. I _did_ have access to your estimated body count, after all. She at least keeps it to the Grimm, for the most part."

"Alright! Point taken..." I interjected in annoyance, shaking my head as I stood up. "Pretty sure she still wants to rip my head off, though. For some reason, or another."

"Maxine is a talented girl with a powerful gift. She has, however, led a difficult and troubled life..." He cocked an eyebrow, suddenly, staring into the contents of his drink for a moment, before continuing. "I thought you two could relate to each other."

"She probably burned ants as a kid, and I killed her people for a less than noble cause. Yep, we're practically best friends, already," I laughed sarcastically. "But back to the point I was making. Bastion didn't exactly teach me team building exercises. Neither did the Red Hand."

"Be that as it may, I'm sure you can learn to accept and grow into your new role, given time. Of that, I have no doubt."

"Hmph. I think you're giving me too much credit, Professor," I grunted, throwing away the paper plate that I ate my food with into the trash bin next to the bench, before walking off toward class.

"On that point, however... Do they know?" he asked as I turned to leave. "Have you told them about your prior occupation?"

Sighing, I turned back to him. "Carson knows a little. And I'm pretty sure he's told Murasaki, by now. I doubt they'll fill in anyone else, though. As for Max... I'd rather wait before dealing with that hurdle." I shivered slightly at the thought. "Obvious reasons aside, I doubt she'll react well to me being a Trapper on principle."

"It will get out, you know. Sooner or later," the old Huntsman pointed out. "There are those here who will reveal it, even if you don't. And they might not know the exact circumstances as we do."

As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. My trial was on the news when it happened. Not a huge spectacle, sure, but still big enough to grab someone's attention. And there had to be others who knew what this collar meant, like Ben, or others who I'd met before...

_'Weiss for example.'_

"I'll deal with it when I need to, okay? It was nice talking to you, Professor, but I'm gonna be late for class," I said, hurrying off towards the nearest building with my Scroll as a guide.

* * *

"Thought we weren't supposed to be late, oh great leader?" Ben quipped, grinning as I sat down next to him. I was panting slightly, as I had gotten more troubled as time began to wind down. Fortunately, I made it in just as the class began, dodging past an irritable Argus along the way, who had her head flat on the desk growling.

"Wasn't _that_ late. Got held up by someone," I hissed back, trying to ignore how lost I'd gotten along the way as I took in the classroom.

It was a big room, with diagrams and anatomy charts of various Grimm spaced along the front, where an older, large man stood. He had a large, impressive gut, a burgundy suit with gold buttons and pipings, grey hair combed to both sides, and an impressive mustache. This was Professor Port, most likely, and he was speaking... monologuing?

"Doesn't look like I missed much, anyway," I indicated a few other sleeping students.

"Oh, but you'll _never_ get a first-hand account about how the guy took on a pack of Beowolves, with nothin' more than an old pickaxe and a cabbage, no less. Or the _chillin'_ recollection of how he trapped a great beast for months beneath his own house. What a tragic loss..." the rogue sighed sarcastically.

Port definitely looked caught up in his own story. I was silently grateful for that. Otherwise, he might've put me on the spot for being late.

"Anyway..." Ben continued, as he pointed down to the first row with his gloved right hand. At the end, I saw the whole of Team RWBY sitting hunched over in various states of awareness. "You know those girls, right? The blonde and the redhead were cheerin' for ya at the ceremony."

'_Huh. So **that's** where Weiss ended up. Heh, guess her whole Pyrrha Nikos strategy didn't go as planned. Can't believe those four actually got together, though...'_

"Yeah, I met them during the first day. Your point?"

"Well, accordin' to rumor, _they're_ the ones that ripped up the area around the temple and killed those Grimm. Along with one Team JNPR."

"Really?... No shit?"

"That's not all. Apparently, Miss Schnee's gonna fight a Grimm for us today, and show us all what a 'true Huntress-in-training' is capable of."

I raised an eyebrow at both his words and Weiss herself as stood up and left the room. Port, meanwhile, dragged out a shaking cage perched atop his desk, chained shut with heavy chains and a thick lock.

"Hope she's not all wealth and no skill," Ben muttered, chin rested on his normal hand. "Blue blood tends to stain just as badly as ours does."

"Wait... We actually fight Grimm in this class? I thought this was supposed to be theory only?"

I wasn't too worried about Weiss. I'd sat through more than enough combat lessons during my short tenure as her bodyguard to know she could handle herself in a fight.

'_Still, to release a live Grimm in class? This teacher's either really confident, or a complete idiot.'_

"You're seriously complaining?" the tired Faunus sat up, as Weiss reentered the room dressed in full combat gear, sword in hand. "This is the best part! Either we get to see Miss Schnee Dust Heiress get ripped apart, or watch her do that to a Grimm. Sounds like a good show to me."

I shot her a dark look as Port shattered the lock with a large blunderbuss battle axe, releasing a squealing Boarbatusk on the heiress.

"...Hey, she's got some moves," Ben commented with appraisal after the first few seconds, tracing her weaving figure across the room eyes flashing slightly.

Weiss was doing remarkably well, actually. She easily dodged the Grimm's wild charging, though she seemed pretty agitated. Looking more closely, I saw that she was arguing with Ruby, though I couldn't make out the specifics over the cries of the Grimm.

"Hey, Max," I whispered, getting the Faunus' attention. "What's she saying?"

"I dunno. Something about 'not telling her what to do,'" Max replied in an annoyed grunt, eyes firmly fixed on the fight. "Damn. Wish _I'd_ volunteered."

"Then don't sleep in class next time, Argus."

"Shut it, Carson!" she snapped, eyes narrowing at him dangerously. He leaned forward with a grin, hand twitching at his side in anticipation, as she began to glow red with Aura.

"Why don't you make me!?"

I pushed them apart before the fighting started, shooting each of them a sharp glare and gesturing towards the teacher. Just in time, too, as Weiss had finished off the Grimm with a strike to its stomach.

"_BRAVO! BRAVO!_" Port announced, as Weiss got shakily to her feet. "It appears we are, indeed, in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Now, don't forget to read..."

"_What!?_ That was way too short! Girl needs to learn to draw things out..." Max whined, getting to her feet as I copied down the assigned readings for the lesson.

'_This is it? I learned about this stuff ages ago...' _I thought as I skimmed through the book. '_Well, at least homework shouldn't be too hard for a while... They go **way** too easy on education around here.' _Aegis had had me able to I.D. a variety of Grimm and their weak spots in the first two weeks. Then came tracking...

"Hey, look. Trouble in paradise," Max giggled, pointing down as Weiss stormed from the room, whilst a panicked Ruby running after her. "Wonder what's eating her?"

"Probably not used to taking orders, I expect..." I shrugged, shooting her a sharp glare as we left the room, the sound of shouting ringing out from further down the hallway. "...Anyway, you guys go on ahead."

"What? Forget something? You were there for like ten minutes!" Max questioned.

"No. Just concerned," I replied, walking back towards the source of the shouting. "Save me some food, would you?"

"Can't promise there'll be any food left by the time you get there, Ambrose." I groaned at her cackling echoing down the opposite hall.

My partner, everyone...

* * *

"Hey, Ruby, I heard shouting. Everything alright?" I asked the small hooded girl as I rounded the corner, catching her by surprise.

"Huh? Oh! Uh, hey, Joel!" she replied cheerily, turning to face me with a smile on her face, which I noticed was a little too forced for her own good. "How're you doing? Fun class, wasn't it?"

"What? Oh... Yeah... Yeah, sure," I answered in a confused tone, looking around the corridor. I caught sight of a flash of white hair rounding the corner, "Weiss just seemed a bit off when she left class..."

"Oh... _That..._" Her face fell slightly, as she glanced down at her feet sadly. "...Weiss is angry with me for fooling around in class, and not taking things seriously..." She stared out at the veranda, where Weiss stood staring at the sunset.

"Were you fooling around?"

"Just a few silly drawings!" she cried out defensively, raising her head up to look at me.

'_She really is young...' _I thought absently, as she stared up at me. _'Probably about as old as I was, when...' _I clamped down on that train of thought immediately, the tick going unnoticed by the little reaper.

"Anyway, she got mad and stormed off. I just was trying to have a bit of fun. It's just that... Well... She doesn't think that I'm leader material... She..."

"She wasn't having it," I finished, giving her a small grin. "She doesn't seem like the 'play around' type, does she?... You talk with Ozpin about it?"

"Yeah. He walked up after Weiss stormed off." She glanced down the hall where the Professor had retreated.

"What did he tell you?" I asked, frowning at the girl's expression. "Seems serious."

"He was talking about team stuff. About how being a leader isn't just a title, but something you wear constantly." Her face knotted as she scratched at her hair madly. "It was really serious, but I don't know if I get it!" She glanced up at me, eyes shimmering wetly. "Joel... Do you think I could be a good leader?"

"Ruby..."

"Professor Ozpin says he didn't make a mistake making me leader. But I don't know... Maybe he's lying... What if I screw up? What if Weiss is right!? What if..."

I suddenly, almost unconsciously, found myself ruffling her hair, laughing to myself as I did so. I hadn't even realized that I had stopped her freak out midstride. A short moment later, I realized she glancing at me with a confused look on her face.

I instantly frowned upon realizing what I was doing, and pulled my hand away quickly as soon as I could, feeling a warm tinge across my apologetic face.

"Uh... Joel?"

"Sorry about that..." I apologized awkwardly. "It's just... You reminded me of my little brother, right now. I used to ruffle his hair when we were kids whenever he'd be freaking out about something." When he was still small enough for me to manage it.

"...Yang did that when we were younger, too..." she admitted quietly, smoothing out her red tinged locks. "I guess it's just some sort of older sibling thing."

"Maybe it is," I agreed soundly.

"But... What if I...?"

"Ruby, there's a million 'what ifs,' right now. It's the _first day!_" I said, trying to reassure her. "You can't exactly blame yourself if things don't start off well. That's why we're here in the first place; to learn how to do this stuff. Ozpin said something like that too, right?"

"He said I needed to act more like a leader. To be at my best always, so people will want to follow me, or something like that. It sounds really hard..." she murmured to the ground, before turning to face me. "What do you think? You're a leader too, right?"

"Well, to be honest, he's probably right, though I might not be the best person to get leadership advice from, anyway. My training was more aimed at personal situations, rather than team ones." I scratched the back of my head, thinking back on how things had gone since Team AMBR had been formed. "You do realize Team AMBR consists of a guy who habitually calls me 'Psycho,' an antisocial mute, and... well... You've met my partner, right? Maxine Argus? Dog Faunus with an attitude problem?"

"No, not yet."

"Well don't. You're a sweet girl, and she might yell at you for being a tiny human... Or eat you, for all I know. Hell... Maybe both. She seems complicated like that." I sighed at the nervous look she shot me. Probably went a little too far with that joke. "Look, that doesn't matter... From what I've heard, you've already led your team to victory once during the Initiation. The potential's there. You just... have to see it for yourself. And I'm sure Weiss will, too, if you just give her time, and work hard like Ozpin said," I encouraged, motioning towards the heiress.

She stayed silent for a moment, before nodding to herself and giving me a large smile. "Thanks, Joel. I needed someone else to talk to about this."

"No problem. Glad I could help."

I turned away, ready for some lunch, before Ruby called out to me.

"Hey, Joel!"

"Yeah?" I glanced over my shoulder back at her.

_'Jake would be about her age, right now... It's been so long since I've seen him.'_ The last time I'd been anywhere near my brother had been at my trial. Understandably, we hadn't spoken since.

"You're a great leader, too! Remember, 'don't give up,' right?" she encouraged, giving me a thumbs up and a wink.

"Definitely!" I returned the wink, giving her a thumbs up of my own.

I then looked towards the Weiss one last time. I gazed at the heiress for a few seconds, before striding off.

_'Now I just have to think of a way to pull it off...'_

"Rubes!? Ruby, where'd you go!?" I blinked to myself as I heard a voice behind me. Twisting around, I saw Ruby's sister Yang walking down the hallway I was walking down from. From the corner of her eyes, she turned to look at me, before grinning. "Hey, Joel!"

"Hey, Yang. What's up?" I greeted as she ran over towards me, making me take a step back slightly.

"Hey, have you seen Ruby? She and Weiss ran off after class!" she cried when she reached me. "I can't find them anywhere."

I nodded with a small smile, holding my hand out to calm her. "It's okay. I just saw them right now. They're just cooling off, I think... At least Weiss is."

She frowned at that. "Cooling down? Why? Did they have a fight?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. I guess Ruby was messing around a bit, and it rubbed Schnee the wrong way. I already talked to Ruby about it, but she went somewhere else afterwards."

"Any chance you know where?"

"Nope," I answered, shaking my head. "Maybe she went to the mess hall?"

"What!? Without_ me!?_" she cried, genuinely shocked about it, though it seemed more humorous than she intended.

"Growing up too fast for you, huh?" I chuckled, before looking more concerned. "Still, maybe you should give her some space for right now. She's got a lot on her mind after today."

The blonde girl nodded after a moment, shrugging resignedly. "Yeah, you're right... I hope they can find a way to work together."

"Me too, Yang... Me too..."

A short moment later, her frown then did a total one-eighty. "Anyway, thanks for letting me know!"

"No problem."

"So, where were you headed? Class?"

I shrugged. "Well, I _was_ gonna get some lunch... But then you stopped me."

She gasped loudly, giving me an apologetic look. "Oops. My bad..."

I shook my head. "It's fine. There's probably still time to get food."

"Sweet!" she grinned. "Hey, mind if I walk with you to the mess?"

"Not at all. Be my guest," I assured as I gestured towards the direction I was walking to previously.

"Thanks! Alright, let's go get us some grub!" She then patted me in the back, before cringing at how the force of her pat made me stumble forward a bit. "Whoops... Sorry."

"It's fine," I told, coughing and chuckling from her hit. "You've got quite an arm there."

"Thanks. I work out," she explained as she lifted her right arm to flex smugly.

"I can see that," I grinned as we began walking. "So, obvious troubles aside, how's your guys' team holding up?"

She shrugged. "I mean, Ruby and my partner Blake are okay. Weiss is the only one who seems to have an issue with how our team ended up."

"Yeah, I saw that Blake ended up on your team. And she's your partner? How's that going?"

"Surprisingly, she's actually pretty cool," she revealed. "She's actually very helpful in our team."

"Yeah. I saw the flag she was waving during Weiss' demonstration. That's good."

"What about your team?" she asked. "Judging by the way you guys looked after Initiation, you guys must have one interesting story to tell."

I scoffed. "Sorry, but Goodwitch told us that we'd get detention for the rest of our time in Beacon if we went bragging about what we did."

She pouted at that. "Awww... Sounds like fun, too."

"Doubt you'd think so if you did know..." I frowned, before looking back. "Most of my team's pretty okay with me leading... except maybe my own partner, though she doesn't really display it like Weiss does... By the way, I heard you guys had a big brawl of your own. A Death Stalker and a Nevermore at the same time... That's pretty impressive."

She grinned at that. "Yep! It was a team effort, though. I don't know how it would've gone if JNPR hadn't been there..." Yang then gasped before turning to me excitedly. "Hey, you haven't met JNPR, have you?"

"Can't say I have."

"Maybe I can introduce you to them when we get to the mess!" she offered excitedly.

"Sure. Can't hurt."

"Cool!" she grinned. She then looked around, frowning at the hall. "I wonder if the gym's around here, too?"

"Looking to catch up on your workout routine?" I quipped.

"Yep. These guns don't maintain themselves!"

I nodded approvingly. "Cool. Kinda curious to know where it's at, myself. I need to keep myself in shape."

"Hey, maybe we can spar there one time?" she offered, slamming her hands together in excitedly. "I'd like to see what you got."

At that, my eyebrows furrowed. "They let you guys do that here?..."

She frowned in confusion. "Uh, duh. Don't see why not. We fight Grimm in classes, after all."

"True..." I admitted, as I put my hand to my chin. The gears in my head began turning, as an idea slowly formed in my head. "Yang... I think I"m gonna take a rain check on that sparring sesh... Got something I gotta do first..."

* * *

"Alright, Ambrose..." Max began as she glared down at me from the fighting stage we'd set up in the gym. "Want to explain why we're in the gym in the middle of the night, while Poncho and the short bitch get to take it easy back in the room?"

"Well, Max, there's a good reason for that..." I replied, happily leaping up to join her, unsheathing my weapon and giving it a quick once over. "I can talk with Reika and Ben. You, on the other hand, seem to prefer a more direct approach. So I'm obliging." I positioned myself at the other end of the stage rolling my arms. "Since we've met, we've been... less than friendly, to say the least. However, now that we're on a team, and have to work together to succeed here, I want to get past our issues, or at least compromise."

I finished rolling my arms, and finally cracked my neck. I then stared directly at my partner's eyes. "So... am I right in assuming that you have some sort of problem with me?..."

She quirked an eyebrow, before letting out a short chuckle, hefting her axe onto her shoulder with a grimace. "You're right..." she admitted, as she tapped her nose gingerly. "I've known you two days, and all you've done is make yourself out like some noble hero. Trying to save the day, making plans, and being in charge... But I smell blood on you. Faunus, Human, and Grimm."

"And that worries you?" I frowned, extending _Circuit _into staff form, but opting to keep the blades sheathed. "I thought you would have liked the smell."

"Intrigues me, more like... I know that weird collar has something to do with it. Has that Goodbitch's stink all over it." She shrugged lazily. "I won't pry, though. Don't need your life story."

"Good, because you won't get one. It's long, and very personal." I switched on the large screen above us showing me a readout of both our Aura levels. Goodwitch had been hesitant to show me how to use it, but she'd caved in after Ozpin had given her the go-ahead. "Suffice to say, I do have a past. A violent one, but now I'm trying to do some good... What about you?" I asked suddenly, catching her off guard. "I'm certain you have a reason for why you don't like Humans."

"I never said I didn't like Humans. I told you, I just don't like it when someone - _anyone _\- tries to put themselves above me. Just happens that most of the people who do that are Humans," she revealed, before adding. "You don't need my life story, either."

"That another reason you don't like me? Because I'm trying to be a good leader?"

"It's not like I won't accept you being in charge... You just have to prove you're worth taking orders from." She then grinned, bringing her axe to bare.

'_Somehow, I don't think Ruby is having this much trouble with Weiss...'_ I thought as a bemused expression crossed my face while I assumed a fighting stance. Arcs of electricity sizzled at my fingertips as my Aura flared.

"I have a policy against working with worthless people," she admitted, barring her teeth menacingly.

"Well, come on, then! If this is what you want. Til one of our Auras is in the red, got it?"

"If you're not dead by then!"

She was in the air within seconds, shimmering with carmine-colored Aura, axe blade hurtling down towards me. I sidestepped as she came down next to me, bringing my staff around to smack her on the back, giving her a quick shock for good measure as it bounced off her barrier. That sent her stumbling forward awkwardly, her Aura dipping slightly.

"_Ah!_ You big...!"

"Temper, temper!" I chided, spinning my staff in one hand. "If I'd actually had blades out, or amped up the charge, you'd be in a lot more trouble, right n...!"

I leapt back, narrowly avoiding the axe that she swung. She continued her assault, swinging her weapon around with a snarl of fury, and reckless abandon.

'_How did she...?' _I thought wildly, as she launched into a flurry of heavy swings that I was barely able to knock away, each misstep taking a good chunk off my counter.

She was somehow able to manipulate that axe from impossible positions, countering my attacks and then launching her own. It was almost as if momentum and gravity didn't affect her. My patience proved useful, however, as she finally made a mistake. She overextending her blow just far enough in for me to gain room and disarm her, rearing back as I put all my strength into a two-handed swing towards her chest. Her eyes widened in surprise as the blow was just about to connect, and... _didn't!?_

I gaped, as some unseen force caught hold of my weapon, stopping it cold just as it was about to touch her.

"The hell!?" I growled, trying and failing to pull it away, as if some gigantic hand kept it held there.

"Gotcha..." Max hissed, grinning wildly. Her eyes shone brightly with energy as I was suddenly blasted back through the air. It felt as if a car had smacked into me. Rolling to my feet shakily at the other end of the arena, I tried to stand up.

'_What... What the hell did she hit me with!?'_

My mind was racing when something hit me again, blasting me into the air. Twisting around, I extended one of _Circuit's _bladed prongs quickly, firing it off towards the ground as I felt myself being carried higher and higher. Max just stood there staring up at me, until she fell to her knees, the strange glow leaving her eyes. I found myself falling quickly towards the ground again at a rate too quick for me to reorient myself, also losing my grip on my weapon. I cringed, ready to impact, when the strange force caught me again, just a foot off the ground.

"_Holy..._" I began, before I falling-face first onto the hard floor with a thud.

Getting up gingerly I saw Max breathing heavily, arm outstretched towards me. "Max... What the hell?" I choked out, checking myself over to make sure I was still in one piece.

"There's a reason Ozpin fought so hard to get me here..." she replied, voice hoarse as her weapon sailed back into her hand slowly. "My Semblance... It lets me manipulate the space around me, block attacks, and swing my weapon around as if it were weightless... Packs quite a punch... But..." She paused, swaying dangerously to the side, before falling forward.

"Max? _MAX!_" I cried in alarm.

Without hesitating, I ran forward, sliding in just in time to catch her before she hit the ground. I checked her pulse immediately, years of training taking the drivers seat as I examined the girl. She was unconscious, but still breathing, albeit slowly. I glanced up at the large screen hanging above us, and saw that my Aura was a good way into the yellow. Hers, on the other hand, was almost entirely depleted. I breathed a sigh of relief, before picking her up bridal style. I was pretty surprised at how light she was. Aura exhaustion was rough, but it was hardly life-threatening. She'd wake up in a few hours with a headache and a sore everything, but she'd be fine.

"Idiot..." I muttered, glancing down at the sleeping Faunus in my arms. The dog ears on her head twitched with each breath she took.

_'She's actually kind of cute when she's like this, and not covered in blood at all...' _I thought absently, before turning bright scarlet, and immediately banishing the offending thought from my head. '_She'll also rip you apart without even touching you!' _I reminded myself with a grimace, staring at the large axe on the ground next to me.

Her Semblance was incredible. I'd been practically helpless against her. However, like Ben's, it certainly seemed to have its drawbacks if used excessively.

I set her down on one of the benches lining the arena, before moving to retrieve both weapons.

"Damn, this is heavy..." I grunted, hefting the large axe in one hand. "How the hell does she do it? Semblance or not, this thing's a brick!"

I used her Scroll to open up her locker, setting the weapon inside, when an old picture affixed to the door caught my eye. It showed a younger Max smiling next to a Human girl with long dark hair, and blue colored eyes, along with a larger man that must've been Max's dad, judging by the ears they shared. They were all sitting on a couch in a small living room. I quashed the impulse to examine it further, shutting the locker quickly, and pushing the picture out of mind. It was obviously something personal, if she'd hung onto it this long, and it wasn't my place to intrude. Making my way back to the Faunus, I sat down next to her, and put on my earbuds. Resigning myself to a long night, I passed the time working on memorizing the layout of the school to the beat of my music.

* * *

Finally, after a long while, I felt her stirring next to me. The Canine Faunus finally opened her eyes with an annoyed grunt. "What...? Ah, my _head!_"

"Sleep tight?" I asked, switching off my music with a sigh and turning to look down at her. The Faunus let out a yelp, falling off of the bench in her haste to get up. "Careful! I wouldn't move around too much."

"Ugh... What time is it?" she groaned, clutching her skull tightly.

"About four in the morning."

"I've been out for...?"

"About six hours, yeah." I yawned, stretching as I got to my feet, wincing as pins and needles shot through my legs from disuse. "You seem good to move now, so let's head back. Don't want to give the others any weird ideas. Not sure we're supposed to even be out this late."

I held out a hand to help her up.

"Why didn't you just leave me, if you we're so tired?" she spat out, smacking the hand away and standing up shakily. "It wouldn't be the first time I passed out like that. Probably won't be the last, either."

"You might be a pain in the ass..." I started, smirking at the look of indignation crossing her face. "But you're still my partner and my teammate. I'm not gonna just leave you on a bench alone, and hope you're okay."

"Still... You don't have to..." she muttered under her breath, keeping her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Yeah, I didn't have to. And I don't want to, either. I happen to like my sleep," I shot back grumpily, putting my Scroll back in my pocket and turning to her. "So don't pull a stunt like this again, okay? Besides..." I added as a friendly smile grew on my face. "That fight was _totally_ my win," I finished with a wink as I walked with her out of the gym.

"What the...! Why _youuu..._ I had you, and you know it! I want a rematch!" she cried out angrily, before grimacing as she clutching her head in renewed pain.

"_Later,_" I promised, laughing as we stepped out into the hallway. The first flecks of sunlight streamed through the large windows to our side. "For now, let's just agree that I get to be leader. I've already got to deal with no sleep today." I shielded my eyes, knowing that Port's class today was probably going to be a sleep period, anyway.

"I'll crush you, next time," the Faunus said through gritted teeth, as she pushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face. "No doubt."

"Anytime, Max. Anytime..." The thought was actually pretty exciting to consider, as well as figuring out how I'd overcome that Semblance.

We finally made it to our dorm, dodging teachers as we passed through, including one frightening and very awkward moment where we had to squeeze into a small shadowed alcove together, faces dangerously close, as Professor Goodwitch passed by, focused intently on her Scroll.

"Wait..." she blurted out, grabbing hold of my shoulder as I made to turn the handle.

"_Maaax,_ it's really early, and I'm gonna pass out, here..." I moaned

"Thanks..." she said simply, staring at me intently for a brief moment, before forcing her way past me into the room loudly, as I stood there in genuine surprise.

"_WAH!_" Ben's voice called out groggily from inside, having been awoken due to the Dog Faunus having slammed the door open in her haste to clear the threshold. "What the... Wha...? D-do you know what time it is!?... Where've you two been!?"

"_Shut it, asshole!_" she spat back with pure venom in her voice, eliciting an "eep" from the sharpshooter. Pushing her way past the heavy curtain, I could slightly hear the sound of clothes hitting to the ground coming from her direction, before I heard her fall into her bed with a loud crash.

"What the hell'd you two get up to?" Ben asked, turning to look at me as I made my way to the bed. Not even bothering to change, I sighed in ecstasy as my body hit the soft mattress.

"Working out our issues," I replied lazily, as sleep slowly took me, sadly aware that it wasn't going to last. "I think we might be good... For the moment, anyway."

I had enjoyed a good minute of silence, before Carson spoke again. "She tried to kill ya, didn't she?" I didn't respond, so he took my silence as a yes. He then covered his head in his pillow and muttered to himself. "Crazy idiots... Bustin' in here in the middle of the night... What the hell... And _he's_ the leader? What a crock of..."

I just laid there, feeling actually somewhat content. More so than I'd been in years. '_Y'know... maybe this won't be so bad, after all...'_

Sighing to myself, I quietly whispered a vow. "I'm _not_ going to screw this up."

**-_END_**


	5. Chapter 5

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**"…" – Spoken**

**'_Italics'_ \- Thought**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its characters, they belong to Monty Oum of Roosterteeth Productions, and those characters you see not from the show like the main character are my own OCs for the purpose of the story. Enjoy) - Mojo1586**

OLD WOUNDS

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"Hey, Ambrose, what's the average diameter of a Boarbatusk, and do they travel in packs?" Maxine asked our leader, frantically scribbling down the answers to today's assignment with one hand, while shoveling bacon, sausage, and eggs in her mouth with the other. "Like, seriously. Right now. Chop chop."

"What makes you think I know?" he shot back, an annoyed expression crossing his face, as he spilled hot sauce all over his eggs. "Stupid... Anyway, you'd know if you'd actually pay any attention in class... or do the readings, at least."

"But that's _sooo boring..._" she moaned, planting her head on her hands, and glowering at the tall Huntsman. "Port's always going on and on about something or another that we'll never use in an actual fight. It's practically a crime that his lecture's this early. Besides..." She grinned widely, gesturing at him with her fork, "why should I bother paying attention, when my leader practically knows everything, already?"

"Doesn't mean have to like it..." Joel sighed, grabbing her paper from her to look it over. "They travel in _herds,_ by the way. Not packs; those are Beowolves."

"See? And _that's_ why I don't need to give a fuck," the Dog Faunus stated happily, digging into her meal full force now. "Mmph... Least until the fun bits start."

"It's also why I hate the fact that we're graded on overall team performance," Joel grumbled under his breath, as he scratched out a few lines of her work. "Stupid leader role... Ozpin can go suck a..."

I turned as laughter emanated from down the table. There, Carson entertained his latest target on his lap, a pretty blue-haired one with hair hanging loosely over her shoulders. This time, he was showing off his mechanical arm, while she "oohed" and "ahhed" in amazement. He twirled a knife in his robotic hand.

"How do you have so much mobility?" she asked, watching as the knife sailed between the metallic fingers. "It's almost like a real arm! I've never seen anything like it."

"It's a test model," Ben explained, balancing the point of the utensil on one finger, earning applause from the girl. "Uses a blend of both Dust and Aura to create a link between myself and the arm. I hardly even notice the difference, anymore."

'_Liar...'_

He shot her a toothy grin, sending a blush spreading on across her cheeks. "You know, the mobility isn't just for playin' with knives. There's other more... _entertainin' _uses that I can think of."

'_Great...' _I sighed internally. _'Judging from the look on her face, our room's going to be off-limits for a few hours, again.'_

I didn't even know why I still came to meals with them, as I never ate in front of them. It had just become something of a routine during the first few weeks here at Beacon. Eat breakfast while the leader and the Faunus argued about homework, practice, or anything, really. Meanwhile, Carson would pull stunts like this with his latest female "friend," or needle the other two members of our team with jokes or taunts.

Maybe it all sprung from my desire to learn more about my companions. I could read their Aura well enough to get an idea, but that only went so far. And without the ability to ask or talk, that meant I had to watch and take what I could.

Joel Ambrose, our new leader... Much about the man was uncertain. He usually chose to spend the time outside of classes making friends with other team's members; something he did very easily. He was humorous, sarcastic, professional, intelligent, and kind. Though how much of it was a facade; a cover?

The collar around his neck showed that there was a great deal more to him than just how he acted. It wasn't as if criminal activities were abhorrent to me, though. I'd committed my fair share during my time spent in the gang while working for Ben's father. But if my partner was to be believed, Ambrose's past may have been much darker, filled with violence and murder; a line Carson's gang never crossed. The nightmares he seemed to have most nights were telling, though they weren't the only mark on him. Slight glimpses of his body during training, and in the morning while he changed, revealed a web of scars laced across his body that he tried very hard to keep hidden. Burns, slashes, surgical marks, stab wounds, and what even looked like a bullet hole or two mapped out his upper body, and traveled a fair bit further. No, there was something more, indeed.

His partner, however, was much more open; practically the opposite. My new bunkmate, Maxine Argus, could be described as very... _open_ with her emotions, anger and joy the most prominent. Considering how she acted most of the time, I was genuinely surprised to learn she was actually, in terms of legality anyway, the most innocent of us, having lived for the most part well within the rules of society. Her "appetites," however, showed during training and her favorite class. Hand-to-hand combat was her chance to blow off steam, pushing a little too hard just below the point of causing serious injury, and toying around with her opponents.

It had even gotten to the point where most students, even the larger ones who'd wanted to teach the uppity Faunus bitch a lesson, at first, avoided her like the plague, and dreaded being assigned to fight her. Strangely enough, she didn't seem to hate or dislike Humans, as many Faunus I'd met in the past had done. If anything, she cared little. She was always honest with how she felt. If she didn't like something, she would let everyone know. In a way, I admired her for that openness.

"There..." Ambrose said, pushing the paper and pen back towards his partner. "That should get at least okay marks. Had to keep it at least _somewhat_ convincing that you wrote it."

"Thank you," she giggled, plucking up the paper, giving it a quick once over before stuffing it into the pocket of her blazer in a crumpled ball. "Well, I've gotta get to Peach's class. And then some good ol' R-n-R, for the weekend." She stood up to leave.

"Where do you go, if you don't mind me asking?" our leader asked, staring at her back. "You've always been on the first airship out to Vale after class every weekend since classes started. And you don't come back until class the next Monday. You got a job, or something?"

"I actually do mind you asking, Ambrose. So _back off!_" the Faunus shot back tersely, not bothering to turn around as she strode from the mess hall out into the garden.

"Hostile! Better luck next time, Psycho!" Carson called out.

"Yeah... Great," Joel groaned, pushing his plate away as he shook his head. "So I guess that leaves you two for practice, tonight?"

"Sorry, Boss. Me and Alice...!"

"My name's _Diana!_" the girl snapped, slapping him on his good arm, staring him down angrily.

"Sorry. Me and the lovely, beautiful _Diana_ have a study session planned later back in the room. Very private tutorin' goin' on, and what not. You understand." He smiled widely, all thoughts of the mistake with the name seemingly flying from the other girl's mind. "Gonna have to miss it."

Joel sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever... Just please don't 'study' on my bed again. I can't keep burning my sheets, or else Goodwitch's gonna notice."

"Can do, Boss!" the sharpshooter gave him a quick salute, before running off with a giggling Diana in tow.

_'Well, it seems Beacon hasn't changed him much...'_

I stared at them as they walked off, before a loud thump across from me drew my attention. Looking back, I saw that Ambrose had slammed his head into the table, groaning to himself.

"Rrgh... Seems my day plans have cleared up," he grumbled, voice muffled by the table.

"..." I flashed him a few apologetic hand signs. Unlike Max, Joel was making the attempt to learn my hand talk. He had managed to pick up a bit, at least, though not enough to hold a real conversation beyond yes or no just yet. But the thought wasn't lost on me.

"It's not your fault he's an ass," he waved me off. "Welp, it's not all bad..." He sat up, scratching at his forehead as he looked at me. "You're still attending that workshop with Goodwitch, right? Aura management?"

I nodded questioningly, eyebrows dipping inquisitively. Before coming to Beacon, I'd been told I'd be outside of regular classes in favor of workshop/therapy sessions with Professor Goodwitch. The therapy went nowhere, really, so lately she'd spent the time teaching me how to read and write, skills I'd never really bothered with before.

"_I still can't believe, with your condition, that you'd never been taught! What were those ruffians in Bill Carson's group doing!?"_ the Professor had said when it first came to light, sounding almost appalled.

I was doing pretty well, now, having mastered the basic alphabet. I still struggled somewhat with the writing portion, however.

"Well, I was wondering if, after you've finished for the day, you wanted to meet my friends on RWBY and JNPR for lunch?"

My head snapped up, staring at him intently, which seemed to surprise him.

"Uh... I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to..." he said nervously. "It was just a thought. You seem to be by yourself a lot."

I shook my head quickly, signing an affirmative to him before I knew what I was doing.

"Oh... Alright. Cool! We'll probably be around here somewhere. They're really nice, y'know." He smiled, grabbing up his plate. "See you later, then."

I stared down at the table, fingers gripping the hem of my skirt tightly. '_Why did I say yes?'_

'_Teammates...'_ I thought meekly, as the bell chimed through the hall. '_They're complicated.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

'_Well... Didn't see that coming...' _I thought, as I raced down the hallway towards History. I'd been trying to include my masked teammate for weeks without success, as she always vanished somewhere on her own when I asked.

_'Though_ _why am I complaining? It would be nice to spend time with a member of my team, for once.'_

As I ran, however, I looked up just in time to see a girl struggling with a large stack of books in her arms step out from behind the corner ahead, straight in front of me

'_Oh crap!'_

"_Look out!_" I called out. She turned around, letting out a small gasp of surprise as I tried to slow down. Unfortunately, I couldn't avoid colliding into her, sending us both falling towards the stone floor. I managed to angle myself so I would cushion her fall, smacking my head hard against the ground.

Think I must've blacked out for a second there, the world coming back in a haze of unfocused pain. I groaned, feeling something soft nudging my face along with a very light weight on my chest.

"Ah... Wh-what...?"

I closed my eyes, trying to brush whatever it was away. As soon as I touched it, though, someone let out a terrified squeak. My eyes shot open, vision clearing as I noticed both me and the girl, wearing the Beacon girl's uniform, sprawled out in the hallway in a pile of scattered books, with her... ears, a pair of long brown rabbit ears sprouting from beneath long similarly colored hair, a short way away from my face. She leapt up quickly, red in the face as she clutched at them protectively, while I stared from my hand to her face for a few seconds, before the realization hit me, feeling the blood rush to my face.

_'Why's it **always** me?'_

"O-oh shit!" I stammered out, scrambling to my feet, shaking a bit as the world went sideways for a moment. The girl, a Rabbit Faunus I realized, backed away from me quickly. "I am... Wow, I am _so_ sorry!" I apologized, as I held up my arms. "I-I didn't see you there, and..." I continued to ramble on with apologies, as she just stood there watching me nervously. I took a deep breath forcing myself to calm down. "Look, I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Are you alright?"

She hesitated, before nodding slowly, "I-I'm okay..." she said in a quiet, lightly accented voice.

"That's a relief. Sorry about the thing with your ears. Did I hurt them, or something?"

"No, no!" she said quickly. "It's just that when you touched them, I thought you were going to... Never mind. It's not important." Her gaze then fell the ground.

"If you say so..." I rubbed the back of my head nervously, before seeing her bend down for the books. "Here, let me help you with those." I knelt down, grabbing some of the heavier looking ones.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. "Professor Oobleck told me he wanted these from the library as reference for today's class."

"You're in History, right now?" I asked, looking over at her. I'd thought the girl looked familiar, though I couldn't quite place it.

"It's okay if you don't really remember me. I don't really speak out much," she admitted with a shrug.

"Well, my name's Joel Ambrose. Nice to meet you."

I held out an arm for her to shake, balancing the heavy books in the other. She glanced down at the hand suspiciously, before giving it a quick shake.

"Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina," she greeted, giving me a small smile. It suited her.

"Well, Velvet, since we're both heading the same way, I might as well help you with these books. Least I can do for running into you like that."

"Alright... If it isn't too much trouble?"

"It's not, trust me." I hefted the books easily under one arm, Aura-enhanced musculature making the task a breeze.

From there, the walk to class was actually pretty fun. It turned out Velvet was a member of Team CFVY, one of the more experienced teams at Beacon.

"So you're a Mage?" I asked excitedly, as the Rabbit Faunus blushed. "That's awesome!"

"It's not that big of a deal."

"Are you kidding? A skilled mage is worth an entire _team_ of regular Huntsmen against the Grimm! Hell, being able to use Dust magic makes you practically a celebrity, where I come from." I'd seen what a good Dust Mage could manage, the thought sending a cold shiver down my spine as I recalled a witch's cackling laughter as explosions echoed before her.

"C-celebrity?..." the Faunus said shakily, turning pale at the mere prospect with her eyes fixed on the floor. "I don't think that's for me."

"My point is that you have an awesome talent that sets you apart," I said comfortingly as she stared up at me. "You shouldn't put yourself down for it."

"I... Thank you." She gave me a short bow as we reached the door, the sound of Professor Oobleck's usual rapid-fire lecture ringing out from within. "Sorry about you being late because of me."

"Hey, I ran into you, remember? It's not your fault. Besides..." I flashed her a friendly grin. "I got to meet someone nice, so it was worth it."

I opened the door, giving a small start of surprise as the professor seemed to appear in front of me instantly. The man had messy green hair, which mirrored everything about his attire. His white buttoned shirt was partially tucked into his dark-green pants, with the collar raised. He had a yellow tie around his neck, but it was very slack. Hell, even his shoes were mismatched! The right shoe was black, while the left one was brown! He had mug of coffee in hand, sipping on it as it stood in front of us. His circular spectacles were white, almost opaque. I noticed that what ever was in the mug, most likely coffee if his speed was any indication, was steaming hot. Did some of the steam get on his glasses? Maybe, but then how would he be able to see? It was confusing.

"Ah! Miss Scarlatina! Thank you for your assistance, place the materials on the desk, and find an open seat! You too, Mr. Ambrose, though might I ask why you're so late?..."

I hesitated, but only out of bewilderment. It was due to the fact he had spoken so fast. I did make out what he said, but it took me a few seconds. Before I could respond, Velvet stepped forward, drawing his attention.

"Professor, Joel found me on the way to class struggling with the books, and wanted to help me carry them. It's my fault he's late."

Upon hearing this, Oobleck's gaze shifted from Velvet to me, before nodding in understanding.

"Is that so? Chivalry... An admirable trait that is sadly fast becoming uncommon in today's day and age. Applause to you, Mr. Ambrose. Now, both of you take your seats, so the lecture can begin."

We both thanked him, placing the books on the desk, before taking a pair of open seats in the front row, right in front of Team RWBY.

"Thanks for covering for me," I chimed in, grateful for her kind gesture.

"It was no trouble," she assured.

"Well!" the Professor called out, zipping to the front of the classroom, snatching up one of the books carefully, before moving just as quickly to the board. On it was a large map of Remnant, covered with various articles and papers linked with red strings. "Now that we have the materials, let us begin with our next topic: the Faunus Rights Revolution, or 'Faunus Wars,' which we will be covering for the next few weeks!"

I noticed Velvet flinch lightly, while a few students booed the choice.

"Now, now, we'll have none of that!" Oobleck tapped the board, silencing the students with stern glares. "This is a crucial part of history! One that has had lasting repercussions not just for Faunus, but also Humans as well. I think we'll start there. Who can give me an example?... _Mr. Winchester!_"

A large, burly student, burnt orange hair combed backwards on his head and indigo eyes, who'd been leaning back in his chair sat up. Winchester, most likely, or Cardin, as he was usually known as. I'd heard things about the guy; none too favorable.

"Well, the White Fang, obviously," he said, voice dripping with smug condescension. "Those criminal freaks who keep spouting off that equality nonsense."

His words got a few cries of sympathy from a few students around the classroom. Many were those come from the students that had been against the topic in the first place.

"Hmm..." the teacher mused, before he gave a short "tsk" of disapproval. "Indeed... The White Fang's current activities can be viewed as a repercussion of the war. Many forget that it was once an organization that promoted peace." His eyes halted on me, suddenly, before continuing. "...Though it can hardly be said that Humans themselves have been entirely blameless, especially with such attitudes... Tell me, has anyone in this classroom ever heard of the Humanity's Hands Front?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, I stiffened in my seat, doing my best to keep calm as whispers of confusion rang through the hall.

"Not many, I see... Well, you may likely know them from the name the press dubbed them: the Red Hand..."

That got the reaction he'd been expecting. The room quickly fell silent. Velvet even shivered slightly. Looking around the classroom, I saw similar reactions from the other Faunus students.

A student with deeply tanned skin hesitantly raised his hand. "Uh, sir?... Who or what's the Red Hand?"

"...Oh, I forgot. Some of you students from other Kingdoms may be unaware, as the group operates mainly within the Sanus regions..." Zooming over to where the student sat, Oobleck took a quick swig of his cup, before continuing. "Originally, the HHF acted as an organization devoted to assisting the victims affected by the disasters, providing homes and other amenities to orphans, as well as financial assistance with families. Towards the end of their charitable days, the HHF began to shift their focus on helping peoples affected by the White Fang's terrorist attacks." His expression darkened slightly. "Though, it seems history does have a habit of repeating itself... As in the case of the White Fang, the organization experienced a shift in dynamic, focusing less on recovery, and more on violence, as Huntsmen and Huntresses who'd lost their families sought vengeance. They trained others to do the same."

_''Trained'... That's a weak word for it.'_

"So what's the problem, Teach?" Winchester asked from his perch. "Seems to me like they're just paying the freaks back for what they did to them."

Words of approval rose up again. _'Seems he has a lot of people on his side...'_

"Yes, it can be said that they have every reason to be angry..." Oobleck consented, eyes fixed on the large student. "But by that logic, those in the White Fang, who experienced violence and discrimination at the hands of Humans, also have a fair reason to do what they do. Is _that_ what you meant?"

"W-what!? I... N-no, I..." Winchester spluttered, trying to counter his own claim.

I winced to myself, though, as my thoughts drifted back to my early days after joining the organization.

* * *

**(Roughly Three Years Ago - Location Unknown)**

"Remember, all of you!" the instructor called out to the assembled group, gravelly voice ringing out through the large, dimly lit warehouse. "To fight a Faunus is _not_ like fighting a Creature of Grimm. Though animals all the same, these are _not _unthinking beasts!" The man was enormous, bald, and openly covered in battle scars that spoke of long years in combat. "Each member of the Fang is trained in the basics of combat. And each Faunus possesses greater physical potential and senses that put an average Human to shame. So... how do we win?"

**_"SUPERIOR TRAINING AND WILLPOWER, SIR!"_** we all responded in practiced unison, the lesson beaten into each of us for the past few weeks.

"Correct! If one Faunus is worth three men in the field, we will produce warriors worth an _army._ If they are greater than the average, we will be _above_ average! _Beyond it!_" He began to pace back and forth along the group, looking at each of us individually. "You all have some training in the art of fighting with Aura, or else you wouldn't not be here. But know this:_ YOU ARE **NOT** HUNTSMEN!_"

He shouted that last part in the face of a cowering recruit.

"Unlike the rest of our brothers and sisters, you will be trained as one-man and woman armies! You will be Trappers! Warriors that will know the scourge of the White Fang, hunt them where they feel secure, and root them out..."

He paused in front of Natalie, who flinched as he leaned in closer to her. "Recruit Corbell, why do you want to be a Trapper?"

"T-to avenge my father, sir!" she replied in a shaky voice, taking a deep breath.

"A solid sentiment, likely one that many here share..." He nodded, before fixing her with a vicious glare "Though your combat skills in training show a distinct lack of drive."

I gritted my teeth at the display, but kept my mouth shut. '_She should be in Logistics, not in training! Stubborn...'_

"Form up into pairs and spar! Full contact!"

It was always like this, harsh sparring sessions ending in broken bones, terrifying will, sensory enhancement exercises, and intense obstacle courses in horrendous conditions. More than one recruit had ended up badly injured or worse for the experience.

I let out a grunt as I flipped my opponent, a large boy, maybe a year older than I was, over my head and onto the ground, pulling his arm back to the point of breaking. The instructor walked up to me, giving me a quick nod as a signal for me to back off from the whimpering boy.

"Disgraceful recruit... _Very_ disgraceful. Your dead sister must be crying, right now!" he spat out in disgust, before delivering a sharp kick to the side of my opponent's head, knocking him out. "Get this filth out of here, now!" he ordered. Two guards standing off to the side gave him a quick salute, before dragging the prone ex-recruit out.

"Next time use that Semblance of yours," he said as an aside to me, before stalking off to supervise another group. "Saves us the trouble of wasting supplies on them."

I knelt down, panting heavily as I nursed a bruise at my side. Suddenly, a shrill scream of pain split the air. A voice I was very familiar with. '_Natalie!' _I leapt up, catching sight of her with her hands on her face, blood streaming from a broken nose.

"Sthop! _Pwease!_" Natalie cried out, voice distorted from the injury.

"_Stop!?_" the instructor mocking barked, as he walked up beside her, staring at the small girl as if she were insane. "The Fang won't stop if you get a boo boo,Corbell! Briar, keep hitting her until she toughens up."

Her opponent, a girl with long black hair hair striped with purple highlights moved forward, giving her a solid hit to the side, and sending Natalie coughing and spluttering to the floor.

She raised her fist again, but paused as I stepped in front of her, shielding the crying girl. "Leave her alone!" I pushed her away roughly, voice tinged with fury. "She's done."

"She's done when I _say_ she's done, Ambrose," the large man retorted, as he stood back. "I heard Huntsmen from Bastion were among the best of the best individually. I suppose that's not entirely the case." He shifted his gaze to the rest to the nine remaining recruits. "All of you! I want Corbell to learn her lesson! If Ambrose gets in the way, make him move.

The next few minutes passed in a bloody haze of shouting, cries, and snaps of bone, that ended when I glared at the astonished Trapper full in the face, with nine bodies groaning on the floor. Cradling my side as blood dripped past my rapidly swelling eye, my gaze never left him as a pulse of electricity ran down my arm.

"I said... Leave. Her. _Alone_," I hissed menacingly.

The older man met my gaze evenly. He expression was neutral, which was a unsettling, considering the sight before him.

Finally, his lips stretched upwards into a satisfied smile. "Boys, escort Recruit Corbell to the infirmary. Set her up in Logistics and information gathering," he ordered. grinning widely at me. "Same with Recruit Ambrose. Then, once he's cleared, bring him to the forge for his weapon... Welcome to the Trappers, boy. Congratulations."

I spat a wad of blood onto the ground, helping Natalie to her feet as I limped out of the room. "Go fuck yourself."

* * *

"_Mr. Ambrose!_"

The Professor's voice brought me out of my reverie. I slightly jumped from my spot, frowning when I realized that everyone's eyes were on me.

"Er... Yes, sir?" I replied, trying to suppress my embarrassment at being caught daydreaming, and driving the unpleasant memories from my mind as quickly as they had come.

"I had asked you your opinion about what can be learned from the example of the Red Hand, and how we can apply that to our role as Huntsmen," he clarified, arms crossed with his mug in his right hand.

I stared back at the green-haired man, resisting the urge to narrow my eyes at him. '_He's probing me, trying to test me... He's probably one of the teachers Ozpin had talked about. The ones who were against me attending the school.'_

Taking a deep breath, I gave him my response. "Well, sir, I believe that the Red Hand is a shining example of how even the best ideals and intentions can be corrupted by vengeance, and thoughts of retribution. As Huntsmen, it's our duty to avoid letting such thoughts guide us. We're expected to act with clear heads, and stick to our beliefs, so that everyone may benefit. Both Faunus and Human, alike."

Professor Oobleck rubbed his chin with his left hand. I couldn't read him, seeing as I couldn't get a good look at his eyes. Regardless, he began to nod slowly as seconds passed by.

"An... interesting answer, Mr. Ambrose... Well, that is all the time we have for today, class. Before you go, however!..." The man took a last sip from his mug, before zipping around the classroom at lightning speed, dropping a paper in front of every student, before appearing back in front of his desk. "For this week's project, you will be required to work with a partner. Both of you will be relating these examples, as well as finding others throughout history, and write an essay on the subject. Class dismissed!"

As students began to get up, I turned to Velvet with a hopeful look on my face.

"Hey, wanna work together on this with me?" I held up the paper. "I don't really know anyone in this class who doesn't have a partner."

"I'll work with you, Joel! _Please?_" Ruby said, suddenly popping her head between us with a desperate look on her face, only to be pulled back by a very stern heiress.

"Oh, no, you don't! You're not escaping me that easily, team leader!"

I spared a thought of sympathy for the small hooded girl as she was dragged away by her partner, before focusing on the Rabbit Faunus again.

"So...?"

"That's... That's fine," she answered, clutching her notes to her chest as she gave me a small smile. "I'll do my best to not be too difficult."

"I doubt that'll be a problem," I assured her, grinning widely. We agreed to meet up tomorrow to go over the project. She seemed to happy about our partnership, judging by how she hopped off happily.

Sighing in relief, I was about to leave the room, myself. Oobleck's voice calling out to me, however, stopped me at the last moment.

"Mr. Ambrose!... A word, if you will?..."

Blinking, I turned around to find the man standing behind me staring me eye to eye. The lecture hall was deserted, save for the two of us. This made me a bit nervous, considering he had his arms crossed, and I still couldn't read his expression, though he was frowning.

My fears were assuaged, however, as Oobleck exhaled from his nose, relaxing as he nodded to me. "I'm sorry that I had to involve you in such a personal topic without warning. I hadn't meant to broach the topic until later in the course. I hope it didn't make you too uncomfortable."

I resisted the urge to arch an eyebrow. _'He's giving me an apology? Wasn't expecting that... Guess my answer was satisfactory, after all.'_

"Oh, it's... It's no trouble at all, Professor, especially if it had been planned for the future, already," I assured, bowing respectfully afterwards. "In fact, I actually wanted to thank you."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Not many people care to remember the good the organization used to do, or the fact that they were good to begin with. I actually wish I'd joined the Hand during those days. Maybe if I had, things wouldn't have gotten..."

I fell silent, unable to continue. Oobleck must have understood what I was trying to say, seeing that the rest was painfully written on my face.

"I see. Well, I wish you luck, Mr. Ambrose. So far, you have displayed a behavior that indicates that you have learned from your previous history, as well as the consequences that came from it. See to it that doesn't change anytime soon." He smiled evilly when he finished speaking, foot tapping on the ground rapidly.

"Wouldn't dream of it, sir," I replied, bowing to him again before leaving the room for lunch.

Despite the evil smile he gave me, I couldn't help but feel glad that he had taken the time to speak with me personally. '_I think I just found my new favorite teacher.'_

-END

**_-CODEX-_**

**Humanity's Hands Front-** A charity and outreach organization originally founded in the wake of the advent of Grimm-related disasters, it began to shift in policy around the time of the first White Fang attacks, focusing on assisting survivors of the White Fang's terrorist actions. Services included providing homes, food, and education for those affected, and asking for little in return. Over time, however, as dissension and hatred against the White Fang grew, members with Huntsman training began an effort to train victims to defend themselves against further attacks, later assuming full control, and militarizing the once peaceful group into what is now known as the "Red Hand," reorganizing itself into a full militia and mercenary company completely devoted to the countering of White Fang interests. It was later reclassified as a vigilante terrorist organization in the eyes of the Kingdoms, after a string of attacks on Faunus connected, or believed to be connected, with the White Fang, and its recent violent actions against the organization itself, often left no survivors. It holds direct contacts and supporters across Remnant in a massive network, with hands in the arms trade and private security.

**Trapper- **The designation given to members of a small covert branch of the Red Hand's military forces made up almost exclusively of former Huntsmen, or Huntsman Academy students, that first appeared soon after the organization's reclassification. While all members of the Red Hand receive, or are at least drilled in the basics of combat, and make effective soldiers in their own right, Trappers are conditioned both physically and mentally to be one-person armies, the training boasting a roughly ninety percent washout rate amongst its applicants, with close to forty percent due to severe injuries, and twenty percent due to fatalities. Receiving a variety of benefits through applied Aura training, nutritional supplements, and, in some cases, even medical intervention, each Trapper possess enhanced senses, especially in terms of hearing and smell. Regarded with fear among Faunus and Human alike, as well as other Red Hand members, these soldiers possess a reputation of brutal effectiveness, and an almost inhuman ability to take pain and punishment, sometimes operating with grievous injuries that would cripple a normal individual seemingly through willpower alone. Joel Ambrose remains the only known member to have been taken alive by Kingdom authorities, or to leave the Red Hand in general, and is currently under strict supervision by the staff of Beacon Academy in the Kingdom of Vale, on the continent of Sanus.

**-OC Voice Cast introduced in this Chapter-**

Reika Murasaki - Cassandra Lee Morris

**A/N: Hey everyone thanks for reading this little bit of filler. Feel free to leave your comments and reviews, they only make the story better. Have a great rest of the week wherever you are and I hope to update again soon.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**"…" – Spoken**

**'_Italics'_ \- Thought**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its characters, they belong to Monty Oum of Roosterteeth Productions, and those characters you see not from the show like the main character are my own OCs for the purpose of the story. Enjoy) - Mojo1586**

A TOAST

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Hey, Benny... That was just... _Wow..._" Lynette... No, _Diana,_ I mentally corrected, said breathlessly as she buttoned her shirt while looking back at me. "You're amazing!"

"You are too, babe," I said lazily, wiping sweat off of my brow. I leaned back on the bed, raising my right arm towards the ceiling, clenching and unclenching the metal fingers. I listened closely to the light whirring of gears the motion caused. "Hey, you happen to know what time it is?"

"Should be getting pretty close to dinner, right now," the girl said, checking her Scroll as she slid on her blazer. "I'm going to go get us something to eat. And then..." She moved towards me, swaying her hips seductively as she gave me a light kiss on the cheek. "We can get back to the fun."

"_Mmm-hmm,_" I said, giving her the obligatory smile and pat on the ass as she left. I sighed, staring back at the mechanical appendage, wincing as I felt one of the joints tighten painfully,

"Shit..." I cursed with annoyance. I flared my aura lightly, focusing intently on the arm as the pain slowly faded back to the usual dull throb at the back of my mind.

_'What a pain in the ass...' _I thought as I got up and walked to the bathroom. _'She'll be a while. Might as well relax while I can, and switch out Psycho's sheets...'_

Closing the door behind me, I turned on the shower, stepping beneath the hot water and letting my muscles unwind. "That's one thing about Beacon that beats the Badlands... _Showers._ Never thought I'd miss those, so much."

Overall, I supposed this place hadn't been so bad. Three decent meals a day, basic amenities like running water, an actual _bed_, not to mention an abundance of beautiful Huntresses-in-training more than willing to make memories. And all I had to do was bullshit the occasional assignment for class.

_'Things could definitely be worse,'_ I thought, drifting back to the early days after that damned accident, waking up in that detention center broken, bruised, and crippled, with Reika sitting next to me, acting like a crazed guard dog as she kept doctors and police officials at bay... If Dad hadn't turned himself in when he did... If that Ironwood guy and Ozpin hadn't...

I shut all of that down in an instant, shoving them out of my thoughts. '_Positives, Carson. Think on the positives. The arm doesn't hurt that much anymore, and Reika's been openin' up, at least.'_

Back in the old days, after Dad had picked her up, the damaged girl had spent most of her time with either me or Ma, shying away from everyone else and any place that people congregated. Since coming to Beacon, however, the girl had slowly started showing up to meals, walking the halls between classes...

'_Bein' around all these new people's good for her... Doin' more than we did, at least,_' I though wistfully, before grinning widely. I, for one, was perfectly content to hang back and let her explore her newfound interests. After all, she deserved her own bit of normality.

I spent a few more minutes in peaceful silence before I heard the telltale click of the bathroom door opening. A pair of arms snaked around my chest, as I felt something warm and soft press up behind me.

"Hey, Benny... Mind if I join you?" a familiar voice purred in my ear. I laughed despite myself, spinning around as the huntress in training jumped me, sending me sliding to the floor in a wet heap.

_'A dashin' rogue's work is never done... Man, **where** do they get the energy?'_

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

R. E. I. K. A.

I wrote the last character, sliding it over to the blonde professor who sat across from me. She picked it up, scanning it with an approving nod.

"Very good, Miss Murasaki. You still seem a bit uncomfortable, but that should fade in time as you keep practicing, though you do seem to have the majority of the letters handled." She slid the paper into a purple folder and slid it into her desk. "You've actually shown a remarkable span of improvement since we started. Excellent work. That will be all for today."

I nodded at her, bowing my head respectfully, before rushing for the door.

"Oh, and don't forget," she spoke up, making me pause in my step. "For our next session, we promised that we'd try and discuss your past again."

I paused, hand clenched on the doorknob, before calmly nodding and leaving the room.

_'Damn it. I thought she might've forgotten... Should've known better, I suppose.'_

Problem was the woman never seemed to forget anything you told her. In just a few weeks, she'd learned just about as much of my handtalk as Ben did, and he was the one who helped develop it.

Maybe "talking" about what happened with Goodwitch wouldn't be so bad? She reminded me of Ma from back when I was running with Bill's posse. The heavyset, redheaded woman had been the one taking care of Ben and I during the early years at camp, giving us chores and keeping us, well Ben mostly, out of trouble. Ma wasn't her real name, of course. She wasn't Ben's mother, either. Just something Ben and most of the men in the group had called her. From what I understood, she'd been taking care of the Boss' son since he was a toddler, and had been more than willing to do the same for me when I was brought in.

_'No wonder Ben hates the Professor. He used to spit fire about Ma whenever she caught him doing something bad,' _I recalled, looking out the window at the clear blue sky. '_I hope they're all okay.'_

They'd never told us what had happened to the rest of the gang after Bill turned himself in, though I suspected that, if the others hadn't done the same, they would all be hanging low, keeping off of the Kingdom's radar.

To be quite honest, I hardly remember anything from that far back. According to Ma, I must've suppressed it, my mind hiding it from me to try and protect myself. I could make out fire, howling, screams... Someone telling me to run... Trees falling around me...

"Reika?" a familiar voice suddenly called.

I spun around, catching sight of Joel making his way down the hall, and waving at me. He'd changed out of his uniform into a pair of jeans and a short sleeve blue t-shirt covered in white lightning designs.

_'Probably carried it out with him, since I can still sense those two in the room.'_

"It is you! How'd your thing with Goodwitch go?"

I flashed him an _"O.K."_ falling into step beside him as we moved towards the mess hall along with the rest of the students. _"How was your lesson?"_ I asked him with my hands.

He took a few seconds, but seemed to finally nail down what I was asking. "Fine, just fine. Even met a new friend. Well, actually... more like ran into her... It's sort of a long story."

I nodded, glancing around at the packed hall. Most of the students chatted about what to do over the weekend.

"Over here," Joel gestured, leading me over to one of the tables. There, a small group sat laughing.

_'RWBY and JNPR...'_ I realized, remembering seeing them around school, and even with with Joel sometimes, but I had never talked to them.

"Hey, guys!" Joel greeted amiably.

"Hey, Joel!" greeted a beautiful girl with incredible blonde hair, that turned in her seat to flash him a wide grin. Unlike Joel, she was wearing her school uniform, along with everyone else at the table. The girl seemed pretty happy to see Joel, radiating a cheerful aura. "You mind helping us out with something?" she asked my teammate, giving him some room to sit down.

"What do you need?" my leader asked, taking the seat next to her.

"Nora and I need an impartial judge for a little contest," she explained, smiling over to an energetic orange haired girl with turquoise eyes who was cracking her knuckles.

"We're going to arm wrestle," the girl elaborated further. "The winner gets two tickets to the _Achieve Men _concert in Vale this weekend that Weiss scored off one of her admirers. But of course, she's too '_high class_' to go."

"That boy was only after one thing," the regal looking white-haired Huntress with the off-center ponytail huffed angrily, before focusing on the brawler. "And excuse me, Yang, for preferring a more refined brand of music; not that inane wailing you seem to enjoy."

"I'm going to conveniently forget that you just insulted the best band to ever grace the face of Remnant. Because you're my friend. And teammate, Weiss. Still unlearned in the art of having a good time. That, and I want those tickets!"

"Those tickets are _mine!_" The other girl, Nora, declared, patting her right bicep happily. I noticed Joel immediately slide down the table along with the rest of the group, before looking back at me, patting the seat next to him.

"Hey, one quick thing before you two wreck the table! Everyone, this is Reika Murasaki," Joel addressed as he gestured to me. Everyone on the table turned to me, greeting me with nodding gestures that I returned, albeit a bit awkwardly in turn. "She's one of the other members of my team. I wanted to introduce you all," he continued.

"So he actually _DOES_ have a team?" said white-haired girl, Weiss, said. Her tone was that of mock surprise. "I thought he was just lying, considering how little time he spends with them."

I could've sworn I'd seen the girl somewhere before...

"Weiss, don't be rude!" the girl sitting next to her chided, before turning to smile at me nervously. She had black hair with red tint on the edges, and wore a long red cloak with a hood. "Sorry. She's not like this usually."

I observed the girl closely, looking at the red hood she wore. I had seen her wear it all the time in and out of classes. Even in her school uniform she kept wearing the thing, pinning it to her blazer with cross-shaped pins. I wasn't one to talk, figuratively speaking, seeing as I wore my mask all the time, as well, save for when I showered, and when I slept. It was probably the same for her.

"Uh, Sis? Yeah she is," the blonde girl, Yang, said as she raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"No, I'm _NOT!_" Weiss shot back, obviously annoyed.

Listening to their banter, I suddenly realized who this girl was. Weiss Schnee, SDC's heiress. I saw Joel watching me out the corner of his eye, and knew exactly what he was thinking. He needn't have bothered, though. Robbing Schnee Dust shipments hadn't been personal. They were just the best way to survive. That didn't mean it had to be mentioned, though...

"What about when you first met Ruby?" Yang went on, grinning smugly. "Then there was when you met Jaune. And I suppose we didn't exactly get off on the right foot, either. Now Joel, too..."

"...Okay, so I can be a bit..."

"Bitchy?" Yang supplied, cutting the heiress off and earning a sharp look from Ruby in response. "Sorry," she apologized as she held up her hands, moving back to her food.

"I was going to say 'harsh,'" Weiss finished, looking away haughtily.

"Don't mind her," Yang dismissed, clapping me on my back, the force of it almost driving me into the table. "Er- Sorry!... Anyway, my name's Yang Xiao Long. This is my little sister, and team leader, Ruby Rose, and her partner Weiss Schnee."

She gestured across the table. "And these guys over here are Team JNPR." The other team introduced themselves, their leader being first, introducing himself as Jaune Arc, a blonde boy with messy, short length hair, and blue eyes. The girl on his left was his partner, Pyrrha Nikos. I knew her as the girl from the Pumpkin Pete's cereal boxes some shopkeepers managed to smuggle in from the Kingdoms. Just like on the box, she had red hair tied in a long ponytail, with a bronze circlet headpiece on top. The other girl introduced her self as Nora Valkyrie, saying her name in a sing-songy voice. The other boy next to her called himself Lie Ren, and gave me short bow, which I quickly returned. He had long black hair tied back into a ponytail, with a magenta streak on the left side of his hair. His eyes were the same color as that of the streak on his hair.

I sat back down, a bit freaked out by their personalities. But things seemed to be going well, regardless...

Pyrrha leaned forward towards me. "So, Reika, we heard from Joel that you, um... don't talk much."

I stiffened, surprised over the fact that she knew of my condition, before jabbing Joel hard in the side, sending him into a coughing fit.

"_Ack!_ What!?"

"It's all good..." Yang reassured me, giving Joel a sympathetic look. "Honestly, it doesn't matter too much. Combined with the mask, it actually gives you this whole ninja thing, Bet you'd get along great with our other teammate, Blake... Actually, speaking of Blake, Ruby, where is she?"

"Libwawy..." the small girl answered through a mouthful of cookies, stopping as Yang shot her a stern look. "'Donh't thalk with my mowth full.' Sorwy." She waited a few seconds, swallowing the food in her mouth before continuing. "She said she had to catch up on an assignment for Grimm Studies."

"Well, either way, I'm sure you guys would like each other."

From there, the conversation moved more towards my interests, and how I was enjoying things here at Beacon, with them asking questions and Joel translating as best he could. I did notice Weiss staring at my mask, but besides that, they really went out of their way to include me. Meanwhile, next to me, a furious battle seemed to be taking place between Yang and Nora.

"Valkyrie, just give up. Those tickets _WILL _be mine!" Yang growled, as she sat, deadlocked hand in hand with Nora. "You can try all you want, but resistance is futile."

She applied more force, and I could see a bead of sweat drip down Valkyrie's brow, as her arm began to shake under the strain. Joel leaned forward on the table, eyes watching as the others stood back, cheering for their teammate.

"Yang, you've got this in the bag!" Ruby cried out, as Nora's arm began to bend back.

"Break her arm, Nora! Channel the sloth!" JNPR's leader coached.

"Jaune! Yang is still our friend!" the Amazon scolded him.

"Sorry, Pyrrha..." the blonde knight apologized meekly, scratching his cheek with an embarrassed flush.

Ren just stood there silently, eyes fixed on Nora's back, a flash of worry in his eyes.

I tapped Joel's shoulder to get his attention. "What's up?"

I pointed towards Ren, then at Nora, before putting both of my hands together. "Huh?... Oh. Maybe, I dunno. Hey, Ren, Reika's asking if you're gonna go to the concert with Nora if she wins?"

All eyes turned to the boy, who looked around at us, awkwardly scratching his hair.

He sighed, nodding his head. "Yes, I suppose so, if she wants me to go...!"

He hadn't even finished talking before a huge crash rang through the room as Nora sent Yang tumbling through the broken remains of the table. Joel had managed to leap back in time, but Yang, however, hadn't been so lucky, as she stirred weakly beneath broken splinters. Her opponent was standing over her, laughing maniacally.

"Hahahahaha! I'm still queen of _THIS _castle! _OH YEAH!_" she cheered loudly, gaining the attention of the entire mess hall. She continued for a few seconds, before stopping, turning to face us as we stared back at her with fear.

"Um... Yay?" she giggled nervously. Shaking her head, she took the tickets from Weiss, who passed them to her with a look of disbelief etched on her face, before moving to where Ren stood.

"So, uh, Ren! Want to go with me to the concert this weekend?" she asked nervously.

The magenta-haired Huntsman smiled, ruffling her hair playfully before taking the ticket from her. "Sure thing, Nora."

The bubbly Huntress practically screamed with joy, tackling the boy to the ground as I picked Joel up from the floor, while Ruby tried to revive Yang unsuccessfully.

_"Are they dating?" _I asked Joel with my gestures. He was still in the process of picking wood chips out of his clothes, but he just shrugged in response.

"Not exactly sure... According to her, they're just friends. But you have to admit, it'd be pretty cute," he laughed under his breath, before moving to help Ruby get the blonde to her feet.

I looked around at the assembled group. Both Teams RWBY and JNPR were laughing together, as onlookers applauded the victorious Huntress as she stood perched on the table.

It took me a moment to realize I was smiling beneath the mask. And it felt so... nice.

_'...Huh.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"So how did we end up getting stuck with this, again?" Yang called out to me, queuing up her Scroll to play _Achieve Men's "RAGE QUIT!"_ for the fifth time, as I swept scattered wood chips into a manageable pile.

'_Someone's a bit sore about losing those tickets...'_ I mused internally, as the two of us were the only ones left in the hall at this point, with everyone else long having finished dinner and left.

"Well, when Goodwitch came running in and saw the table, you had the noble idea to take the blame so Nora and the rest of them wouldn't get detention over the weekend. And I, being the nice guy I am, volunteered myself as a scapegoat to help you out." I reminded, as I cricked my neck, reaching for the large dust pan lying next to me. "Thanks again for making Reika feel welcome, by the way. From what I understand, she isn't too used to hanging around people very often."

The brawler gave me a thumbs up. "You kidding? She was _awesome!_ Everyone really seemed to like her. Even Weiss... though I think that was more because she didn't talk than because of her personality."

She grunted as we heaved the pile into the can, stepping back to examine our work. It had taken awhile, but we had finally managed to get every piece of the wrecked table picked up. Now all we had to do was help the crew move the new table in tomorrow.

"Either way, I appreciate it. And I'm sure she does, too. What do you think they're doing, right now?" I asked, as the blonde dragged the heavy trash can towards me.

"Pizza, and a few rounds of _Remnant: The Game_, if they stuck to the plan. And... _Done!_" Yang declared, having put the trash can in its rightful place in the room.

Walking back over to me after a few minutes, she sat down on the bench behind us, tossing me a can of soda, before grabbing her own. "Well, that's that mess finally cleaned up. I still can't believe Nora actually beat me! I had her on the ropes..." she muttered, taking a quick swig. "This close. _THIS_ close, and I'd be watching the lads shredding it live on stage this weekend!"

"Hey, it's not too bad. It made Nora's day, and you know it," I pointed out, tossing the broom aside, and patting the pouting girl on the shoulder.

"I know... But still, how could she floor me like that?"

"Never underestimate the lengths someone will go for love," I said, taking the seat next to her, leaning my head back on the table. "My mom said that to me a few years ago."

"What was the occasion?"

"Mentioned it while she was getting patched up. We'd been camping outside the city, and my little brother, Jake, and I had managed to wander off straight into an Ursa," I sighed, remembering how much of an idiot I'd been back then. "I thought we were done for. But suddenly, Mom's standing there, looking every bit the heroic Huntress she was. She got a small scratch, but she managed to kill the thing with her bare hands. I asked her if she was scared at all, and that's what she told me."

Yang's eye twitched slightly, but she played it off. Pretty well, too. I almost didn't catch it.

"Your mom sounds awesome... Y'know, it's weird... I've known you for weeks, and this is the first time I've ever heard you talk about your family before," Yang observed, looking over at me quizzically. "Or anything about your home life, really."

"Oh... I, uh... I don't really like to talk about it..." I replied, bringing the drink up to my lips. "I attended Aegis Academy in the city of Bastion, where I grew up. The rest of it is a bit more personal. As for my parents, well... They're, uh... They're not around anymore."

The girl's eyes widened upon hearing that, no doubt feeling bad for bringing it up. "O-oh! Oh. Omigosh. Joel, I... I-I'm so sorry," she began to apologize. but I held up a hand reassuringly.

"It's all good... You didn't know. Besides, it happened a long time ago. I've had time."

"Still... to lose both of your parents..." she muttered sadly.

"Yeah..."

She kept frowning sadly for a few seconds, before shaking her head to snap out of it. "Ruby and I grew up on Patch. It's this little island off the West coast of Vale. Ever heard of it?"

After thinking for a moment, I shook my head. "Can't say that I have."

"Our parents were both Huntsmen. My dad taught at Signal Academy, while Mom took missions from all over. One day, she took off on a mission... and didn't come back."

I could see her eyes growing watery, my own expression dipping in sympathy for her. It was interesting how quickly our roles had reversed. Nonetheless, she quickly wiped her eyes dry with the sleeve of her blazer.

"Things... just weren't the same after that. Especially Dad."

"Yeah. I know what you mean..."

I remembered the aftermath of the attack. On the good days, it seemed like some cruel joke. On the bad, though...

"So that's why you and Ruby are so close... You're lucky to have each other, you know that?"

"Yeah... Hey, what about you and your brother?" she inquired innocently. Her face paused, however, when she noticed my fingers digging into the can, glancing at me with a worried expression on her face. "Not so lucky, I guess?"

"Last I heard, he's somewhere out in Atlas..." I replied, probably more bitterly than I might have liked. "We, uh... haven't spoken in a long time."

"What happened?"

I sighed heavily, thinking back to the last time I had seen him. When I practically left him alone. "...We had a disagreement. Things got a bit harsh, stuff was said, and we drifted apart after that." I leaned forward, glancing out the window at the setting sun. "Turns out he was right in the end, of course... Always was the smart one between the two of us."

"Family, huh?..." Yang muttered solemnly, before holding up her can towards me, smiling sadly. "To those we lost, and those we hold dear."

I stared at her, a shocked expression on my features as I saw what she had done. I quickly returned the smile, however, glad to share a drink with someone I could relate to, if only a little.

"To Thomas and Patrice Ambrose..." I toasted, raising my can up to hers.

"To Summer Rose..." she toasted, before we each took a long swig of our drinks, practically finishing them. We then tossed them into the trash can behind us.

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Not seeing visitors, my ass!" I shouted, punching the wall next to me, as well as surprising everyone in the hall. I left a sizable crack at the cost of my hand hurting like hell. "_Fuck!_"

_'Make me sit on an airship all day, getting stared at for nothing... Sonia...'_

"_Damn it!_" I hissed, leaning my head against the wall, whilst trying to block out the nervous whispers that broke out as people passed by.

'_Stupid ears...'_

My nose crinkled as I entered our team's room. "What the...?"

"Howdy, Bitch," Ben's voice greeted as it rang out from the back of the room.

I moved the curtain aside to find the sharpshooter leaning back in his chair, in nothing but a pair of boxers, staring out an open window. A lit cigarette was on his lips.

"Thought you were gonna be gone for the weekend?" he asked as drew the smoke from his mouth between his metallic fingers, shaking the ashes out the open window. "Sorry about your nose. It should air out in a bit, if I timed this right."

"It's fine. I'm used to stuff like that. And about my weekend, stuff happened," I sighed, falling face first onto my soft mattress. "...Did you just call me 'Bitch?'"

"Noticed that, did ya? It's a new nickname I'm workin' on besides 'Miss Sadist.' Works 'cause you're part female dog, and your personality's kinda..." He trailed off.

"I get it..."

"Well, you haven't threatened to rip me apart and feed me to the worms, yet, so somethin' _must_ be wrong," he concluded from his chair. I could just hear that shit-eating grin in his tone.

"I'm _way_ too tired to care much... Plus, I'll give it to you. The nickname's actually somewhat clever," I admitted, voice muffled through the pillow. "When did you start smoking? Was your new groupie _that_bad?"

"Nah, she's a treat. Violent little minx, too! You should see the scratches I'm nursin'..."

"_Way_ too much information, asshole!" I growled, throwing one of the loose textbooks lying by my bed over the partition at him. I smiled as I heard that satisfying yelp of pain.

"_That's_ the Dog Faunus I remember..." he groaned, sliding the book back under the curtain. "To answer your first question, I started a while ago. Some of the boys I used to run with got me into it. Dad and Reika weren't exactly pleased."

"You know those things can kill you, right?" I rolled over to my side and sat up, clutching my knees to my chest.

"My Aura counteracts the worst of it," he shot back.

From what I could smell, the wind had picked up, clearing most of the scent from the room.

'_No wonder I never noticed...'_

"'Sides, if I gave a shit about my health, I wouldn't be runnin' around with only one fleshy arm in a school that teaches you to throw yourself at the world's monsters, now would I?"

I wasn't entirely comfortable with the bitter tone with which he said that.

"Still, if Masky the Silent Ninja wants you to stop, shouldn't you? You guys are friends, right?"

_'Why the hell do I care?... Let him do what he wants; it's not my problem!' _I shook my head, shedding my clothes, and reaching for my pajamas.

"I don't need Reika influencin' how I act," he spat back, uncharacteristically harsh.

"Ooh. _Touchy_." I slipped the shirt over my head. "She let you talk like that to her face?"

"What about you and Psycho, then?" he countered, making me spin around to look at the patch of curtain angrily. "You don't seem to enjoy lettin' him boss you around."

"Just because I am who I am doesn't mean I need that goody, goody, wuss Ambrose to judge me."

"You sure he's judgin' ya? He just said keep your 'urges' out of combat, rather than just go off on ya. And he lets you fight him in trainin' all the time. Plus, I don't think the guy has any room to judge on violence..."

I glanced up, confused by the boy's statement. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh... Wait, he hasn't told you?" Carson asked, sounding genuinely shocked. "Eh, I guess that makes sense... I basically had to force him at gunpoint to tell me 'bout it."

"What is it?" I demanded, storming out of my bed and sweeping the curtain aside. "Tell me!"

"Ah, well... You're his partner, after all..." the blonde boy shrugged, extinguishing the cigarette in an ashtray perched on the table next to him. "You know that collar he wears all the time?" he asked while pointing to his neck, as if I didn't know what he'd meant.

"Yeah?"

"It's a device they use on prisoners to track their movements. I'm guessin' Psycho's bein' handled by either the Headmaster, or Goodbitch."

"Prisoners?... What'd he do?"

"Not sure on the specifics, but he's apparently killed _at least_ one person. Probably more, but you'd have to ask him." He then gave me a surprised look. "How could you not notice the amount of scars the guy has? He looks like he vacations in a warzone."

"Damn..." I hissed, slowly registering this new information about my partner.

"Don't grill him about it, though. It's in the past. 'Sides, it's not as if we come from perfect backgrounds, either," he conceded, glancing out the window.

"Excuse me?" I put my hands on my hips, glowering down at him. "What do you know about me?"

"Nothin', really. It's just that every time you come back from Vale each weekend, you always seem to have this sad look about you, though you do a decent job of hidin' it," he explained. He yelped shortly after, as I kicked the chair out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor.

"Don't watch me, creep!" I snapped as I pinned him to the floor with my foot, leaning over him teeth flashing. "And keep your damn habit away from me if you aren't gonna stop! Smells like crap in here!"

"Ooh, now _this_ is an interestin' side of you. Like bein' on top, huh?" he quipped with a smile.

I wiped it off his face by kicking him hard in the side, or at least I thought it did. All it did was leave him wheezing and laughing on the floor. Deciding to stop indulging him, I stomped to my bed.

"_Asshole!_"

"Nicest asshole you'll ever meet," he groaned light-heartedly.

_'What the hell's wrong with him!?' _I thought to myself, furious for even remotely giving a damn about the man as I curled up in the mess of blankets.

"...I'll keep it outside, if you want..." My ears perked up at his voice as he picked himself up of the floor gingerly, climbing up to his own bunk. "The smokin'. I'll keep it outside."

"Do whatever you want; I don't care!" I muttered into my pillow. "And I'm serious! _Stop_ watching me!"

"Fine. I'll stop watchin' you officially... _Unofficially,_ though... Hehehe..."

"You are literally the worst person in this Academy ever. Of all time."

"Good night to you too, Argus."

-END

**A/N: Next chapter we meet CRDL and secrets come out. You are all awesome and I wish you the best wherever you are.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

THE TRUTH COMES OUT

_**-Joel Ambrose-**_

"Hey, Velvet, have you... Huh?"

I glanced up from the wall of text I'd been tackling for most of the last hour to find the Rabbit Faunus dozing off, face down on the table across from me. She was snoring lightly, ears twitching with each breath. To be honest, it was actually kind of cute, but judging by the looks the librarian was shooting at us, she wasn't of the same opinion. I decided to wake her up, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open as she looked up groggily.

"Uh-wuh..." She stared at me for a few seconds blankly, at least until a sudden look of mortified realization crossed her face. "Oh my gosh! I-I'm so, so sorry!" she cringed, face bright red as she tried her best to avoid looking at me. "I can't believe I did that! I'm..."

She paused as I passed her a napkin, tapping the side of my chin smiling reassuringly. Somehow, the Faunus' face grew even redder as she dabbed at a small bit of drool on the side of her chin.

"It's alright. I'm not mad or anything. Was actually just about to ask you if you wanted to finish up for the night." I explained, gesturing to the piles of books and papers spread across the table. "We've been at it for hours. You alright?"

She nodded, a little too frantically that she may've liked. "I'm okay. Just...haven't been sleeping well. Been very busy."

"Sure..." I said slowly, noticing the dark circles under her eyes. Even her ears were drooping. "Don't overwork yourself. Aura can only sustain us for so long. Even Huntsmen need sleep, you know."

"I know. Like I said, I'm just... I'm fine," she said curtly, gathering up her work and making her way out the library. "I should get back. Coco's probably worried sick."

I scrambled after her, ignoring the angry shout from the librarian as I ran.

"At least let me make sure you get back to your room," I offered, moving forward as she swayed slightly. "Look if you need a break, I can handle more of the project. I don't have a problem with that."

"No, you... You don't have too..." the mage said tiredly. "It's just some other assignments that need doing. A few papers..."

"...Are these papers _yours?_" I asked carefully, stepping in front of her.

I'd thought she was getting bullied for a while, now. My suspicion slowly grew after seeing a few signs of such behavior on my friend. I'd wanted to ask her about it, but whenever I did, she'd always just denied it or changed the subject.

_'Whatever this is, it's going way too far.'_

"What about your teammates? They can help you, too."

"I'm not bothering them with my problems..." she curtly protested, pushing past me and continuing down the corridor. I followed her, of course. "And why do you even care? I don't see why you should be bothered. I have it handled!"

"I'm trying to be your friend, Velvet," I stressed, holding my arm out at my side, as she glared back at me. "At least I thought I was. Friends help each other when they need it." We'd reached the dormitories, her room just ahead of us. "I can help, you just need to tell me...!"

"_How!?_" Velvet blurted as spun around, stamping her foot on the stone floor. "How could you help!? Why would you even want to!? I'm just an animal to you people!" she cried pointing at the pair of floppy ears, tears falling down her face. "Some freak with funny ears that you can laugh at, or play with whenever you want! Some walking target for your sick little games, no matter how much I prove myself! Just_ stay out of it!_"

I gaped at the brown-haired girl, taken aback by her sudden outburst."Velvet, wait! I...!"

Too late, the girl had already retreated into her room, slamming the door behind her. I groaned as I leaned against the wall, rubbing my brow, angry at how helpless I felt.

_'How else was she going to freakin' react? Dammit... If she's being treated this badly, no wonder she was terrified when we first met!' _I smacked the back of my head against the wall. '_Of course you knew how bad it could be... Not like you haven't done worse to people like her, Joel...'_

I sighed heavily, shaking my head as I began to make my way back down the corridor. I only stopped once to look back at Velvet's room. My eyebrows dipped sadly, wishing I could've helped her then and there. Tomorrow, maybe, but I probably wasn't going to be that lucky.

_'Tomorrow's going to suck...'_

* * *

Surprisingly, enough, the next morning actually held a surprising twist.

All of the first year teams were summoned to the amphitheater before classes in full combat gear. The large stage had been set up as it been for me and Max's fight, except the room wasn't dark. The only light came from a large Dust lamp illuminating the large stage from above.

Professor Goodwitch stepped out onto the stage briskly, staring at each of us with that same expression she used in class. From there, she proceeded to talk about something called the "Vytal Festival," that would apparently be held in a few months time. I'd only heard bits and pieces about it out in Bastion, but it certainly seemed like a big deal, judging from the reactions from Ben, Max, and the other surrounding students.

There would be cultural events celebrating the peace between the Four Great Kingdoms of Remnant, as well as festival games. The biggest draw, however, would be the Vytal Festival Combat Tournament, featuring students from all of the major Huntsman Academies from across the world.

"_Hell yeah!_" Max exclaimed as she punched her fist into her palm, an excited look forming on her face as Goodwitch went on to explain the rules. "I've always wanted to enter! The best fighters from all around Remnant attend this thing!"

"I dunno..." Ben drawled, as he raised an eyebrow, looking around at the other students. "I think I'd rather stick with the food and celebration bits. Tournament duels aren't really my thing, considerin' I'm more of a 'hit you before you see me' kind of fighter." He gave me a friendly punch to the arm. "But I bet you'd be good for it, Psycho."

I gave him a non-commital shrug, shivering slightly as I felt Goodwitch's eyes linger on me. "Thinking I'll pass, thanks."

I didn't really care much. I'd had enough of competitions and gaining recognition back in Bastion, and had been sick of it then, as well. Plus, I could only assume that the teachers wouldn't endorse my participation, either, considering my background.

Max just stared at us both with a look of surprised annoyance, before shaking her head dismissively, muttering under her breath. "Eh, who cares? More heads for me to crack, anyway..." She glanced down at Reika, who stood a few inches away, rekindling her grin "What about you, Short Stuff? You up to fight in the big, bad tourney?"

"..." Reika didn't even turn to face her, instead raising a hand and flashing a couple signs her way in a fast flurry.

"You know I don't understand you when you do that, right?" she remarked, leaning down so she was eye level with the smaller girl. "What, you scared?"

"Actually, she was explainin' how you could better use that overconfidence of yours," Ben translated, barely holding in his laughter. "_Damn_, girl! How'd I not know you could be that creative with one hand?"

"Oh, you little...!" The Faunus bared her teeth at the girl with a furious snarl, but a loud cough split the air, as Goodwitch glowered down at us with stern "tch," adjusting her glasses. Max seemed to shrink slightly, her ears flattening against her head.

"If you're all finished with your private conversations, I was about to choose volunteers for a small demonstration of a tournament style duel, after which I will answer any questions you might have as well, as discuss how battles, both assigned and arranged, will occur over the course of this year."

She glanced down at her Scroll for a few seconds, before making her selection, singling out Jaune and Cardin Winchester, the grade A asshole from Oobleck's History class, who also happened to be the leader of Team CRDL. More rumors over my time here had lead me to one conclusion about him: he was a bully. It was this fact that led me to believe that he was one of main suspects for people who'd hurt Velvet.

Still, poor Jaune. He had heart, I'd give him that. But I could easily tell that he didn't stand a chance in hell of coming out on top.

Ground rules were simple enough. No killing or maiming on threat of expulsion. Beyond that, you just fought until yours or your opponent's Aura was depleted, or until one of the combatants was disarmed or deemed unable to continue. Reasonable enough. Too bad Jaune had a lot of Aura in him, and Cardin liked to play with his food as much as my partner did.

* * *

In my mind, lunch couldn't come fast enough. Beyond the exciting announcement of the upcoming festival, classes somehow seemed to drag on even more so than usual. 'At l_east we got to keep our gear on, _I mused, thankful to be rid of that neck trap for today, at least.

At the moment, I was seated next to Yang and Reika, who I'd managed to convince to eat with us again. The blonde brawler was to my left, while my teammate sat to my right, next to Blake. It was odd, seeing them together like this. Nora had us all wrapped up in a fanciful tale of how she and Ren had taken on dozens of Ursa and won, selling them for Lien. It was a pretty good story, too, despite Ren cutting in to change minor facts. Either way, Nora was on a roll.

Most of the table listening intently, except for Blake, who was nose deep in her new book, and Jaune, who was looked like he was still bristling over his loss, picking at his food with a glum expression on his face.

Poor guy. Goodwitch didn't have to be so harsh with him, basically calling him out for his lack of progress in front of everyone.

"Jaune? Are you feeling okay?" Pyrrha asked in a concerned tone after the story was done, causing the knight to perk up in his seat.

"Uh... Oh! Yeah, why?" he said. Damn, this guy was transparent. His Aura was remarkably effective at dealing with the bruises he'd sustained, sadly he just could't do the same with his attitude.

"Well... It's just that you seem a little... _NOT _okay," Ruby noted, wringing her hands awkwardly, as Weiss sat next to her in her "combat dress," filling her nails.

"Yeah, man. If this is about what Goodwitch said after the match..." I asked, pointing my fork at him, "you did what you could, and no one can say you didn't...!"

Jaune cut me off by putting his hands up in an attempt to reassure us. "Eh, guys! I'm fine... Seriously! Look!" He gave us all a thumbs up, smiling awkwardly, almost believing the lie himself.

Sadly for him, none of us were too convinced. Reika even shook her head, as if disappointed.

_"He has to know he's not fooling anyone with this one bit, right?" _she asked me with her hands, pointing towards the blonde boy, who had resumed eating his food while glancing up every now and then to give us another forced smile.

"I'd be more afraid if he doesn't..." I replied shortly to the masked girl.

The mess hall was suddenly filled with the sounds of laughter. I looked over briefly, seeing that the laughter came from Team CDNL. Scowling, I lookrf away... before fully realizing what they had been doing. I turned my head around looking back in disbelief, something that my table took a notice of. Cardin's group had found a new target: Velvet. Seems like they were making fun of her ears. This only proved my previous suspicions. '_CRDL was responsible for this_.' Frankly, I was ashamed of myself for not seeing it earlier.

"Son of a..." I hissed gripping my fork tightly, hands shaking. Yang saw this, and shot me a worried look.

"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school," Pyrrha noted, concern etched on her face, as Jaune stopped clenching his fist seconds before...

I wanted to go there, wanted to stop them. But then I shook my head furiously, remembering Velvet's angry face as I offered to help her the previous day. She hadn't wanted my help, then. And something told me that a mere few hours hadn't changed her mind. As much as I hated it, I had to respect her wishes. Still, it was a hard pill to swallow.

_'She wants me to stay out of... She wants me to stay out of it...'_

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah!" Jaune dismissed her, shaking his head and laughing weakly. "He just likes to... mess around, you know? Practical jokes!"

"He's a bully," Ruby said curtly, face set.

"Asshole's a more accurate description," I muttered, glaring at them despite my best efforts. I could make out Velvet trying her best to ignore them.

_'Where the hell's her team!?'_

"Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' me," he shrugged off, raising his hands to do a quotations gesture with his fingers. It was a sad sight to see how in denial he was.

"What about all of the times he slapped your books out of your hands in the hallway?" Ruby supplied.

"Or the time he set your shield off walking out of class?" I added, trying not to look irritated over CRDL's actions, whilst audibly clenching and unclenching my left fist, with tiny sparks crackling between my fingers.

"And remember when he shoved you into the rocket-propelled locker, and sent you flying?" Pyrrha reminded.

The Amazon had had to organize a search for him that had taken most of the day. I'd actually had to enlist Max's help in the hunt, as Reika had been with Goodwitch at the time. _'Still owe her another Grimm Studies paper for that one...'_

"Heh... Well, it wasn't _that_ bad. I didn't land too far from the school."

"Arc, he's being a huge jackass to you. And it bothers us that you're just letting him push you around," I interjected, growing more annoyed at his denial of the situation, despite his own feelings, as well as the mocking laughter of those bullies grating at my nerves.

"Jaune, you know if you need help, you can just ask," Pyrrha said leaning forward, putting a hand on his arm.

"_OOH!_ We'll break his legs!" Nora pronounced leaping up on the bench, grinning maniacally.

_'Not a bad idea, now that I think about it,'_ I thought, turning back to my lunch. '_Note to self: never get on Nora's bad side.'_

"Guys!" Jaune stood up, tray in hand looking at all of us. "Really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone," he reasoned, motioning over to where CRDL sat.

"_OOWW_! That _hurts_!" The sound of Velvet's cry came ringing out from behind me. Turning my head, I saw Cardin pulling one of Violet's long brown ears, laughing along with the rest of his team.

_'The **fuck** is that asshole doing!?'_

"Please, stop..." she begged, trying to pull her ears from Winchester's grip.

He only chuckled, unsympathetic to the girl's cries. "Haha! I told you they were real!"

As I heard this, my right hand slowly tightened over the plastic fork in it. I could feel my vision narrowing in disgust.

One of them, a guy with a light green mohawk in the middle of his shaved head, laughed shaking his head at the Faunus girl derisively. "What a _freak!_"

That was when the fork snapped in my hands. _'Alright, **THAT'S IT!**' _I slammed whatever was left of my fork onto the table with a loud bang that echoed through the cafeteria and made to stand up.

As I moved to leave, I felt both Reika and Yang grab onto my arms. "Joel, don't...!" Yang started, but I cut her off with a sharp glare, using her startled reaction to shake both of the girls' arms off.

"Don't you _dare_ try to stop me," I growled harshly, before making my way over to where Cardin sat.

_'This is stupid and reckless, Ambrose. You can't lay a hand on them, or Ozpin'll have my ass back in prison by the end of the day,' _the logical part of my mind screamed to me internally as I approached CDNL and Velvet. A particularly loud squeal of pain from the rabbit girl silenced that dissenting opinion within nanoseconds.

Drawing closer to the table, one of his teammates, the mohawk guy,00 Russell I think his name was, saw me coming out of the corner of his eye. He made the dumb decision to stand up trying to block my way, a sly grin on his face as if he thought he was being clever, like he thought he was unstoppable. I'd seen the same look a dozen times, usually followed by a knife to the... _'Okay, calm down...'_

"Do you want something, big guy?" he asked, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest.

_'Oh, if you had met me a few months ago, you little fucking twig...'_

I tried to walk around him, but he made the mistake of trying to block me as I tried to move further. This was a mistake, due to how he ended up tripping and falling flat on his face with an audible crunch as I swept by him, barely even touching him.

_'Ozpin can't peg me if they end up hurting themselves on accident,' _I reasoned, frowning heavily as Cardin continued to pull Velvet's ear.

I stopped right before him, and spoke with a loud and clear voice. "Let go of her ear, _NOW._"

This certainly got his attention, as his eyes stared at me intently, looking away briefly to look back at his fallen partner. The girl managed to pull her ear away, cowering back down to the bench between us.

"Hey, man, I don't know what your problem is, but if you know what's good for _you_, then you'd better back off, right now..." he threatened, standing up to me in his full height. He towered over me, being bigger and broader than I was...

_'Not like it matters, anyway. I've fought people bigger than him, and still manged to put them into the ground. Besides, with all of that metal on him, taking him out with my Semblance will be child's... What? No, wait!' _What the hell was I thinking? He didn't deserve to die for this. He and his team were assholes that deserved an ass kicking, maybe. But death?... No... I couldn't think like that. Not again. That wasn't me. Not anymore...

"What? Not gonna say anything, loser?" Cardin's voice shot out, dragging me away from my thoughts.

Shaking my head, my scowl relaxed somewhat, though my eyes were as narrowed as before, letting Winchester know that I wasn't here to play around. "Look. I'm only gonna say this to you once. Just back off, and leave her alone," I advised harshly, looking towards Velvet as she moved behind me. I could feel her shivering behind my back. "We're all Huntsmen here, and she's our senior. She deserves your respect."

"No. _We're_ Huntsmen," he countered, while motioning to his teammates, two of whom were currently picking their moaning friend off the ground as he tried to stem a bleeding nose. Their leader continued to gesture to a few others in the hall, before looking back at me. "All I see in front of me is a _freak_. Some animal, who doesn't..."

"_SHE... _is a Huntress-in-training, like us. I just got done telling you to back off, Cardin. Don't make me repeat myself."

My interruption seemed to have only irked him further. His eyes narrowed at me, as he lowed his head to look directly into my eyes. "...You know what else I see? I see a punk who thinks he's some kind of hero, acting all high and mighty with your humble act. Well, guess what? I see you for what you are: a loser, just like your Faunus girlfriend, who needs to be put in his place."

I reacted by looking away briefly, shaking my head with an amused grin, before returning the scowl and taking a step forward. We were face to face. "I could say the same about you, Cardin... well not the hero bit, anyway." I still wasn't going to hit him, much as every defensive instinct was practically screaming at me to floor him and be done with it. If he decided to make a go for it, however... _'He started all of this by going too far with Velvet. My friends were also witnesses, too. If he attacks, I defend myself, and he'll be the one walking away. Well... not walking, I think.'_

He stood his ground admirably, not moving an inch, before grinning menacingly. "I always did hate looking at you in class. I hope you mind if I do a little rearranging to your..."

The bully stopped suddenly, eyes narrowing further, but not out of hostility. I arched an eyebrow at him, confused over his response.

"Wait a second..." he muttered, as stared at my face closely. He then backed away slowly, same curious gaze. "I know you."

"Well, we're in History together, so..."

"No, not that! I mean before I came to Beacon!" he spoke.

I scoffed at him. "Not likely. I'd remember running into someone like you. Of course, I can't deny the possibility of me forgetting a bastard like you on principle." I grinned as his face started to get redder, pissed off, most likely. "Listen, because I'm only going to say this one more time. _Back. Off._" I warned with an even tone, before gently grabbing Velvet's arm. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

I gently dragged her along with me, focusing on getting her away as far from CDNL as possible. As I did, I could see from the corner of my eye that Cardin kept his eyes on my face, that inquisitive glint still in his eyes, but then widening before I'd even gone a few steps.

"Hold up, a sec!" he called, reaching out to tightly grab my left shoulder, one that was quickly removed as I let go of Velvet and shoved him back, my Aura flaring to the point my hair almost stood on end, sparks dancing along my arms.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you!?"

Winchester ignored my remark, brushing himself off as if I'd just dirtied his armor, leaning forward slightly as he looked me over again, making sure that he had good look of my face.

Finally, he spoke again, this time leaning back in shock. "Yeah... I remember you, now! I saw your face in the news, months ago!"

"Huh?" As soon as those words came out of his mouth the sparks died, every cell in body went numb. I even felt my jaw slacking in shock, my eyes widening in surprise as my mouth went dry trying to form words.

_'...No.'_

Cardin went on, rubbing his chin in thought. "Yeah... You were a bit scruffier, and you had bruises all over. But it was definitely you, no doubt about it..."

_'No... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nononononono, **NO!**'_

My mind started working again when I heard whispers begin to spread through the hall. Everyone's eyes that had turned to at our confrontation were now directly at me. My mind raced, coming up with and throwing out solutions to stop him from saying any thing further.

'_I can knock him out. Quick blow to the head'll shut him up... No, I can't do that. People will just ask more questions, and he'll just spread it later! Damn it!'_

In the end, my mind came up with nothing. I was left to stand there helplessly, unable to prevent what was about to happen.

"Oh man, I still can't believe it!" he remarked with disbelief. "What's a former Trapper doing hanging around Beacon!?"

The silence that followed after he said those words was almost audible across the hall. Trapper: a word that had become synonymous with bigoted assassins or thugs, in the eyes of Humans. To the Faunus, however, it equated more to monsters or boogeymen, terrifying in ways even worse than the Creatures of Grimm. And everyone had heard Cardin call me by that word.

"...What?" I heard Velvet mutter under her breath behind me, eyes like saucers.

Cardin's face lit up at the response his words had received. "C'mon, you animals have T.V., too, don't you? It was all over the news when it happened! They said that they'd finally managed to grab one of you Trapper guys for the first time!"

I was so lost in thought, practically paralyzed, that I didn't see Cardin wrap his arm over my left shoulder. "Hey, its alright, buddy. You deserve another chance," he sneered, as he peered over at the shivering Faunus. "I mean, you were just dealing with those criminal freaks from the White Fang, right? Its not like you were actually doing anything wrong. You were just paying them back for what they do to us, right?"

"No, I..." I gritted my teeth, senses returning to me quickly, as a wave of fury engulfed me. "I said _DON'T TOUCH ME!_"

I roughly yanked myself away from Cardin, before lunging my left hand forward to grip the front of his armor, slamming him into the empty table beside us. Cardin's faced had changed to one of fright, and that alone, along with collective gasps of shock around me, specifically from my friends' table, is what snapped me back to my senses. _'Not anymore...'_

Trying to keep my temper under control, I hissed at CDNL's leader. "Y'know, I'm not entirely surprised that you'd know something like that... But since you seem so interested, I assume you also know a thing or two about Trappers. Specifically... their methods. So, let's say that I was this Trapper you're talking about. If that were the case... then wouldn't it be very stupid to try and piss him off?" I let the words sink in, watching as his pupils dilated in fright, before sending him a smirk. "Fortunately for you, I'm not a Trapper anymore."

I then raised my right hand. Concentrating my Aura calmly this time, as sparks of electricity began to arc between my fingers. Winchester eyed them carefully. "Since I know that you tend not to listen in class, I'm gonna say this in a way that gets through to your thick skull. Stay away from Velvet, and the other Faunus. No more teasing, no more pulling on people's ears. No more bullying. _Period._" I said calmly, staring directly into his eyes, before letting him go, and easing up my _Conduction._

Cardin let out sigh of relief, tenderly adjusting his collar, before sneering at me. "Whatever. I'll stay out of your way if want to keep them all to yourself. I understand."

"What are you...?" I began to ask. However, I visibly, tensed as he took a step closer to me, condescending grin plastered on his face.

"But let me make one thing perfectly clear to you: you're no hero. You can deny it all you want, but I know what I saw. The Trapper they sentenced was _you._ So you can go on with your speeches about respect, and with your humble high and mighty attitude all you want. All it does is prove that everything I've been sayin' about was right. You're nothing but a hypocrite... Ambrose, right?" he sneered victoriously. "Hell, by your standards, you're even worse than me! I may be a dick to the Faunus, but at least I never _killed_ anything that wasn't a Grimm..."

My fury had returned in full force, ignited by his stinging words. It took every ounce of willpower from the logical part of my mind to keep me from forcing my hand. My clenched fists shook as I addressed the bully one last time. "Cardin... Leave... _Now._"

"Hmph, have it your way. See you around... Trapper," he jeered as he pushed past me, laughing loudly as he did so. Dove and Sky helped Russell up to his feet, and followed after their leader, shooting me nervous looks as they passed me by, the blue one practically jumping as I shot him a deadpan stare.

I was left me standing there in the middle of the crowded room, taking deep breaths in order to calm myself down.

_'Way to go, Joel. You **really** handled that one.'_

Taking a deep breath, I looked up slowly, immediately regretting it as I saw the eyes of every student on me. I saw people whispering to each other, glancing at me from the corner of their eyes. Others shook their heads at me, some even glaring and snarling at me. The looks that got my attention, however, were the ones looking back in fear, belonging to those of Faunus origin.

Shaking my head, I remembered the reason I'd involved myself in the first place. I turned around quickly to check of my brown haired friend. "Are you...!"

"Is it true?..." she interrupted, big brown eyes staring at me in a strange way, as if for the first time. "Was Cardin telling the truth?... Are you one of them? A T... A T-Trapper?"she asked, her body shivering from just uttering the word.

"Velvet... C'mon, I.."

"Is it_ true, _Joel!?" she repeated, tone more firm this time.

I could sense the glares from before, other Faunus students and a few Humans getting up from their seats. I looked around the room, feeling the heat of their gazes on me. In my mind, I felt like I was back in my cell, detached from the world around me with only my own shadow to judge me. Only this time, I was exposed for everyone to see.

Looking back at my friend, I saw nothing but a pleading expression on her face. But her eyes had something else in them: growing terror. That feeling seeped into me, as growing dread coursed through me, my mind wondering what would happened if I told her the truth about me. That I was responsible for the deaths of many of people of her race. But there was nowhere for me to hide. No walls for cover, no bushes, and no secret pasts to hide behind. I was out in the open.

The truth was all out in the open.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself. "I... Yes... It's true... I was one of them..." I said hesitantly, heart sinking at the confession. It sank even further when I saw her reaction. She had gasped, hands covering her mouth, while her pupils dilated as tears began to flow down her cheeks. "B-but I'm not anymore!" I added, trying to assure the girl. "I've left that behind, _I swear!_ I'm trying to start over..."

I reached out towards her, but as soon as I did, she flinched back, eyes widening further in terror. I gasped at her reaction, feeling a great sense of hurt from it, before I actually stared down at the outstretched hand for a moment, the one I'd just threatened Cardin with.

I lowered my hand, looking up at the Rabbit Faunus with a pleading look in my eyes. "No! I... I wasn't going to... I _wouldn't...!_"

The girl continued to shake her head, eyes fully on me. "No... Please, no..."

My eyes widened in both shock and hurt, my whole body numb from seeing her reaction. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder to look back at my friends' table. Most of JNPR had the same shocked look on their faces. Yang and Reika had similar expressions, that latter only being able to be seen through her eyes. Ruby was surprised as well, though there was also a small hint of confusion present. The only two different ones were Blake and Weiss. As soon as our eyes fell on each other, Blake had tensed, leaning slightly away from my direction. Weiss' look was the harshest of them all, as she gave me a full on glare as if I were scum on the bottom of her heel, shaking her head at me as she sent it my way.

I had expected to receive this sort of reaction from them. Still, it didn't make it any less painful.

I bowed my head in shame. "I'm... I'm sorry, Velvet..." I whispered apologetically to Velvet loud enough for her to hear. I raised my head to look at her, a sad grin forming on my face. "Cardin should leave you alone for now... At least a while... Anyway, take care of yourself. And... I'm sorry I turned out to be a huge disappointment..."

I turned around quickly, no longer brave enough to hear her response. I strode towards the set of large double doors at the entrance, when a wet piece of food impacted painfully against the side of my face, staining my gear and hair. Gasps came from my friends' table, but I didn't pay them much attention.

I slowly turned my head toward the direction it came from, and found that the shot came from a dark-skinned Panther Faunus, due to seeing his bright yellow eyes and ears on his head. He'd been glaring at me previously, but as soon as our eyes had met, he reeled back in fear, like I was gonna strike him down then and there. I quickly looked away gritting my teeth. My only goal at that moment was to leave the space as quickly as physically possible.

"Ambrose..." muttered a voice suddenly, casing me to look up.

I caught the sight of Ben and Maxine standing at the doorway. Ben stood there awkwardly, seeming nonplussed, while Max had a blank expression on her face. Our eyes met, her neutral reddish-brown and my defeated blue. I held her gaze for a few more seconds, before making my way out of the room, her eyes following me as I passed by silently.

_'What was I hoping to gain coming here?... Friends? A second chance?... What a thought...' _I chided myself as I shook my head dejectedly. '_I was better off rotting in that cell... It's where I belong.'_

* * *

_**-Yang Xiao-Long-**_

"Well..." I said, breaking the stoney silence that had fallen over our table following Joel's exit from the room "That was definitely something unexpected..."

I looked beside me where Reika sat, a confused expression on her face.

"I can't believe it..." Pyrrha muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. "I would never have believed someone like Joel would be capable of being involved with such deplorable people... He never seemed like a bad person."

"Of course he didn't. He never 'seemed' like anything. Criminals are experts at hiding their intentions from others," Weiss declared haughtily, puffing her chest out. "I've always known there was something off about that boy."

I noticed Reika bristling at the heiress' words, and, I had to admit, I wasn't feeling much better. "Why do you say that? Was it because he never scraped, bowed, or showed proper respect to the great Weiss Schnee!?" I retorted angrily, derailing the heiress. "'Cause if that's the mark of a true criminal, then, damn, you need to choose your friends better."

"What's a Trapper?"

We all turned to face my young, red-hooded sister, who sat with her eyes fixed on the door, where Joel's other teammates stood awkwardly. '_Guess they didn't know, either...'_"

"I mean I've heard the word before, but why's everyone so freaked out about it? Is it a bad thing?" she inquired honestly.

"You dolt! How could you not be aware of something like that!?" Weiss gawped at Ruby in disbelief. "It's not like we haven't had it explained to us in class for Professor Oobleck's project!"

"I wasn't paying attention," the younger girl confessed, turning as red as her hood with embarrassment. "Besides, you said you'd handle the complicated history parts."

"That doesn't mean you just get to ignore it!" she snapped back.

"Leave her alone, Weiss. The Red Hand were never really active where we grew up. And I'd be surprised if Ruby's ever opened a newspaper in her life," I said, coming to Ruby's defense. "Of course she doesn't know much about them."

"I've heard about them!" Ruby spoke up. "I just don't know what a Trapper's supposed to be. Why are they so scary?"

"Trapper is the term used to describe the Red Hand's most brutal shock troopers..." Blake revealed as she turned in her seat to face our flustered leader. "They're supposedly ex-Huntsmen trained to wipe out White Fang cells by whatever means necessary." She examined the space where Joel had sat only minutes prior. "If he was one of them..." she whispered, her eyes narrowing to amber colored slits.

"But he's still the same guy, right?..." I gazed around at my friends' faces, imploring them to see reason. "I mean we've known him for weeks, now, and has he ever given us any reason to doubt him?" I turned to Pyrrha and the rest of JNPR. "Remember when he helped you guys track down Vomit Boy after Cardin launched him into the Emerald Forest?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah! Who knows how long I would've been stuck out there if he hadn't gotten his partner to help out," he recalled, before giving out a short squeak as Weiss shot him a withering look that would have made Goodwitch proud.

"I don't believe... Are you guys actually trying to _defend_ his actions!?" Weiss questioned disbelievingly.

"No! I just..." I faltered slightly as Blake cut in sharply.

"Did you know about this, Yang?"

"Of course not! Why do you think he would tell me anything like this?"

"You spent most of last weekend together. And you also said that he opened up to you a little," my partner pointed out.

"We cleaned up the room a bit, and helped put in a replacement table for the one Nora and I broke from our arm wrestling match!" I told, tapping my finger on the shiny new tabletop for emphasis. "Beyond a few bits about his family, the only things we talked about were what we would rather be doing, and brainstorming on how to help me sneak out to the concert. He's only ever been helpful!"

Reika gave me a grateful nod. '_Damn, this is her leader we're talking about. This has gotta be harder for her than on us.' _I gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Helpful to you, maybe, but I still can't see why that wouldn't be...!" Weiss muttered under her breath darkly, before I slammed down on the table, eyes blazing red, sending a spiderweb of cracks across the wood, and causing everyone to jump in surprise along with every other student nearby.

"In case you haven't forgotten, Weiss, _HE _was the only one who stood up to Cardin, and helped that girl back there! Were any of you going to!?" I snapped, looking around at each of them in turn, nodding as their eyes avoided mine. "Didn't think so! Despite what people are saying, Joel's proven himself to be a good person, or at the very least he's trying to be! I think he deserves the right to _at least_ explain himself!" I got up, tray in hand, and quickly followed after Joel, with his mute teammate following shortly behind. "Do you mind helping me track your leader down?"

* * *

_**-Benjamin Carson-**_

"You think that Cardin guy was telling' the truth?" I asked carefully, as I glanced at the Dog girl sitting across from me, her eyes fixed on the tray in front of her. "About Psycho, I mean..."

"Why would he lie?..." she growled bitterly, pushing the food away from her.

_'Well, this sucks...'_ I thought gazing around at the rest of the hall. It had only been about an hour since the revelation, and the other students were already shooting us wary looks, keeping their distance. _'Guess no one wants to be seen sittin' with the racist bastard's teammates...'_

"So, what do we do now?" Max asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

"About Ambrose, I mean. Your partner already ran off with that blonde chick with the rack that was shouting about him. Do we try and track him down, too?" Maxine asked while playing idly with her knife.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. _'Bitch's actually givin' a shit about her partner... Will the wonders never cease?...'_

"You sure you wanna do that? No offense, but this kinda affects you more than me, I'd think."

"Why? Because of what I am?" she shot back, her hair bristling slightly as the knife clattered on the floor beside her. "Is that it?" she groaned, putting her head on the table as scratching at her ear absently. "I had some idea it was bad. I could smell blood on him; a lot of it Faunus. But he hasn't tried to kill _me_ yet, has he?"

"More like the other way around, honestly, though I guess that explains why you were so hostile at first."

"Nah. I just didn't like his personality much. Likes to end things too quickly. Thought he needed to loosen up," the Faunus shrugged. "In a fight we work decently enough together, staying out of each other's way while we do our own thing, and that's about it."

"So you don't care?" I asked, before noticing a burly fellow coming closer with what appeared to stripes across his cheeks, and a shock of wild orange hair. He was wearing the school's boys uniform.

_'Another Faunus. **Ooh,** this should be good.'_

"Heads up," I warned. She leaned back, mouth curving into a pained grimace as she noted the student.

"Great... Knew I smelled something shitty," she groaned, flashing her teeth at the newcomer in that way she did whenever something annoyed her, which was quite often, actually.

_'Wonder what he did?' _I wondered, as the orange-haired man paused at the aggressive display, giving us both a short bow. Mine seemed rather forced, but I let it slide.

"Miss Argus. Nice to see you again..." he started, but paused as she turned away quickly, dragging her food tray back in front of her.

"Sod off, Kaplan. I already told you that I want nothing to do with the whole 'Faunus Rights' thing you guys have going on campus. It's not my thing."

"Personable as ever, I see..." As he gave her a toothy smile, I noticed a few more fangs than usual present in his mouth "Cute, but that isn't why I'm here. I'm actually here to discuss your...!"

"Oh, let me guess. You heard about our team's leader, I take it? Must've spread across the whole school, by now," I interjected loudly, drawing his attention away from Max.

"Yes, actually. Though I'd prefer it if you stayed out of this matter. It doesn't concern you."

_'Ooh, someone's feelin' a bit high and mighty...'_

"You know, it's more courteous to actually ask someone to leave nicely, if you wanna talk about something in private..." I chided, playfully wagging a finger in the pompous student's direction. "But if you asked nicely, however, I might actually take you up on that consideration. Maybe a 'please,' or a 'do ya mind?' Those always seem to work."

He stepped towards me, his face contorted as I readied myself for a fight.

"Actually, Kaplan, he's on my team, as well, so anything you say to me, bullshit or otherwise, you'll be saying to the both of us," Max spoke up snidely, stopping us in our tracks, lip twitching as the tiger scoffed indignantly. "Otherwise, you can either leave us alone, or I _make_ _you..._" A faint reddish glow began to outline her body, the knife she'd been playing with earlier rising off the floor on its own, and back into her hand with a snap.

_'I've seen her Semblance in trainin' and sparrin' matches, but that still freaks me out.' _Sometimes, I forgot that the sadistic Faunus didn't exactly need her axe to tear something apart. And judging from the flash of fear in this Kaplan guy's eyes, he understood that quite well.

"Very well, if you'd prefer him present," the tiger conceded, standing up straighter than before in an attempt to save face in front of some curious nearby students. "Argus, I'll be straightforward-"

"Oh, hear that, Bitch? He's gonna be _straight_ with us! Oh, boy!"

A fork suddenly flew by my head, missing me by an inch, before embedding itself in the table behind me. "Shut it, Carson!... Well? Out with it!"

"As I was saying... many members of our Faunus community here at Beacon have expressed concerns for their safety on campus. Understandable, considering there is an admitted..."

"Accused!" I corrected, before a spoon impacted against the side of my head painfully.

"...Anti-Faunus terrorist attending classes," Kaplan finished, pointedly ignoring my interruption. "We have already compiled a petition, with signatures from many Faunus students, as well some Humans who support us, for the school's Headmaster to oust this scum from the Academy's halls. Frankly, we already have enough to worry about, what with bullying and other abuses."

"...Y'know, it's strange._ I_ haven't experienced any bullying for quite a while. now. In fact..." Max said in an innocent tone. "I wonder if that has anything to do with me accidentally breaking that one boy's fingers in our first sparring match, for laughing at my ears, probably? Perhaps if that Bunny had stood up for herself, earlier..."

"Be that as it may..." the Tiger boy raised a hand, interrupting her mid-rant. "Your leader presents a grave danger to us that cannot be ignored. And your support in this matter would be most appreciated."

I laughed loudly, shocking the large Faunus. "Okay, so you basically want Maxine, here, to screw over her partner and team leader, who I don't recall havin' done anything too bad as of yet, simply because he _MIGHT_ be dangerous, and sign somethin' to get him kicked out."

"That isn't as... eloquent a description..."

_'Sounded pretty 'eloquent' enough for me...'_ I thought with a derisive chuckle that I didn't bother to hide.

"...But yes. That is the general idea." He turned back to Max with a serious expression on his face. "You've likely heard of the abuses the Red Hand and their Trappers have committed against innocent Faunus, yes? Tell me you aren't really comfortable with the idea of sleeping in the same room as one, now that you know what he is!?"

"Did the bunny girl sign it?" Max asked suddenly, throwing the Tiger Boy off slightly.

"I'm... sorry?"

"The girl who Ambrose helped... Did she sign your little petition?"

His brow furrowed slightly as he shook his head. "No, Miss Scarlatina has not signed it yet. The trauma of the event is likely still..."

"Oh, I get it. So if the supposed 'victim,' the one the guy you're trying to oust stuck up for, won't even sign your paper, then his teammate is the next best thing, right!?"

"...So I take it your answer is a 'no,' then?..." Kaplan stated more than asked, fist clenching loud enough for me to hear the creak of his knuckles. "Despite the fact that he's more than likely murdered a good number of our people...!"

"You know, I don't respect a lot of Humans. They haven't really given me much reason to, even though my mother was one."

I looked over at Max in surprise. _'Wait, what!? She's a half-breed?' _Couldn't say I was expecting it, and neither did Kaplan, I suppose, if the sneer he gave her was anything to go on. _'Would explain why she's more comfortable than most Faunus around Humans, as well as her temperament.'_

Half-breeds weren't known for being well-treated by Humans, and even Faunus once they knew what they were. Argus probably had to fight tooth and nail her whole life to get where she is.

"Despite that, Professor Ozpin gave me a chance to attend this Academy. And if he says Joel Ambrose is fit to be at this school, than I'll trust his word over any prejudices from you, or anyone else."

_'Damn... Maxine...'_

"_Fine!_" the larger Faunus spat out bitterly, looking down his nose at the still-seated girl. "If you want to protect that murdering partner of yours, then fine! Be my guest! I wouldn't expect anything less from a cross breed like yo- _Ack!_"

His insult ended in a choked squeak, as I snatched the knife from Max's hand, and held it squarely against his jugular in my left hand. He tried to snatch my hand away, but my right arm latched onto the limb, his eye bulging as he struggled against my unyielding metal grip. He was pretty strong, actually, exerting a lot of force trying to free himself. But to me? It felt as if I was wrestling with a child.

"Let me go, you damn Hu...!" I cut him off by holding the knife closer, his Aura the only thing keeping it off of his skin at this point.

"Now, is that any way to talk to someone in this situation?" I chided, sounding like a disapproving parent.

_'Just like Ma used to...' _Well... not quite. Old buzzard would've probably had him pissing himself with but a word.

"Kaplan, was it?... Now, I can understand why you think you'd have some grievance towards Ambrose, so I'll let all of the less than appraisin' things you've said about him slide. However..." My arm's grip began to tighten around the Faunus' arm, even causing the man to wince in pain. "This lady here has been _more_ than cordial with you, for someone with her attitude, at least. So I think you should apologize for the nasty thing you just said, and make a quick exit while you still have your tail between your legs... Sound good?"

Kaplan growled, reaching out with his free arm as orange Aura spreading across his body. "You oppressive Human scum! I'll- _AH!_"

I twisted his arm, slamming him face first onto the table. "_Wrong answer!_" I slammed his head down again with greater force this time. "And the idiot's next words are gonna be...?" I asked him with a cheery voice laced liberally with venom.

"I... I-I'm sorry..." Kaplan whimpered, voice muffled.

"You ain't talkin' to me, pal," I reminded him swiftly, twisting his arm back further, thus eliciting another cry of pain.

"I-I'm sorry, Miss Argus! I'm sorry! _I'm sorry!_"

"Good boy." I then slid him across the table, making him fall off the edge and onto the ground, where he laid moaning. A few other Faunus came over and helped drag him away, all of them shooting me dirty looks.

"Welp, that deed's done!" I sighed contentedly, sitting down next to my teammate, her face twisted in a look of shock and amusement. "You gonna finish that steak?"

"Carson... Just... _Damn..._" she whispered, looking back at the humiliated Tiger Faunus. "You didn't have to do that, y'know. I could've handled it."

"Sorry. He was pissin' me off, anyway. I didn't like how he was talkin' to ya. Plus..." I gave her a toothy smile and a wink, tossing her the knife. "If I didn't do it, you'd have blown this whole section of the room apart."

She let out a short giggle as she caught the blade in midair, right before her expression fell. "You know what that all looked like though, right? I doubt you'll be very popular with the ladies after they hear that you beat up a Faunus."

I shrugged, eyes darting out at the rest of the students, noticing that there were now a lot of empty tables between us and anyone else. "Ah, he deserved it, and my rep would've taken a hit regardless, considerin' I'm already on the Big, Bad Trapper's team."

"Still... Thanks," Max replied, gazing at the knife in her hands before putting it back on her tray with a sigh. "I suppose we better go track down Ambrose, and kick his ass back into gear, now that we've done so much to defend him."

"We will, at that. Oh, and uh..." I flicked her forehead with a metal finger, causing her to wince. "That's for hittin' me with a spoon."

"God, you're such an ass!"

-END

**-OC Voice Cast introduced this Chapter-**

Richard Kaplan - Christopher Ayres


	8. Chapter 8

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

WE'RE A TEAM

_**-Joel Ambrose-**_

_'Oh no, you don't!' _I mentally barked, shifting around to catch the bladed appendage of one of the droids as it tried to sneak up behind me with the _Storm Circuit's _wire, the force pushing me down on one knee.

"Damn it..." I gritted through my teeth as I pulled the wire taut, forcing the blade away with the robot stumbling back towards me. "_Damn it!_"

Cardin's words and Velvet's look of fear burned itself to the forefront of my mind, as I delivered an Aura-powered kick that caved in the droid's chest cavity, sending it crashing away from me to the floor, only to see it replaced by two more. I let out an angry snarl as I knocked the next one's blade away with one of _Circuit's _blades, while stabbing the other in the face plate in a shower of sparks.

I'd thought that things could change... That saying enough was enough would wipe away three years of violence and instinct...

What pissed me off the most wasn't the fact that Cardin had let people know that I had been a viscous killer. Hell, it was only a matter of time. What pissed off the most was that he he had been right: I _was_ a hypocrite. I thought back to the scene in the dining hall where I'd seriously considered harming, or even killing those guys. I stepped back, chuckling to myself darkly as the remaining half dozen drones surrounded me in a loose circle, stepping over the wrecks that had once been their allies. Scrap metal, the whole lot of them...

_'Heh... I talk all noble to Max about reigning in her violent tendencies... But who the hell am I to judge? This is the only thing I'm good for... Tearing the enemy the hell apart.'_

I let loose a loud roar, flaring my Aura to it's limits, and feeling the power radiate under my skin, as I released a wave of electricity that sent the drones reeling from the shocks. Circuits burst as the energy overloaded their delicate systems, sending them down to the arena floor in a heap of scrap. My Aura faded away slowly as I fell to my knees, panting hard as the smell of ozone burned my nostrils. I dropped my weapon with a clatter of metal, while my muscles twitched from the aftershock of my overload, my hair standing on end.

_'I've gotten rusty... Used to be able to pull that off, no problem...' _I mentally chided myself.

A short intake of breath from across the room near the entrance caught my attention. Trapper senses came in handy for something, I supposed. "Who's there!?" I snapped, getting to my feet quickly in a defensive stance, as Yang and Reika stepped out from around the doorway.

"Hey, Joel, uh..." Yang waved awkwardly, eyes darting from the charred training bots and back to me, eyes widening. "Wow, you're..." I saw that her eyes had looked down in my direction. I raised a confused eyebrow for about a second, before remembering after that I'd stripped down to just a pair of sweats for the practice, exposing my bare chest, and revealing all of my scars. For this, Reika gave her a stern side punch.

"...Sorry," I said simply, quickly moving towards my spare t-shirt, slipping it over my head quickly.

Yang merely waved her arms in front of her. "It's fine! Really!" she said quickly, giving me a small smile. "It's just surprising. I mean, I knew you had a few scars from the glimpses I get during sparring matches." She gave me a sly wink, making my cheeks slightly flush red. "You do have a bit more muscle than I thought, too."

"...So what's this?" I asked, coughing lightly as I sat down cross legged, looking around at the drones while purposefully avoiding their gazes. "You guys come to break ties formally, or is this the bit where you get angry and rip into me about not telling you sooner?... Honestly expected it from Max, but not you, Reika."

A concerned look crossing the brawler's face. "So Cardin was right, wasn't he?..." Yang muttered sadly. "You really _were_ one of them. One of those Trapper guys." It was more a statement, not a question.

"I'm not going to try and deny, it if that's what you're wondering..." I shot back, scratching at me hair absently. "It might take a bit of digging on your part, but I'm certain you can find the article detailing my arrest. Not a very flattering picture... but it's me, nonetheless."

Reika shook her head, flashing me a few hand signs, repeating it over and over. "_So what!? Ben and I are criminals, too! It changes nothing, now!"_

I shook my head, looking back at the mute with a stern gaze. "Maybe for you guys, but you weren't the subject of nightmares for an entire race of people, were you!? People aren't going to forget what I did!... And they aren't going to look kindly on those that associate themselves with me..." I spat bitterly.

It was then that I noticed Yang moving forward, so I raised a hand to stop her. "Yang, don't come near me, right now."

"You've still got a bit of food on you from earlier. What, did you change into some sort of horrible monster since lunch!? Who cares what they think!?" Yang argued vehemently, stepping onto the stage and striding towards me intently, eyes shifting from violet to red. "What does it matter what other people say about you!?"

My expression actually became genuinely hesitant. "No, Yang, I'm serious! Back off, right n...!" I tried to explain, looking at Reika, hoping she'd help me stop her. She must've also sensed what was about to happen, but was too far away to help, as Xiao Long reached out for my arm.

_'Oh shit... She'll kill me if I try to stop her, or run...'_

"Oh no, you don't! I'm not letting you mope around just because you...!" The moment her hand made contact with my skin, she flinched violently, as every golden hair on her head stood on end like a shimmering cloud.

_'Uh oh...' _I remembered one time in combat training, when one of the other students had accidentally taken a strand of hair off of Yang's mane. Needless to say, the beatdown that occurred afterward was... terrifying. Practically the embodiment of the phrase "hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned."

_'I'm dead... I'm so **fucking** dead...'_

"Yang, I, uh..." I stammered out weakly, as she retracted her hand away slowly, hair falling back in a disheveled mess around her face, which... actually had an uncharacteristically blank look to it. "Hehe... Sorry..." I shrugged my shoulders, giving her an uneasy smile.

I noticed from the corner of my eyes that Reika was clenching her sides, eyes watering as she glanced at Yang, who blew a stray strand of hair from her mouth. _'Oh, laugh it up, why don't you!? You're not the one who's gonna be on the receiving end of a slaughter, after all!' _I glared back at her as I took an unsteady step backwards.

"Joel... What was that?" Yang said, voice eerily calm as she stared me full in the face. The only sign of what was coming was a small nerve twitching above her right eye, and I didn't even need to bring up the fact that her eyes had stayed red.

"I... I-I tried to warn you!..." my voice quaked, a grinding noise from her fingers entering my eyes, as dug deeply into her leather gloves. "T-the energy my Aura produces travels through me before I let it loose... Uh, high voltage stuff like what I did to the drones can leave me a bit charged for a few minutes after, while the dampeners try and deal with it."

"...What?" she questioned evenly, cocking her head to the side. Reika started to quickly back away from the blonde girl while she was distracted.

_'You could've stopped this, damn it!' _I practically screamed with the look I was giving her.

"R-right..." I continued. I then held out my arm, pointing to a series of small white scars that ran along my both of them, and up to my chest. They were different from the others in that they were more surgical, rather than you get from wounds taken in a fight. "I redirect and absorb the voltage just fine with my Semblance. However, if I push it too far, and my Aura can't keep up, it can build up, and really damage my body. So my brother came up with a way of using Dust crystals and other tech to absorb the ambient...!"

"Simpler, faster explanation please," she snapped while brow twitched.

"Right! Of course. Uh, long story short, whenever I do anything big like this, the crystals siphon off the energy to limit the damage to my body... Side effects included..." I finished lamely as I pointed at her hair meekly.

"Oh?... So it's _not_ your fault, then?" she asked in that same eerily calm tone, twirling a frazzled lock in between her fingers as she stared at it sadly. "I mean, if you harmed my hair on purpose, in some attempt to keep me away..."

"N-no! No! Nononono! Of course not! It was an accident! Complete accident, I swear!" I vehemently reassured, hoping that it would be what saved me from the pounding at her hand.

She said nothing for a moment, before smiling back at me while nodding her head. "Oh... Well, that's good."

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that I had avoided facing her wrath. It was a short respite, however, as I soon found myself sprawled on the floor, seeing stars while my jaw felt like it had been hit by a freighter-truck.

"Now back to my point, it doesn't matter what other people think of you. What does matter is what your _friends_ think of you!" she continued, her eyes finally returning to the lilacs she had been born with.

"And what _do_ they think of me?" I shot back, sitting back up massaging my jaw. "Because judging from the looks I got before I left, I can easily assume that not everyone took it well." Looking at the hesitant expressions they gave me confirmed my suspicions.

"Well, Ruby and JNPR still think you deserve a chance..." Yang spoke up, looking towards Reika who nodded in assent. "Blake seems a bit nervous, though. And Weiss is... well..."

"Being Weiss," I finished up for her, rubbing off the bit of food that Yang had mentioned.

"Yeah... But they'll come around! It's not like you're murdering Faunus in the halls, or anything."

"_You also saved the Bunny girl. You didn't have to do that," _Reika added, fingers flashing quickly. "_Those who matter will see that."_

The image of Velvet cringing away from me flashed through my head again, forcing me to look away from them as I stood up. "And what if I told you nothing's changed? That for a second, I had _seriously _considered really hurt those assholes!? I mean, the entire point of me coming here was so I could get a new start, and forget how I used to be! To move forward with my life, and actually _help_ people!"

"So you wanted to fuck up some douchebags for being fucking douchebags for a split second," Max's voice rang out in the arena, as both she and Ben entered the room, the sharpshooter's arms tucked behind his head, while the Faunus eyed the destroyed robots with an appreciative hum. "Least you held back. I sure as shit wouldn't have. Hell, I'd have put that Winchester guy through the fuckin' table, and not bat an eye." Her brow furrowed slightly, as she tapped her lip with a long fingernail. "You know... I could probably rig up a locker bomb for him, actually. He and his whole team seem like they deserve one."

I looked at the Dog Faunus briefly over my shoulder, before fully turning to face her. "Wait a second... Are _you_ the one who's been rigging those things up!? What the hell, Max!?" I chided as gaped at her. I'd heard that some students had been getting nasty surprises in their lockers and backpacks, recently. Namely those of the explosive variety. Goodwitch had been spitting acid for weeks trying to figure out the culprit.

It was then that I came to another disturbing realization. _'Oh shit, she can make** bombs!?**'_

"So I enjoy a bit of playful anarchy! Sue me, Ambrose," she dismissed as she gave me a wide grin, while Ben just shook his head in amazement. "So who's the new girl?" she asked, gesturing over to Yang.

"My name's Yang. Yang Xiao Long from Team RWBY." Yang stuck out a hand towards the Faunus, which she hesitantly accepted. "I'm a friend of Joel's."

"Friend, huh?... Maxine Argus," my partner said cheerily pointing a thumb to her chest, looking the brawler up and down, lingering on the disheveled mane. "Heh, nice hair." I saw Yang's eye's shift color again for a split second, but she remained calm. I did note, however, that Max had grimaced as she pulled her hand away, massaging her hand gingerly as she did so.

"Nice to meet you, Max. Joel's told me a lot about you." She glanced then over at Ben, who flashed her a winning smile and a salute.

"Benjamin Carson. A friend of Psycho's is a friend of mine, Blondie," the sharpshooter introduced.

Yang looked back at me and Reika with a confused expression on her face. Reika just put her face in her hands, her version of a sigh while I just sighed.

"He does nicknames. You get used to it, after a while. Mine's Psycho, and I guess you're Blondie."

"But that's so generic!" Yang pouted. "I mean I've had people call me that forever!"

"Why fix what's not broken?" Ben laughed, clapping his hands together. "Plus, it was either that or Jugs. Or maybe..."

"Blondie's fine!" she cut him off quickly. "Anyway, I've seen you around. My sister's obsessed with your arm." She motioned towards the metal appendage.

At this, Ben perked up, a sly grin forming on his face. "_Really?_ And who's your sister? She wouldn't happen to be your _twin_, would she?"

"Her name's Ruby Rose. Young girl, excitable, wicked fast?"

Hearing her description, the rogue's grin fell into a disappointed frown. "Oh... You mean _Red..._ Yeah, I know her. She jumped me the first time I was changin' my bandages. Smart kid. Helped me calibrate my hand after Bitch, here, smacked it around with her axe." Maxine growled angrily in response. "So what's up, Reika? Here to knock some sense into our mopey leader?" Reika nodded once, smacking his hand away as he tried to ruffle her hair playfully.

"So... You're a Trapper, Ambrose..." Max observed, face shifting seriously as her eyes met mine.

"Yeah..." I relented, sighing wearily to myself. Before I knew it, however, a heavy blow caught me on the jaw again, sending me falling back to the ground.

'_Not again...'_

I must've blacked out for a bit, for when I came to, I found Ben kneeling over me, waving his hand over my face with Reika at his side. Max stood a short ways away with Yang, her hair just as frizzled and messed up as the other girl's had been.

_'Ha! Serves you right, Argus!'_

"How you feelin', big guy?" the rogue asked, helping me shakily to my feet, the world swaying back in forth like the deck of a ship. "Bitch got you with your Aura down."

"Yeah, no shit..." I groaned, standing still until the world had found some sort of balance. "I think I need to see a nurse."

"Don't hold it against her," Ben advised, looking back over to the two girls. They seemed to have struck up some sort of accord, judging by their laughter. "Did you know that the Faunus Rights League came to her, after you left? Wanted her to sign some petition to kick you out."

"I take it that it didn't go over as well they'd hoped?"

"Basically told them to go fuck themselves. They didn't take it so well," he laughed to himself, eyes trying very hard to avoid mine.

I sighed, rubbing my throbbing head tenderly before calling him out on it. "What else happened?"

"They... _mmmight've_ been a little less than cordial 'bout it..." he said slowly, picking at his arm absently. "Said some less than flatterin' things about your partner."

"Uh huh..." I had a bad feeling about this. "How many did she hurt?"

"One, actually... And, uh... It wasn't her that did it... _Ah!_" Reika smacked him upside the head, flashing him a few angry signs before marching off angrily to join the girls. "Yeah... She don't like it when I pull shit like this."

"Ben, what the hell did you do?"

"I might've... threatened the guy who insulted her. Now, before you get mad, he was a total pompous ass that totally deserved it!" he explained, noticing my angry expression. "Anyway, I sort of took this knife, and..."

I held up a hand to stop him. "I get the picture... So I guess our team probably isn't the most popular right now, is it?"

"Were we ever?" he retorted.

'_Huh... Good point.'_

"You'd have been proud, though. Bitch actually broke up the fight."

"Why bother? I don't need you guys defending me."

"Ah, shut up, Ambrose!" Max suddenly called out, making my head ring painfully. "Whether I like it or not, and believe me I do_NOT..._ _WE'RE_ a team!" She pointed to me, Reika, Ben, and then herself, puffing out her chest proudly. "And though I can't say I like any of you, especially you, Pipsqueak..." Reika flipped her off. "Being on a team means we have to look out for our own." She then shrugged her shoulders. "We might as well look out for each other, especially if no one else is."

The other two members of our group looked at the Faunus in astonishment. Reika eyes were still slightly annoyed from her previous remark, but there was a hint of admiration in them. Ben merely crossed his arms, giving the girl an appraised smirk.

"Whoa... Max, that was... That was just... _Wow,_" I gaped, mouth slacked open at my partner's speech.

"Heh... Must be the pack mentality," Ben laughed, ruining the moment perfectly, until Reika delivered a crushing blow to his midsection, sending him spluttering to the ground. "S-sorry! Couldn't, _ah.._. resist!"

"Ugh... I feel dirty just saying that." The Faunus shivered visibly, though I did notice a grin as she watched Reika continue Ben's beating. Hell, even Ben was laughing, and the mute's blows seemed less heavy.

I felt Yang set a hand on my shoulder, the charge having dissipated enough that all she had to deal with was a bit of static cling. "I hate to say it, Joel, but your team's a little weird," she said cheerily as she looked at the state of my teammates. "Nice, but weird."

I shrugged feeling a smile stretch on my face for the first time since lunch. "Meh. They do tend to grow on you, after a while."

* * *

After leaving the training room, we had all gone to the nurse's office to get myself checked out. The verdict was that I was mostly okay, though I had lost a good amount of Aura from both of the slugs I had gotten to the face, which I had purposefully omitted to the nurse. She advised that I take it easy for the rest of the day, and refrain from overexerting myself, so as to let my Aura recover.

As we walked back to our dorm room, Yang already having returned to hers, I stopped walking as something overcame my senses.

Ben and Reika noticed this and looked back to me, while Max continued on her way. "What's up, Psycho? Gettin' an aftershock headache, are we?"

I shook my head, waving him off. "Nah, I'm fine. I just remembered that I had to do something. You two go on ahead."

Reika looked up at her partner with worry, flashing a few quick hand signals, before looking back at me with an arched eyebrow. "You sure, Boss? The nurse said to take it easy. And Reika's worried that one of the Faunus students might try to hurt you, considerin' your secret's out."

I gave him reassuring grin. "Don't worry about me. I've already gotten hit by the only two people strong enough to deck me like this. I'll be fine, Ben. Honest."

The sharpshooter narrowed his eyes at me in suspicion, before relaxing and shrugging his shoulders. "Suit yourself." He then gestured at his partner to leave, before walking off himself.

Reika kept gazing at me worriedly, to which I responded with a reassuring nod. Relenting, she then followed behind her partner.

I kept smiling at them, even when they had their backs turned to me. I waited until Reika and Ben had rounded the corner heading to the dormitories, before letting that grin fall into a frown. "There a reason you're still hiding right now, Blake? You can come out; they're gone."

"...So you did notice me?" a voice said from behind me, the one who had been following us since the gym. I turned around to see Blake as she stepped from the shadows, amber eyes fixed on me. We were the only ones left in the hallway.

"Things went well with your team, I take it?"

"Better than I expected, yes." I replied happily, leaning against the wall. "You're getting better. Almost didn't notice you following along."

"Oh?"

My head was still slightly sore from those punches earlier. _'Nurse said I was fine, but...'_

"I suppose I should've expected you would come looking for me."

"I was just making sure Yang was okay," she explained. "She's my partner, and I..."

"Blake, while that might be true, she went back to your dorm a while ago. Besides... I think we both know that the reason you're here has to do with me being a Trapper," I interjected, pushing myself away from the wall while the girl took a nervous step back. "And what that word means for people like you."

Her eyes narrowed at me. "What are you...?"

"You can drop the act... I know you're a Faunus."

Her eyes suddenly widened fearfully, before lashing her fist out. I actually managed to catch this one, redirecting the blow and pushing her, gently, away from me. I held my left hand up, giving her a bit of pause and letting her know that I meant no harm. "Sorry, but I've already been decked in the face twice today. I'm not looking to get sent back to the nurse anytime soon."

"_How long!?_"

"Hmm?"

"How long have you known!?" she said coldly, taking another step away from me.

I just shook my head, and pointed towards the black bow atop her head with my outstretched hand. "Long enough. I was trained for three years to hunt Faunus, Blake. You don't think I can't tell? Especially when you have such sharp senses, not to mention the fact that your bow twitches occasionally when you get too excited or freaked out... I'd watch out for that."

"Whatever you do, please don't...!"

"Tell anyone? I've known for weeks, and I haven't told anyone, have I? It's none of my business why you're hiding, but you don't have to worry. I won't blow your secret," I reassured her, gently lowering my hand before turning to the window, the sun already setting for the day. "...We all have things we want to hide, right?" I grinned.

"...I suppose so." Blake moved to the space of the wall next to me. "Did you know that Velvet didn't join up with that mob of people trying to kick you out?"

"Yeah. My teammates already told me. Right after they mentioned the part about alienating the entire Faunus population at this school."

"It's not so bad. I overheard them arguing about how Ozpin wouldn't kick you out, though I wouldn't be surprised if they pressured him in some other way."

"Ozpin doesn't seem like the type of guy to be forced into something by the mob. To be honest, the guy could probably make an Ursa back down, if he looked at it funny."

"But they're still his students, and he's their Headmaster. He can't just ignore an outcry like this," she pointed out. "Not to mention that I doubt some students will stay quiet."

"Whatever happens, happens..." I sighed moving away from the wall and down the corridor. "If people want to give me grief, then fine. I knew the risks I was taking in coming here. But if they start messing with my team, then there'll be problems..."

"...Hey, Joel..." I turned around as the Faunus peered at me, eyes glowing in the dim light. "Why did you leave?"

"Leave?"

"The Red Hand... Why did you stop being a Trapper?" she asked, shifting uneasily from foot to foot while still keeping her eyes fixed on me. "I mean, you must have had reasons for joining, a-and I won't ask you to go into specifics..."

"It's fine," I assured, scratching the back of my head absently while looking down at my free hand, flexing my fingers. "I'm certain you know about how the Hand's priorities shifted from just White Fang, to pretty much all Faunus, right? Well, it didn't happen overnight. For years and years, it was drilled into us that every Faunus was the enemy. All Faunus, we were told, were just future soldiers that would come to take everything we loved, unless we hit them first."

"Did you really believe all that?"

"Not really..." I grimaced, clenching my hand into a fist. "...The only thing I knew was that people I loved were taken from me by some extremist group of masked bastards... And that made me angry... So damn _angry..._" I took a deep breath to try to calm myself, my fist shaking. "I first discovered my _Conduction_ when I used it to kill the Faunus that executed my parents..."

"Joel..." I saw a look of shock cross her face. I even saw twinge of guilt.

_'__Guilt?...'_

"I spent the next three years fighting for revenge, until, eventually, it just felt... normal. I never questioned my orders, or wondered about who I was hurting. I was just a weapon, blindly fighting the enemy that I'd blamed for ruining my life. I did that for a long time, and never stopped, until..." My breath hitched as the memory flashed to the forefront of my mind.

I remembered it vividly, despite the fact that I hadn't dwelled on it for a long time. A scream. A gunshot. A light, bloody thump hitting the floor.

"What happened?" she asked hesitantly, urging me to go on.

I didn't respond at first. Perhaps the memory was still flashing in my head, or I was just simply ashamed of my role in what had happened.

Eventually, I told the truth. "...I let a child die." She gasped, eyes wide. "It, uh... happened during a raid outside of Atlas and Mantle. I'd managed to fight my way to the barracks, before getting jumped by a soldier I'd missed. Guy knocked my weapons away, but I still managed to get him with my Semblance... Once he was down, a girl ran out... Couldn't have been older than ten or eleven, at most." I could still see her face, pale and wide eyed, lip quivering in barely suppressed fear and sorrow. "She ran to the guy's body, crying out for him... Turned out that the man that I'd killed was her probably her father... And she had seen me take him from her with her own eyes... At that moment... I realized that I was no better than the White Fang, taking loved ones away from their families..." And all for the sake of blood that had already been paid...

I punched myself lightly in the head, just enough to hurt. I deserved it. "I just felt numb, standing there paralyzed after realizing what I'd done. I didn't notice her pick up a knife and run at me. I probably would've let her finish me off, if another Trapper hadn't come in after me and... dealt with her."

I hadn't thought of this in months, having buried it so deeply, that it only haunted me in dreams.

"...He killed a child?" I could hear the revulsion in her voice, the disgust.

I nodded sadly. "He just pulled her away from me. He had audacity to actually shoot her point blank, like she was nothing... When I asked him why, he just seemed glad, like he'd done the world a service by killing her so terribly. 'One less breeder,' he said..." I'd killed him seconds after he said that, jabbing a knife to his heart. He hadn't even seen it coming... " That day, I left the Red Hand... It wasn't easy. I had to take down some fellow Trappers and soldiers to get away successfully. I turned myself into the nearest police station, afterwards. Then, months later, I get a visit from some famous Headmaster, saying he wanted me for his school in Vale, and that I could attend if I wanted to."

I grinned as I remembered the strange visit. Me in irons, with walls of rubber-coated steel surrounding me, sitting across from this strange man asking me to come away with him, and fight the monsters in Mankind's nightmares, like I used to dream about as a boy. I'd thought it would be a way for me to atone for my sins, or at least try and do some good before I go. _'Hell of a lot better fighting some Grimm than rotting away in a dark cell...'_

Blake stared at me silently, face unreadable, before she finally spoke up. "Do you still hate the Faunus?... For taking your family away?"

I shook my head, exhaling from my nostrils as I did so. "No, I never hated the Faunus. Even after all that propaganda bull, I only killed those that tried to kill me. I do still hate the White Fang... But I realize that they're only a small minority."

The girl nodded in understanding, before turning to go her own way from the hall.

"Blake!" I shouted after her as she was about to round the corner. "...Were you a member of the White Fang?" It was a rude question to ask, I suppose. _Very_ rude. And I doubted she would answer truthfully, if she was. But I had to see if my suspicions were true.

"...Not anymore..." she said finally, avoiding my gaze before walking quickly out of sight.

I don't know how long I stayed there watching the space she'd vacated, but I eventually wandered off back to my dorm. Opening it, I found my teammates sprawled out in their beds, fast asleep. Maxine's snoring was the only sound in the room. I could see that Ben had put his pillow over his head in an attempt to muffle it out. As I climbed into bed, I noticed an alert on my Scroll, activating it to see a message from the Headmaster's office.

_"Team AMBR is to report to Professor Ozpin's office before classes, tomorrow morning. No excuses will be accepted. Attendence is **MANDATORY.**" -Professor Glynda Goodwitch_

_'Well, this is interesting,_' I thought, sparing the message a second's thought, before drifting off to sleep.

I still wasn't sure if coming to this Academy was a good idea. In retrospect, it probably wasn't... But knowing I had some friends within these walls made it seem that much more bearable.

* * *

_**-Professor Ozpin-**_

I felt a frown settle on my face, throwing the report down on the desk with a heavy sigh. "And the details are all ironed out?"

"As much as can be expected," Glynda replied, nodding briskly as she eyed my sixth glass of coffee disdainfully. "You need sleep, Professor. It isn't healthy for you to push yourself like this."

"I have three more requests to sign off, and another bout of complaints from earlier." I glanced at the thrown together petition I'd found affixed to my door.

_'Really, Joel? Could you have chosen a more inopportune time_?'

I'd looked over the footage from the dining hall incident, and aside from a minor injury to Russell Thrush, Joel had handled the situation well, if only being a little too rough on Cardin towards the end.

"I see some still let their fears control them, even now."

"That entire team, except for Murasaki, is trouble. And even she's becoming a handful."

"Her private lessons not going as well as you hoped?"

She shook her head, a knot of worry crossing her face. "It's not that. She's doing quite well, actually. She'll be fully literate by the end of the month, at this rate. No, the problem is that she's still closed off. Her past is as much a mystery as when we started, and her partner has done little to help."

"Give her time, Glynda. I've never even spoken to the young girl, and I can tell that she has experienced her own share of troubles. They all have."

"Any you believe sending them out on a mission months earlier than expected will help?"

I could feel her eyes burning holes in my head as I took another sip from the fresh pot. "I had to make some concessions with the Faunus Rights League. They have as much right to feel safe as anyone, and that means that Peach's outing is off-limits. I can't just leave them on campus, can I?"

Her eyes narrowed sharply. "So you believe sending them out to some disaster site is a better alternative!?"

"The concentration of Grimm is low enough that there should be few problems. They merely need to report on the situation, and come back. Really, the only reason I'm doing this is to appease the SDC. They demanded a Huntsmen team to look into it." I held up a hand to cut off her argument, rubbing my aching eyes. "It's _done,_ Glynda. They may be young, but each member of that team has more raw skill than any other individual student here."

"As well as the unpredictability of wild Beowolves," Glynda finished, adjusting her spectacles with a "humph" of indignation. "Good night, Professor." She strode from the office, giving me one last glare before the door closed behind her.

* * *

_**-Weiss Schnee-**_

_'Where have I seen him before?' _I wondered as I stared up at our leader's bunk, the soft snoring of my teammates filling the room. _'Ugh, this is so **infuriating.** Why can't I remember?'_

It wasn't as if there were many people walking around with hair as white as his. He almost looked like a Schnee, but his hair was more stark than smooth.

_'He's a member of the Red Hand, is that it?'_

My family usually tried to keep it under a thin veil of privacy, but it was a well established fact that Father had dealt with some... unsavory characters, especially in the past. This was especially true when it came to dealing with the White Fang and their assassins. Throughout my later childhood, my family had been constantly on the attack, as I watched relatives and business partners alike meet their end on the blade of some Faunus degenerate scum. The Red Hand was one of my father's more... colorful choices. Hired to protect Dust shipments out of the Kingdom, the organization had done a fair job of dissuading troublemakers. Father had even requested a pair of bodyguards for Winter and I...

_"You fight well, Miss Schnee," _a muffled, distorted voice rang out in my mind, a voice I hadn't heard in years that had belonged to my bodyguard. _"You focus too much on following proper forms. It makes you easy to read."_

At the time, I'd merely chewed out the man for daring to question me, but... No... It _couldn't_ be. They would be about the same height, I suppose, but the guard couldn't have been him! There's no way the Red Hand would've assigned a child to watch me. He'd have been sixteen, at most!

_'Winter's guard was young enough, I suppose, but he was a prodigy, as she so fondly flaunted. Plus, he was at least of age...'_

Could it have been him? The Trapper assigned to me never removed his terrifying mask that they all had, the faceless visage marked with a blood red handprint.

_"Get the girl out of here!" _I remembered him shouting as he pushed me towards security at that concert, catching the assassin's arm before the knife found my heart. He twisted the appendage with a snap of bone as the crowd screamed, had slammed the man to the ground' and then... The man, a Faunus White Fang assassin it was discovered, had spasmed on the ground for a few seconds, before just falling to the ground dead. Almost as if he had been...

_'Electrocuted...!'_

I sat up quickly, shivering slightly.

It _was_ him!

-END

**A/N: Hey all sorry for the delay writing this, midterms are coming round and things are getting a bit hectic though, I'm having a lot of fun with this as I appreciate the positive reviews.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Edited as of (10/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

WHAT IS HATE?

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"So tell me again why we have to make the trek all the way up to Ozpin's office this early in the morning?" I groaned, treading along after Ambrose and Carson up the long flight of stairs.

_'Damn_ _whoever busted the elevator! Damn them to the deepest pits of hell!'_

"Well, Goodwitch's message said to come before classes started, so that's the time we're going with," Joel explained with an annoyed look on his face. "Besides, it's only about an hour until you'd be up, anyway."

_'Yep. Definitely annoyed.'_

Someone, or _someones,_ had snuck out during the night, and covered our door in graffiti, _"DIE TRAPPER DIE!" _being amongst the nicest. Our leader had laughed it off earlier, saying one of the crude drawings they'd made actually captured his good side, but it definitely got to him.

"Yeah, and it's an hour I'd rather spend sleeping, and not doing this!" I growled venomously, staring out an open window towards the ground several hundred feet below, only to flinch back quickly with my hair standing on end, and my ears twitching in alarm._'Shit, that's high!'_

"You feelin' okay?" Poncho asked, pausing to look back at me curiously. I schooled my face back to normal within an instant, glowering back at him. He just shrugged tiredly, trudging along after the rest of our team.

_'That was close...' _I breathed a sigh of relief, before my eyes shifted back to the window, suppressing a shudder. _'Okay, new plan. Demolish the school, and destroy all stairs. Stairs are the enemy!'_

Within minutes, and a lot of tired complaints, we managed to pick our way up the last flight, coming to a stop in front of the side door to the Headmaster's Office. The pipsqueak raised her hand, flashing a few quick signs in that strange little handtalk of hers towards Ben, who only shrugged in response.

"I don't think so. Why would Ozpin need the rest of us here if this was just about Psycho? No... Somethin' else's up."

"You realize this might also have something to do with you threatening another student with a knife, right?" Ambrose called back, causing Carson to shift uncomfortably while his partner glared at him angrily. "Let's just take what comes, be respectful, and try not to say anything we all might regret, okay?"

I had a sneaking suspicion that the last bit was aimed towards me, but kept my snide comment to myself as we entered the office.

"Ah, there you all are..." Ozpin greeted us from behind his desk, sitting in front of an enormous window pane that opened out onto the whole of the surrounding area, including Vale. My skin crawled just imagining how high up we really were.

_'At least you can somewhat ignore it when you're in the rooms...'_

"I'm sorry about making you trek all the way up here so early..." He nodded towards the elevator apologetically, giving us a small smile. "I know from experience the walk isn't pleasant."

Joel nodded. "It's no trouble, though I can see now why you have a spare office on the lower floors, now." Ben muttered his assent, only to receive a stern punch from his partner. "Now, if you don't mind, Professor, we'd like to know what this is all about."

"Straight to the point, then..." Ozpin reached inside his desk, removing a small file from amongst many of the contents. "Before we begin, however, I need to go over some new ground rules with you, Mr. Ambrose."

"Ah, so you heard about my little secret getting out?"

The Professor nodded slowly, closing his eyes. I noticed dark circles under them, as well. Deep ones. The scent of coffee also hung off of him in waves.

_'Someone hasn't been sleeping well, either.'_

"Yes, I have. From over a dozen sources from the Faunus community and other concerned students, who flooded my office whilst screaming for your immediate dismissal, threatening to get parents involved if I did nothing."

I stepped forward, feeling my annoyance spike. "So, what? Are you gonna kick him out!? He hasn't done anything to them! They're just scared!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, turning to see Joel holding me back, a firm expression on his face, before he turned back to the old Huntsman.

"Sorry about that, Professor..."

"It's quite alright... The headmaster looked over at me. "Miss Argus is merely speaking out in her partner's defense, in her own way. A welcome change of character, I must admit. I was afraid the recent revelation might have negatively affected your relationship working with each other."

"Ambrose can be a bit of an ass sometimes, but he has his moments." I pulled my shoulder free, looking back at the white-haired Huntsman. "Doesn't mean I don't want to gut him, sometimes, but he's better than a lot of other people around here, Trapper or not."

Ben laughed at that stepping forward as well. "While I wouldn't have worded it quite like that, Professor, she speaks for all of us. Psycho here's only done good by us, so far."

Ozpin glanced at all of AMBR once again before giving us all a surprised, but warm smile. "I'm impressed, Mr. Ambrose."

"Believe me, so was I," our leader admitted, face red with embarrassment, before frowning once again. "You said you have new guidelines, so I take it I'm not here to get expelled?"

"Not at all," Ozpin reassured him, giving his head a quick shake, as if clearing it. "You are a student of this Academy. That fact has not changed. However..." he gestured towards a stack of ruffled papers lying across his desk. "With this kind of outcry, some public show of action is necessary, I'm afraid."

I growled, teeth bared as I gave the Professor my best death glare. "But he hasn't done anything wrong! It was all CRDL's fault! Why the hell are you...!"

"Max, that's _enough!_" Joel's voice silenced mine immediately. He gave me a calm frown, before speaking up again "Go ahead, Professor."

_'This is complete bullshit! Why's he being so calm about this!?'_

"I'm sorry, Joel. I managed to keep you enrolled, but only just by a thread. There will be some new restrictions." He pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket. "First, you will not be allowed to carry your weapons within the school grounds, unless on an assignment, or under strict supervision from a staff member during all training and practice sessions. Until then, your equipment is to be stored in your locker, along with a new lock that can only be opened by receiving a signal from both your own Scroll and one from Professor Goodwitch."

I noticed Joel flinch slightly, but he nodded in understanding. "Okay... That's bearable. Not much different from the regular rules, except for the teacher supervision part. What else?"

"Next, you are required to attend two hour-long sessions a week with a member of staff, who will evaluate your behavior, and can, at that staff member's discretion, suspend or adjust your position at this school."

"Do I get to choose the teacher?"

"One has already stepped forward. I'm certain you won't be displeased. Your first meeting is later today. We will relay the location to your Scroll," Ozpin replied curtly, before glancing down once again at the list in his hand, shaking his head distastefully. "And finally, you must give a spoken apology to the Faunus community for the assault of Richard Kaplan."

"Oh, _HELL_ _no!_" Ben stepped forward this time angrily, fists clenched as he pushed past Ambrose and marched in front of the Headmaster's desk, slamming both hands down hard as he did so, causing us all to jump as the piece of furniture rattled visibly. His scent radiating anger in waves. "Professor, that wasn't Psycho's fault! That was all _me!_ Punish _me!_"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Carson. While I was against it, the demand was for Joel, specifically, to present the apology, not you, as he is Team AMBR's leader, and is thus responsible for your actions, however indirectly."

I could hear my teeth grinding together at that. Even Reika seemed to be fuming. _'Kaplan, that little shit. He just wanted the image of a Trapper begging him for forgiveness!'_

"Joel _can_ say no to this. However, if he does, it will mean your suspension, as you were the one who threatened him."

I almost cracked a tooth. _'Now he's essentially forcing Ambrose to do it!'_

"I'm sorry, Joel. This was the best I could do. My hands are unfortunately tied."

"Done," Joel said quickly, before any of us could say anything else, face set resolutely.

"Psycho- Joel, no!..." Ben started to say, before a look from Joel cut him off, leaving him grumbling at the floor.

"Anything else, Professor?"

"Just one last thing before you go to class..." Ozpin placed a finger on the folder, sliding across the desk towards us. "I have put your team forward in a mission tomorrow just outside the Kingdom. Well outside the scope of any heavy Grimm activity, but still out in the field."

"...A _mission?_" I noted, confused and rightly so. "Like, a proper mission, and not an assignment or a practice, or something like that? I thought we wouldn't get it until next semester?" I could tell by the shift in scent that my teammates were shocked as well.

"That is true. Officially, you shouldn't receive your first mission until then. However, this is a special case, considering your team's active combat experience." Ozpin nodded towards Joel, Ben, and Reika in turn. "Your teammates, Miss Argus, possess practical knowledge of working in a hostile field. Thus, I trust that AMBR is more than capable of completing such a mission early."

"So you want us to go hunt Grimm early?"

I couldn't believe it. I thought it'd be months until I got to fight a live Grimm again. My way, and not like in Port's controlled classroom.

"Not precisely..." Ozpin admitted, the words causing my ears to droop in disappointment. "This mission comes directly from the Schnee Dust Company, and concerns one of their mining operations just outside the Kingdom." Joel opened the folder, which had aerial shots of a quarry nestled against the base of a large mountain inside. "One week ago, this quarry's crew went silent. Shipments stopped, and all attempts to establish contact have failed. After three days, a response team from the company was sent in, who have since disappeared as well. The main issue is that this area has always been noted for having a low Grimm population, despite being outside the Kingdom's borders, one of the reasons the company was so interested in it in the first place. But it is possible an incursion may have occurred since then. The SDC has requested the assistance of a team of Huntsmen from Vale to ascertain the situation, and, if possible, solve the problem."

"So you're sendin' us, rather than real Huntsmen and Huntresses?" Ben muttered, glaring at the headmaster, robotic fingers clenched. "What? Everyone else on holiday, or somethin'?"

"Your team is different from the others at this school, Mr. Carson," Ozpin explained, resting his chin on top of both hands, leaning forward. "AMBR's members, namely Joel, Reika, and yourself, possess a wealth of experience that other students do not. Both of you lived in the Badlands, while Joel, here, hails from the Frontier, places both known for their excessive danger from both the Creatures of Grimm and other threats. I hope to use that experience, and mold your team into a force that can handle what other students at your level could not."

Something clicked into place at those words, and sick realization rose in my throat that killed my good mood.

"Bet it helps that no one'll miss us if we screw up..." I said slowly, eyes boring into his accusingly. "Joel's an ex-Trapper with a record. Ben and Reika don't have anywhere to go, and his Dad can't do anything about it, while my parents are both gone. No one'll ask questions if we disappear, but we're strong enough that you can use in situations you don't want to risk your teachers or students in. A real suicide squad..." I saw his eyes twitch in annoyance, but he said nothing, merely letting my words wash over him, face keeping that veneer of calm. "What? Not even gonna defend yourself?"

I saw Ben and the others eyeing him as well, their anger and frustration barely contained now that I brought up my point.

"Defend myself for what?" Ozpin asked after taking a deep breath, eyes focusing on me, almost as if examining me. "For using the pieces I have available effectively? Miss Argus, you seem to forget that our duty as Huntsmen and Huntresses is to use our unique skills, and risk our safety, for Humans and Faunus everywhere. To throw ourselves in front of them as a shield against the Creatures of Grimm." I opened my mouth angrily, but he silenced me with a glare. The pressure radiating off of the man was enormous, and the other's could feel it as well. Every animal instinct in me was telling me to hold my tongue. "Miss Argus... Maxine. I know that I am being unfair. That I'm willing to place you in a dangerous situation because I cannot risk a full team of Huntsmen on an unknown situation. However, know that I am sending your team in particular because I know you all have the ability to succeed if the need calls for it. Not just any team can take on a Chimera, even a juvenile one, at your age and best it. Not to mention the term 'suicide squad' can hardly apply in this case."

"Still seems like a bum deal, to me," Ben grumbled under his breath, arms crossed.

"In the meantime, you will be sent on small exercises so we can ascertain your reliability in the field. You will be clearing Grimm dens and such for the next week, which should improve your teamwork, and allow us to placate the SDC with tales of your successes. Regular class assignments will be suspended, so don't worry about falling behind."

_'Fighting Grimm instead of homework for a week? Sounds like heaven.'_

"That's all I have for you. Professor Goodwitch will be in contact with the specifics of your exercises, which should begin tomorrow. Richard has his assembly in half an hour. I expect you to be there." Ben let out an angry sound from deep in his throat, but stayed silent as Joel nodded. "Good. Dismissed."

My teammates and I moved towards the door to leave. However, I stayed behind to look at Ozpin one last time. "If it's any consolation, Headmaster... I like you, and I know that you're only doing what you feel is right. It's for a shit reason, but at least you have the balls to admit it."

"Don't thank me, Maxine." He shook his head, massaging his eyes gingerly before looking back at the papers his desk with a heavy sigh. "In a perfect world, you wouldn't have to put your childhood on hold just because it's more convenient."

"Eh. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be any Grimm, and that would be boring for people like me." I flashed him a wolfish grin before departing, chuckling to myself, until I remembered what we were leaving to do.

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Ben, just shut up. It's my choice. Might as well give him what he wants, and get it over with," I said for what must've been the sixth time since leaving Ozpin's office, shooting the sniper a dark look. "Besides if, I don't-"

"What!? I get suspended!? At least that way, we get to keep some shred of dignity!" Ben spat angrily, kicking at the ground as we neared the amphitheater. "I just hate the thought of that smug prick usin' you to get back at her."

"Who, Max? You're the one who threatened him, weren't you?"

"For insultin' her! I told you she wouldn't help him out with his little witch hunt." He glanced back at Max. "She's not exactly as involved in the Faunus community as I suppose he wanted her to be." He sighed picking up a large rock off the path, juggling it in his free hand. "Fuckin' asshole..."

"Ben..." I started as I glanced at the rock, eyebrow raised.

"Calm down, Psycho. I'm learnin'. This is completely for stress relief..." He held up both arms in mock surrender. "Plus, I get the nice mental image of bashin' his head in. Should make this whole thing a bit more palatable. Want one?"

"I'll pass, thanks..." I grunted, trying to avoid the stares from Faunus and human students both as they passed us by. "You know, I think Max is starting to rub off on you."

"Nah, I've always been like this. People just think Rei's the violent one." He laughed darkly, tossing the rock between his hands now. "I'm just less open about it than Bitch is."

I shrugged, taking a deep breath, before opening the door to the amphitheater, and striding into what I realized was a very crowded room, filled with students both Faunus and Human alike. I felt my heart drop to somewhere beneath my feet.

_'Ah, shit...'_

A bulky, orange headed boy with black striped cheeks stood on the raised platform, yellowish eyes staring smugly at me as I strode through the room. Students parted out of my way as I walked by. I vaguely remembered the man as leader of RSET, one of the few all-Faunus teams on campus.

_'Hmm, figure of authority. Probably likes to place himself on top... No wonder Max hates him...' _I felt my lip tug to the side at the thought. _'Might as well enjoy the little things.'_

"Mr. Ambrose! How nice of you to join us..." Kaplan said loudly, drawing the attention of the entire room to both him and me. "I have to admit, I'm surprised and elated you chose to come, at all..." He gestured towards the space next to him. He probably wanted me to stand next to prove his superiority to everyone right at my face.

"Let's get this over with, Kaplan." I came to a halt only a few feet from the stage, denying him his little moment. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but the thought of being up on the stage just to feed his ego sickened me. Ben was wrong if he thought I'd just completely debase myself. "I was told you wanted an apology?"

"For your teammate's actions, yes..." the Tiger Faunus announced, pointing towards Ben, eyes narrowing at my lack of compliance. "Threatening my life in full view of the student body... Such actions may be tolerated in a barbaric group such as the Red Hand. But _this_ is Beacon. We work hard to instill a sense of equality and safety within this academy, for both races. And I, for one-"

A loud crack punctuated the room, as the rock in Ben's right hand shattered under the crushing metal, robotic fingers grinding the gravel into dust.

"...I apologize for my comrade's actions. I'm certain you've experienced similar situations as a team leader, yourself?" Kaplan seemed taken aback, eyes still darting towards Ben. "I will make sure that it doesn't happen again."

The rogue waved at him, dust sifting down his hand onto the floor in a fine powder. _'I love this bastard.'_

"E-excellent..." The Faunus shifted uncomfortably, before regaining his composure "But I can't help but fear, however, that such... behavior... may have only occurred in part due to certain influences. In fact, I feel rather terrified." Murmurs of agreement rose up from the surrounding students. "Can I be certain that you will not fall back to your old ways, one day? Professor Ozpin may have restricted your weapons, but I know about your other talents, Joel. Am I safe? Is any Faunus in this room safe!?"

The murmurs grew in volume at those words. I even heard a few "yeahs" yelled out.

"I'm not...!"

"You've yet to not deny your affiliation with the Red Hand, a group infamous for its hate of my people, Ambrose. Does that imply that there is some part of you that cringes hatefully at Faunus, such as my...!"

"_FOR YOU INFORMATION,_ _Kaplan...!_" I cut him off, voice noticeably angry now. "I've _never_ hated the Faunus... _Never._"

"How can you say that!? Need I remind everyone that you were in the...!"

"Red Hand! Yes! Thank you _so_ much for establishing that fact," I responded somewhat mockingly.

_'I agreed to an apology, not this ego trip...'_

"And yes, just so no one is asking questions about it later, I've killed members of the White Fang, who, yes, happened to be Faunus themselves..." I let the crowd sink this in before continuing. "Does this make me hate all Faunus? No. I've taken down Humans in the same fashion. They were all coming at me with the intent to kill, and I responded in kind."

Well, if people weren't whispering before, they sure we're now.

"So it's true, then!?" Richard blurted. "You admit you hate...!"

"What _is_ hate, Richard!?" The use of his first name shocked him, a trick that I'd learned in the Trappers that made interrogations much more effective.

"Huh?..." he stammered, looking from me to the crowd. "Why are you...?"

"Hate, to me, is watching the White Fang kill my best friend's father, and a host of others, in front of her for saying they were criminals. _Hate_ is seeing those same monsters take my parents away from me for trying to protect him and the other innocent bystanders that were caught up in their wake. _HATE_ is experiencing and hearing a hundred other stories just like that, of how they have taken away homes, friends, _and_ loved ones, all while trying to justify a terrorist fear campaign as 'fighting for equality!' We all have an Aura, Richard, a _soul!_ It's what separates us from the Grimm!"

I looked back to those standing nearby. Some stared at me with fear, others with interest.

"I don't hate someone or something because of something as trivial as their _race._ I hate them because they hurt me, and those I care about, and would hurt others if left unchecked. I _regret_ what the Red Hand became, and my inability to stop it! However, that _doesn't_ mean that I don't still believe that the White Fang needs to be stopped! No, this doesn't mean that I hate the Faunus as a whole. I just hate a group of terrorists that use you as an excuse to cause others pain! And I promise you all, right here, that as long as you serve to protect others and uphold the principles that this school was founded upon, you will have _nothing_ to fear from me... I swear it on my honor!"

I nodded to them all, giving Kaplan one last withering glance, before turning around. "Now, wait just one...!"

"But let's make something perfectly clear, here and now..." I looked to the assembled students sternly, standing to my full height. "If _any_ of you try make my team, or anyone else who interacts with me suffer for that fact, or mistreat them in any way... I will not stay silent, and will make sure you _WILL_ regret it. Your problem will be with me, and me alone..." I finished, before striding from the amphitheater with teammates in tow.

"Holy shit, Ambrose..." Max said, falling into step next to me. "Not sure you made many friends with that speech, if that's what you were going for. Especially the whole killer bit."

"It's the truth, Max. I'm not going to hide my past and let people wonder and make up stories."

"Hey, can't say you didn't tell him you were sorry, though! That whole 'we all have a soul' thing? _Really_ deep," Ben laughed, clapping me on the back before his face dropped in concern. "I'm sorry, Joel. I know that can't have been easy, talkin' about your parents. Man... I had no idea..."

Reika punched me lightly in the side, eyes staring up at me worriedly.

"No harm done, you two..." I grinned at the both of them warmly. "I needed to get that out, anyway. What better place for it than there?"

"_JOEL!_"

I looked around, somewhat startled, to see a familiar girl with rabbit ears running towards us.

"_Velvet...?_"

-END

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed reading, Not much action and a bit shorter than usual, sorry. This is more of a Filler chapter, setting up for the first mission and whatnot. Please leave your comments, I love hearing them in my other stories and my philosophy is they only make the story better. Have a great week everyone.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Edited as of (10/23/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

FIRST MISSION

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"_Velvet...?_" I stammered out as the Rabbit Faunus ran up to us, out of breath and panting, as she stared at me nervously.

Max snarled angrily, pushing past me as she went for Velvet, who flinched but didn't back down. "What the hell do you want, you little...!" I put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her before she could do anything worse than bark. I shook my head as she glanced around at me, confused. "What!? This is _her_ fault! If she hadn't...!"

"I can handle it," I said simply, gesturing for her and the rest of my team to wait at the end of the hall.

"Ambrose!"

"_Argus_..." I said more firmly this time, before giving her a grin. "I've got this."

Max opened her mouth as if to argue, but ultimately closed it, growling under her breath as she nodded. She stomped after Ben and Reika, who had already walked off. Along the way, her Aura flared suddenly, as every window she passed began rattling dangerously.

_'Good thing I've got that meeting later. Don't think I want to be in my room for a while,' _I thought with relief, turning my attention back to Velvet, who still stood in front of me, brown eyes staring sadly after the Canine Faunus.

"Sorry about that. Just ignore what she said. She just gets a bit... heated, sometimes," I said awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head as I tried very hard not to hear the loud crash ring out from the end of the hall.

"She's right, though..." the brunette sighed, gazing down at the ground rubbing her arm. "It _is_ my fault. If you hadn't tried to help me, if you'd just let Cardin do what he wanted..."

"Then I would've felt like such an ass," I finished, shrugging as I bent down so I could see her eyes. "I don't blame you for what happened, Velv. It was gonna come out either way, eventually."

"But I just froze! I was so scared of you, even though you've been nothing but kind to me since we met..." She shook her head furiously, "Afterwards, I wanted to talk to you; to apologize! But then Richard started hounding me to sign that damn petition, and to say that you threatened to hurt me..." She sniffed loudly, covering her face. "I'm in my supposed to be your senior here, and I _still_ can't stick up for myself. I'm so _pathetic!_"

"Velvet. _I_. _Don't_. _Blame. You,"_ I said slowly, emphasizing each word as I brought her hands down, giving her a friendly grin. "Honestly, I'd be a little worried for you if the thought of a Trapper standing in front of you didn't terrify you, especially considering I didn't tell you about it." I averted my eyes guiltily as she glanced up at me. "You're actually one of the first Faunus to consider me as a friend since I joined the Red Hand... Well, besides Max, but 'friend' is a bit of a loose term with her... " I took a deep breath, calming myself down as thoughts of the last three years began to sneak to the forefront of my mind. "I joined them along with my friend so that I could protect her, and get some measure of payback. Instead, I just ended up leaving my brother, the last bit of family I had left, alone, when he needed me most. And all for what? So I could end up becoming the same kind of monster I tried so hard to kill..."

"Joel..." I then looked at her face, brown eyes staring intently into mine. "A monster wouldn't have stepped in to help me when I needed it. A monster wouldn't have put himself through that sham of an apology, just to keep their teammate out of trouble. And a monster _certainly_ wouldn't be able to inspire the kind of loyalty you do in your team, or doing his best to apologize right now."

She looked down the hall, wincing slightly. _'Great. Max must've broken something expensive.'_

"They might not show it, but I can tell that you all care for one another. Not a lot of teams can say that. I mean Richard runs RSET like an army sergeant."

"Yeah. Tried that. Didn't work out so well," I laughed. "I've found that, after a while, you get more bees with honey. And even though Max can be difficult, sometimes, her heart's in the right place."

I sighed, glancing back over my shoulder, and more than a little shocked to find a crushed drinking fountain spitting a steady stream of water into the hall. _'Great...'_

"Look Velvet..." I bowed my head towards her. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I should've told you, at least considering how much it concerned you, but I was too much of a coward... Do you still want to be friends...?"

"Of _course_ I still want to be friends." She caught me up in a tight hug, giving me a friendly wink. "You're not getting out of our project, so easily!"

* * *

"Ah, Mr. Ambrose! Come in, come in!" a familiar fast-paced voice welcomed me as I opened the classroom door, still cringing after the talking to I'd gotten from Goodwitch about destruction of public property.

_'Keep this up, and my team might start taking advantage...'_

"Sit down," a greenish blur zoomed around the room, moving desks and chairs out of the way.

"Professor... _Oobleck_?" I wondered, as the green-haired professor came to a stop in front of me, clothes still slightly disheveled. "You're the one who stepped forward for me?"

"Well, when Professor Ozpin asked for one of the faculty staff to manage you, of course I volunteered!" The Huntsman ushered me into the room, setting me down on one of the spare chairs lying around. "And it's _Doctor_ Oobleck," he added sternly, before zooming off towards the large teacher's desk, rifling through a pile of papers. "I didn't spend all that extra time studying for nothing, after all!"

"Sorry, Prof... _Doctor,_" I corrected quickly, seeing the twitch of his eyebrow. "I just don't know why you'd do this for me. It has to be a hassle for you, right?"

"Not at all, not at all!" he reassured me. "I was actually amongst the most qualified for such a position! History wasn't the only thing I studied, after all. Someone as fast as I am needs to spend his spare time somehow, and Psychology was always a little side hobby of mine. Now, then!..." He appeared suddenly in a chair across from me, leaning back comfortably notebook and pencil in hand. "Let's begin."

"...So we're officially calling this therapy, then?" I asked hesitantly. "I thought this was just a check-in?" I'd already been through the gamut of criminal, social, and behavioral psychologists. Even a student piece stopped by about two months into my sentence.

"A 'check-in' can refer to many things. We're here for an hour, Mr. Ambrose. May as well use it, correct?" He tapped his notepad. "You don't need to tell me anything you don't want to."

"Alright... Where do you wanna start?" I crossed my arms behind my head lazily.

"Well, your 'apology' to Mr. Kaplan did bring up a few points," he noted, scribbling something down on his pad, before eyeing me expectantly. "Students are already talking."

"I thought it got the point across," I shrugged. "So, do you want to hear about my parents? My time in the Red Hand? My first mission?..."

"Actually, I'd like to explore why you agreed to Richard's terms in the first place?"

The question caught me off guard. "I'm sorry?"

"Why did you agree to give that apology? You had to have known that it would've been turned on you. It was an attempt to put you down before the student body, and I'm sure it dredge up some unpleasant emotions for yourself. So why would you ever agree to that to put yourself through that?"

"Well if I didn't, then Ben would've been suspended. I couldn't just let that happen."

"Why not?" Oobleck countered, making another swift note. "Though I'm certain Richard isn't entirely blameless for his situation, Mr. Carson still reacted poorly."

"I'm his team leader...!" I stammered out, but Oobleck cut me off with a sharp tap.

"So a team leader should always sacrifice himself for his team?"

"Of course not! But I...!"

Another loud tap.

"What about the situation with Miss Scarlatina?" Oobleck said pointedly, adjusting his glasses. "You against four trained students, where a victory could mean expulsion for yourself. Was that worth it?"

"I... I... That was..."

"Admirable? Yes. But also foolish, _and_ detrimental to yourself." The professor paused, glancing down at his notes. "Even your reason for joining the Red Hand was to defend others at the cost of your own safety. Forgive me, but such behavior can't be healthy. Is there a reason why?"

I wanted to argue that point, but couldn't help considering that he was absolutely right. I hid it behind noble ideals, justifying it to myself at the time, but Oobleck had a point.

"It's... It's complicated..." I said after a short pause. "Growing up, my parents always stressed protecting others whenever you could, placing them before yourself. I mean, that's what being a cop or a Huntsman is all about. Placing yourself in harm's way in defense of someone else who can't take it, you know?"

"That is one of the symbolic duties associated of those careers, yes," the Huntsman nodded. "But there is a time where restraint, caution, is warranted. Someone in your new position can't just throw themselves away, willy-nilly."

"So I should let someone get hurt, if I could stop it!?" I was on my feet now. When did that happen?

"If the need is great enough, then yes..." The doctor stared me full in the face, unwavering. "Being a leader means trusting your teammates, knowing what risks are worth taking, but also knowing when to make the hard choices. You are more of a symbol to your team then you know, and if you are lost in a very volatile situation..."

"Ben would take over..."

"And you would force that upon him? What if he's compromised emotionally, or if he doesn't have all of the information that you do? You are a constant on your team; the glue that binds it together in a crisis. You _CANNOT_ fall!"

"I... I never thought about it that way."

"It may sound cruel to hear it, but a king cannot sacrifice itself for a pawn, or a knight, if the game is to be won." The statement hung in the air, Ozpin's earlier words replaying in my head. "Now, I'd like to move on to another topic, but I recommend that you keep what we've talked about in mind. Especially over the next few days with your upcoming mission."

All I could do was nod blankly, still caught up in the realization of just how much weight had been pushed on my shoulders.

_'How does Ozpin do it?'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

**(One Week Later)**

"_On your six, Bitch!_" Poncho cried out as he dodged a bolt of light, leaping away as it impacted on the ground and sending up a veritable glacier of ice. "You've got a shadow!"

I spun around, bringing _Cerberus _to bare as I knocked away an attempted sneak attack from RWBY's resident ninja, who flipped away before I could land a solid hit.

"Damn it, stay still!"

I had to fight to stay focused, the smell of cat permeating my senses. _'The hell!?'_

She landed in a graceful crouch, lashing out again with that strange sickle of hers. I ducked under the weapon as it passed by just centimeters above my ears.

_'Enjoy this, cat lady!' _I grinned, feeling a rush of energy as my Aura flared to life. _'Focus, focus, **FOCUS!**' _I stretched my arm out in a grabbing motion, feeling a smile build across my face at the gasp of surprise I heard as the bladed pistol froze in mid air on its way back around. I jerked my arm back, causing the weapon to fly off the stage, followed shortly by its surprised owner.

"Miss Belladonna is out!" Goodwitch called out from her perch in the stands, bespectacled eyes glaring down at the melee.

I collapsed to my knees as my Aura faded quickly, panting heavily. _'Stupid, stupid Semblance!' _The thing was still fickle as hell, taking all of my concentration, not to mention my power, just to do simple hit on anything at range. _'But I could do worse than that... I could go around and wipe out a whole building...' _I gritted my teeth, suppressing the unspoken voice.

"_Max, watch it!_" Ambrose's voice sent me crashing back to reality, as a golden shape sped towards me with her fist raised. Before I could react, Ambrose appeared, colliding with Xiao Long hard, and tackling her to the floor. "_Pay attention!_" he cried out again, as he tried to restrain the brawler in a police hold.

I shook my head, turning around as Ben and Reika managed to knock the haughty Schnee girl out of the arena with a quick sneak attack to join Belladonna, and now had Rose cornered.

"Time!" Goodwitch announced, both sides pausing as she approached the stage, putting the results of the fight into her Scroll. "AMBR is the victor with three fighters still in play, and RWBY with two. Excellent work."

"_Three?_ But we're..." I glanced up at the board, cursing as I saw my Aura sitting comfortably in the red.

"I recommend that you exercise restraint, Miss Argus," Goodwitch chided, making a tick on her Scroll. "Your Semblance is powerful, but it won't matter much if you collapse after every use." She turned to Joel. "That will be all for today, Mr. Ambrose. Please remember that your team will depart tomorrow morning by airship. Don't be late. Your weapons will be returned to you before your departure."

"Yes, Professor," Ambrose nodded, helping Yang to her feet before making his way to the locker room to store his weapons, as he had for the past week.

Goodwitch had been happy enough to oversee our small training sessions against RWBY and JNPR, but was a stickler when it came to Joel's weapon privileges.

"Excellent. Now the rest of you make sure to rest up. We will be leaving for Forever Fall tomorrow, as well, for Professor Peach's assignment. And while it shouldn't prove too dangerous, you should still remain vigilant." With that she turned on her heels and marched from the gym at a brisk pace.

"Nice fight, you guys!" Yang said, offering her hand towards Ben. "Thought we had you for a while there."

The rest of RWBY nodded, though it seemed only the two sisters were actually good sports about it. The Schnee girl was muttering angrily to herself while shooting glares at the locker room every few seconds, her scent tense. The ninja, on the other hand, just stared at me from the corner of her eye. I gave her a sly wink.

"You guys have really good teamwork going on. Especially you two," she added, eyeing Reika and Ben.

"Well, we've been fightin' together for years, and the whole 'no talkin'' thing meant we had to get synergy, pretty quick," Ben laughed, nudging his partner playfully. "Psycho and Bitch, on the other hand..."

"Oi!" I gave him my best death glare, sending him shrinking behind his minuscule partner in mock terror. "We have our own thing going! He stays out of my way, I stay out of his, we watch each other's backs occasionally, and who cares about the rest!?"

"Good thing he was watching your back this time, or Yang would've obliterated it," Blake added darkly, giving me a wink of her own that set my nails digging into my palm.

_'Ooh, looks like kitty **does** have claws...'_

"Nice to see everyone getting along!" Joel cried out, as he returned from the the locker room, weapons and armor stored back in that safe of a locker Ozpin set him up with.

_'That's gotta suck. No one's keeping my baby away from me,' _I mused to myself, gripping the handle of my axe tighter.

"Thanks for helping us train, guys," my partner gratefully said.

"Not a problem!" Yang grinned, widely cracking her knuckles. "You guys are great practice! By the way, where'd you learn that hold you had me in?"

"My dad was in the Police Force back home," he explained. "He taught me all sorts of self defense moves they used to restrain criminals. Paired with Aura, it's effective on just about anything, even Grimm."

I remembered seeing it in action close up, especially over the last few days. Joel was able to flip and restrain small Grimm easily without even using his weapon.

"That's right. I suppose you _would_ need to grab a hold of people long enough for your Semblance to do the rest..." Weiss stated under her breath darkly. Joel's eye widened in surprise and hurt, but he quickly suppressed it.

"What the _hell's_ your problem!?" I glowered at her, teeth bared and all tiredness forgotten. Reika took a step forward, eyes burning brightly, reaching for her _Strike Lotus._

"_WEISS!_" Ruby chided, turning to her partner angrily, before looking back at Joel with an apologetic look on her face. "Joel, I'm sorry! I don't...!"

"It's fine. She's right it did make my work easier. Very perceptive of you, _Miss Schnee,_" Joel interrupted her, giving the Schnee snob a formal bow and staring up at her eyes cold as ice. I noticed a look of panicked recognition flit across the girl's face, before she steeled herself, her stoic expression returning.

_'Well, look like something's up between these two...'_

Ben stepped in to diffuse the situation, that roguish grin full in effect as he stepped between them. "Like Psycho was sayin', it's really nice of you to train with us the last few days, though I was wonderin' where JNPR ended up? I thought you said they'd be able to help, too?"

Ruby's face fell. "They're still mad at Jaune, I think. Ever since he started hanging around Cardin and his team, he's been blowing them off," she replied sadly. "I don't know why he's letting this go on, too. It's not like they're nice to him, or anything."

"Jaune's a good guy. I'm certain he'll get over this." Joel reassured her, stretching widely. "Forever Fall will be as good a place for it as any. It's a team building exercise, right?"

"Yeah! You know, you guys are _so_ lucky!" Ruby said excitedly, brightening up again, glancing at us with a look of innocent envy in her eyes. "Getting to go on an actual mission before any of the other First Years. I'm so jealous!"

Ben shook his head in astonishment. "Really? _You're_ jealous of us havin' to wake up at the crack of dawn the last few days, to do what again, Reika?" The pipsqueak rattled through a few quick signs and motions. "Ah, right. Take out a den of Beowolves, find a flag hidden in the bowels of the ruins you guys _so generously_ messed up during Initiation, and, uh... Oh! Observe the habits of the graceful Ursa in it'ss natural habitat for Professor Port."

"That sounds _awesome!_" the red headed girl beamed, face shining with delight. "Well, except for the last bit, you guys get to be like real Huntsma\en and Huntresses."

"Hey, worst comes to worst, we'll most likely just have to clear up a few Grimm that tangled with the miners over territory. You guys get to actually relax in the most beautiful place in the Kingdom, so it should be a pretty easy day for all of us." Joel said, patting her on the head. "Oh, was their any progress on getting that intel on where we're going, _Miss Schnee?_"

"Stop calling me that!" she spat back venomously, drawing a few strange glances from both our teams. "...Anyway, I checked with my father's aides about projects they're running out within that area, but they couldn't find anything about any mine. Likely..."

"Your father erased all existing information on the mine and its workers, so it wouldn't show up on the company's reports?" Blake finished for her, shaking her head bitterly. "Sounds like something your company would pull, leaving the workers and their families in the dust."

"I beg your pardon!?" the heiress shot back, looking back at her teammate red faced.

"It's fine! Really!" Joel said quickly, diffusing the argument before it started. "So we're going in blind... We'll just deal with it the same way we did with the ruins."

We continued on like that for about an hour, with me sharpening my axe lovingly, Joel teaching Yang the basics of that hold he'd used, and Ruby fawning over Ben's arm while he put it through its paces, admiring the complicated pieces of machinery. Weiss had stormed out soon after our practice match had finished, spitting out something about studying plant life for tomorrow, while Cat Girl read in the stands.

"What's the deal with you and Schnee?" I asked Joel as he came over to the bench I was sitting at, nursing an aching shoulder. Seemed Yang was a quick student when it came to hand-to-hand combat.

"What do you mean?" he shot back innocently as he stripped off his sweatshirt, hissing as he pressed a cold compress to his strain, Aura already at work healing the injury.

"Don't play dumb with me. I can smell lies," I said, producing a familiar keening sound as I swept the grindstone over the blade.

"Bullshit."

"No, really. But you don't need Faunus senses to see something's up. So spill it."

He hesitated a moment, taping down the compress before slumping into the space next to me with a heavy thump. "Since when do you care who hates me and who doesn't?

"I _don't_. But you _do_. And if you fuck up because your feelings are hurt, then I get put at risk." I shot him a smug look. "I care in my own way. Why do you think I blew up Kaplan's locker for you?"

"Because you're a vengeful sadist, with way too many anger issues," he guessed, wincing as I smacked him in the shoulder. "Fine!... Me and Weiss happen to have some... history. Some stuff happened, and I think... No, I _know_ she's become aware of it, too."

"Trapper stuff?"

"Yeah."

I raised an eyebrow at that, a host of questions coming to mind. "Wow. So the pretty, perfect Weiss Schnee was involved with the Red Hand?" I grunted, spitting on the floor with disdain. "And here I thought my opinion of her or her company couldn't get any worse."

"Was more her father, actually..." Joel noted, leaning back against the cool metal wall. "Little more than three years back, when the Red Hand was just considered a bunch of vengeful mercenaries rather than armed terrorists, Weiss' father approached us as a means of stopping White Fang attacks on his Dust shipments between the Kingdoms."

"He hired you?"

"The organization was just starting to militarize, and we needed the funds for weapons, armor, intel, etc..." Joel rattled off bitterly. "I mean, we were already hunting the White Fang, when Schnee comes along and actually offers to _pay us_ for it. Why the hell would we refuse?"

"Where were you in all this?" I asked surprised. "You couldn't have been more than, what, sixteen?"

"I'm well into eighteen now, so I think around... Yeah, sixteen maybe, give or take a few months," he said simply, counting out years on his fingers as if it were a normal thing to do at his age. "It had been seven months since my parents had been killed, and maybe five since I joined the Red Hand's Trapper program. Whole idea was to take ex-Huntsmen or Huntsman Academy dropouts that had lost something to the Faunus, put them through the most brutal training imaginable, and make an elite fighting force out of whoever was left standing." The way his eyes twitched involuntarily, I could only imagine what this "training" had included.

"Sounds pretty rough."

"You would've loved it. Instructors screaming at us as they put us through test after blood-curdling test, training with live weapons. One kid broke an arm and a leg falling off a cliff during an exercise. Trainer broke his jaw for screaming."

I nodded, finally understanding a little better how my partner's body could be so messed up with scars, despite his Aura. "Man, you Trappers really sound like a fun group, don't you?"

"Looking back at it, the health plan was a little shitty, to tell you the truth," Joel laughed, reaching for a water bottle he'd had with him. "Anyway, Schnee himself had lost more than his fair share of family and business partners to assassins of the White Fang, and, noticing how effective we were in action, wanted Trappers guarding his legacy in a more personal capacity. Red Hand assigned me and one other Trapper as Weiss and Winter Schnee's bodyguards, respectively."

"So what'd you do? Screwed her, and got run off by Daddy?" I asked, breaking out into a fit of giggles as he spluttered, pulling off a perfect spit take, before looking at me red faced.

"What the actual _fuck,_ Max!?"

"What!? It was just a question! Can't imagine why else she'd be this pissed at you. So, you bone her or not?"

"_NO!_ She was like fourteen at the time!"

"You were fifteen. Age gap wasn't too out there."

He schooled himself back into some measure of calm, though his cheeks were still flushed scarlet. "_Nothing_ happened, alright? Her sister might've had fun with my partner, if his bragging was any indication, but as for me and Weiss, we kept it strictly professional. The higher-ups didn't want Schnee to bother them about assigning a fifteen-year-old boy to watch over his youngest daughter, so they ordered me not to take off my mask, distort my voice, and let my height do the rest. Pulled that off for about four months."

"Still doesn't answer what you did, though," I reminded him. "Can't tell if she's scared, or mad at you."

"Aside from acting like I didn't know her when we first got here... I also killed someone in front of her, once." He sounded guilty, looked it too.

"What, like stone cold murdered a guy?"

"Not really, I suppose. It was self-defense. A White Fang agent attempted to kill her after one of her singing concerts as we made for the car. I... stopped him, to say the least. I'm pretty sure it freaked her out. A few days later, I'm shifted back to a more active role on the Mistral Border, though it wasn't like I cared much at the time. Was tired of playing babysitter anyway, going 'Miss Schnee this,' and 'Miss Schnee that.'"

"Can't have been too bad."

"Think about Weiss as she is now, then imagine her three years younger, a hell of a lot more entitled, and with no Ruby around to act as a conscience, and you'll have a pretty good understanding of my life at the time."

"Ouch." I shuddered looking at our friends.

_'Yeah, I suppose they are my friends. Except for kitty girl, though Yang seems pretty cool.'_

The blonde hadn't asked me if she could feel my ears yet, so that was a bonus for her, at least one more than Ben. Bastard had scratched behind them as a joke a few weeks back, and was still teasing me about the sound I'd let out. Wasn't my fault; it felt nice!

_'Asshole.' _I mentally hissed as I glared at the sharpshooter, who at the moment was running some stress tests on the arm.

"You know, you should talk to her," I said after a moment. "Weiss, I mean. You should try talking to her about this."

"I've thought about it since the truth came out, but it's sort of an awkward topic. Can't even tell if she's more scared of me than angry, or the other way around."

"Take it from me that it's probably a good mix of both," I explained, leaning my axe against the side of the bench. "She's got the disadvantage of knowing exactly what you were like before, and is coming to grips with who you are now. Doesn't help that you've probably been some monster in her nightmares for a while, either. Or that you're still antagonizing her."

"Sorry. Her attitude always did get to me. Sarcasm was a good coping mechanism for when she'd explode over something as small as walking too close behind her in public, or slouching in front of guests, not that anyone wanted to look at me. The uniform we wore was pretty intimidating...!"

I hit him across the head this time with a loud thump, shutting his rant off at the source.

"Forget all of that, dumbass! If you want her to start being nice, well, her version of nice, anyway, you have to reassure her that you've changed. It's going to take a while, but if you work hard at it, she should lighten up around you, eventually."

"Wow..." he muttered under his breath, shocked.

"What?"

"That was... actually some pretty decent advice, Max. Never thought you were much into the whole other people's feelings thing. Thank you."

I grinned widely, shooting him a thumbs up. "Don't feel too bad. Women just get these sorts of things. Not your fault."

"You do realize this doesn't excuse you wrecking that fountain, right? I'm the one paying for it, after all."

"Fuck you, Ambrose..."

* * *

**(The Next Morning)**

"_MAX! EVERYTHIN' ALRIGHT!?_" Ben shouted over the roaring engine, as I clutched the safety rail for dear life, as I had been the last two hours. I felt my heart stop a few times as the Bullhead soared over the forested valley hundreds of feet below. "_YOU'RE WHITE AS A SHEET!_"

"_SHUT UP! I'M FINE!_" I called back, shooting him a dirty look, to which he just shook his head irritably, returning to his hushed conversation with the pipsqueak, fingers in rapid motion.

_'Stupid, stupid mission! Who thought flight was a good idea, anyway!? People don't fly! Well, some Faunus might have wings, I suppose, but regular people don't fly!'_

My eyes darted to Ambrose, who stood still as a statue, reading the final mission details from his Scroll as the whole cabin shook around him.

_'How's he doing that!?'_

Our leader was wearing his usual combat gear, along with a small backpack of gear Ozpin had thought we'd need. I was actually somewhat thankful for the near earsplitting noise assaulting my senses, if it meant the others couldn't hear my small whimpers every time I glanced over the edge.

_"Heads up, kiddos!" _the pilot's voice rang out over the intercom. _"We'll be coming up on the site in just a minute! We hope you've had a pleasant trip, and would like to thank you for flying Air Beacon!" _The voice cut out with a loud static hiss as the aircraft dipped fast, screaming towards the ground.

_'**WHO HIRED THIS SHITHEAD!?**' _my mind screamed as I shut my eyes, voice caught in my throat along with my breakfast. It was shaky, but soon enough the nightmare ended as the VTOL leveled out, coming to a halt on the ground with one last rattle.

_"Whew, close one... Shit, I-I mean good job! Perfect landing; just perfect! You all did fantastic!"_

"Max?... We're on the ground. You can let go, now," Joel's voice said calmly from my right.

I opened my eyes, looking around as the rest of my team watched me curiously. I glanced up, finally noticing that I'd been gripping the railing tight enough that I'd warped the metal strut, almost snapping it in two. I quickly pulled my hand away, leaping off the aircraft onto the most beautiful patch of land I'd ever seen, overlooked by an enormous mountainside devoid of any greenery. We'd managed to land on the edge of the work site, just inside the highly reinforced fence that was meant to keep Grimm from getting in. I could make out different types of machinery, along with a long series of makeshift buildings that must've been offices or housing.

"Alright, kiddos," the pilot, a helmeted man not much older than us by his voice, stepped from the cockpit looking towards Joel, tossing a small device to the Huntsman-in-training. "Be careful out here. That device there will act as a signal, letting me know your approximate location. If for some reason whatever caused this is too much to handle, pull the pin, press the red button, and I'll be here within minutes to try and extract you. You only get one." He held up a finger for emphasis. "So don't cry wolf on me for no reason, got it? Good. I'll be back around nightfall for the return trip. Don't vanish on me, okay?"

"Sure thing," Joel replied, placing the device in his pocket.

"Repeat it to me."

"Don't pull the pin unless it's an emergency, and be back before dark. Want me to report that landing to Ozpin once we get back, smartass?" I said harshly, glaring daggers at him. The man must've gotten the message, because he practically ran back into the cockpit and took off without a moment's delay.

"You know, you should be nicer to pilots. They're the ones pulling our asses out of the fire, if something goes wrong," Joel chided sternly, glancing around at the work site, examining every square inch of the place.

"You really want that guy saving our asses?" I muttered under my breath, earning one last sharp look as Joel stepped forward to assign us roles.

"Alright, Ben, Reika, examine the work area. Max and I will cover residential. Sound off on the Scroll if you see anything suspicious. And stick together. We don't want to end up like the people here."

"It's only been over a week," Ben reminded him, staring off at the machinery around the work site. "Did these guys have any security drones, or anythin' like that?"

"Nope. Apparently, this mine wasn't doing so well, so the SDC decided that security bots were a waste of resources to send out here for a bum mine because of the maintenance. Instead, they just hired mercenaries headed up by one of their security heads of staff."

"So no one else has been here but us and that first team?"

"Not exactly. Ozpin gave me an updated file before we left. Seems Schnee Dust didn't want to depend on just us, and sent another survey team after the first one went missing about three days back. Guess who else we're looking for?" Joel said, holding up his Scroll. "There hasn't been any particularly bad weather or anything else, so whatever did happen should still have some kind of trail. Report in every ten minutes or so, so we know the other is okay, or if you find a live subject. We'll meet up in front of the mine in one hour. Break."

From there, we combed every inch of the site. Joel and I searched through each of the housing set ups and offices, every one of them deserted. It was as if the occupants had just... vanished, like right off the face of Remnant. We'd even found the SDC aircraft situated near the outskirts a little down from where we'd landed. It was untouched, but with no signs of the crew. The only potential clue were faint sets of tracks leading to and from the mine, but that was hardly surprising. They did work there, after all.

"No sign of a struggle anywhere," Joel wondered aloud as we moved to the mine itself. "You smell anything?"

"Like I said when we first started, I haven't picked up a thing..." I growled, irritably rubbing my nose. "Rotting food, old sweaty clothes, a lot of dirt. But no people at all."

Joel nodded, glancing around at the empty buildings. "Let's hope the other two had more luck in the last few minutes."

The first thing I noticed was was the large hole drilled into the side of the mountain, almost like a train tunnel. A large amount of machinery, such as drills, dozers, and cranes, as well as office stations for supervisors, outhouses and changing areas were present. All of it was organized neatly around the face of the mine. Ben and Reika leapt down from one of the large drills, Carson scrubbing his hands clean of grease.

"You two find anythin'!?"

"No people, and the offices and housing is deserted. The Schnee aircraft's logs said it had flown here from just outside Vale, but it hasn't moved since."

"People don't just vanish." Ben tossed the rag back into the machine's cabin.

"It's not Grimm. The fence is still intact, and the tracks are all from either the miners or the machinery," Joel wondered, crossing his arms, face deep in thought before looking up at our two teammates. "Hate to ask this of you two, but you'd probably know best. Was this...?"

"Bandits?" Ben finished for him, shaking his head along with Reika. "We thought that too, at first, when we didn't see any other tracks. But there's still no sign of a struggle. Plus there's a few other glarin' points."

"Such as...?" Joel urged him on.

"Well, I checked the machines. If this really _was_ a bum mine, then the only appealin' booty worth sackin' the place, and gettin' rid of the workers for, would be the Dust cores powerin' the place. They're rare, and worth a lot in certain parts if you find the right buyer. Problem is, though, none of those are missin'. Only stuff that's gone was the stuff in the spare storage area, but it can't have had enough to warrant this."

"Could they have just killed the miners for shits and giggles?" I wondered aloud, earning an appalled look from the former bandits. "What?" I asked hesitantly.

"No self-respectin' bandit would do that," Ben said, voice hard. "We might be criminals, but we're also businessmen out to make a profit. They wouldn't just leave a valuable take like Dust cores, especially if they had to fight for it hard enough, that it necessitated killin' everyone to get it. Even if we're talkin' terrorists or raiders, then why would they bother hidin' the bodies and clearin' up, or stickin' around for survey crews this long? Makes no sense."

"You're right. It doesn't," Joel agreed, looking off towards the mine. "The tracks lead in there. You guys check it out?"

"Wanted to wait for you two. Reika's _Sense _only tracks Aura so well like a radar, signal gets caught, especially through those tunnels. She'd have to get close to be sure of anything." He stared at the mine. "Plus, I have a tendency to avoid going into really dark, really scary places where I can't see like this without back up."

"Fine. You're a pussy; we get it. Let's just check it out so we can get this over with!" I called out, marching off towards the opening, thoroughly tired of this boring mission that I'd had to endure a nerve rattling flight for, with no Grimm, action, or anything else remotely fun. Something about this place just felt wrong, like every sense in my body wanted me to get a hundred miles away.

"Stupid, dumb, boring assignment. Ozpin's way of shutting us in the middle of nowhere for a day. To get us out of his hair, most likely. Forget him, and his stupid... _OH SHIT!_"

I backed away at the mouth of the cavern, scrambling away from a large device hidden behind a pile of stones stacked just inside.

"_What!?_" My team scrambled in behind me, Joel and Reika with their weapons drawn, before backing off just as I had.

"Max... You know about this stuff. What are we looking at here?" Joel asked absently, approaching what was obviously a hastily rigged together mining charge, which wasn't in itself too dangerous. What really worried me was the four large Dust batteries welded to the blast casing, shimmering with red and yellow light as the gaseous material floated in a fluid suspension. I'd made little cherry bombs out of spare Dust rounds, but this... This was...

"It's a bomb. A _big_ bomb," I said in utter fascination, as I examined the inner workings. "A really, _really_, _big_ bomb."

"No shit... What are we talking here, though?" he said, with a touch of annoyance and fear.

"You could blow up the whole goddamn world with this thing..." I said leaning in, enraptured in just how much simple destruction was in such a tiny package... Well, the thing was about the size of a large couch, but in regards to what it could do...

"Max!"

"Well, you could at least blow up about half of this mountain. Whoever was rigging this up knew what they were doing..." I stood up, rapping my fist against the casing, causing everyone else to jump back, swearing. "It's okay, you big babies!" I reassured them all, chuckling to myself. "The guy who built this was good, but he didn't finish it. There's no blast fuse or detonator, so unless you shoot or blow something up to disrupt one of these Dust cores, this thing's just a huge paperweight."

I grinned as Ben took a nervous step back. I could make out what looked to be grenades hanging off a bandolier on his chest, which were little side projects I'd helped him design over the week. Nothing like this monster next to me, but enough to set it off, definitely.

"_Really!?_ How 'bout a warnin' next time, Bitch!?" Ben swore under his breath as clutched at his heart, breathing heavily. "Fuckin' hell!"

"Well, least we know where the spare storage cells went..." Joel exhaled, still watching the bomb nervously. "That answers one question, though now we have to find out why someone patched this thing together in the first place..."

"Well, only..." I started, before catching a glimpse of movement from the corner of my eye, a flash of auburn hair darting deeper into the tunnel. "Hey, something just moved over there!" I pointed at the cave's mouth, drawing everyone's attention as they stared down the darkened hole, weapons raised. Ben had a small silver paring knife he'd drawn from a pouch on his belt, rifle still perched over his shoulder.

"Back off!" I snapped, as I stepped in front of the weapons, glaring at each of them. "It was a kid! A little girl, by the looks of it."

"...I don't see anyone, kid or otherwise," Ben said, eyes glowing green as his Aura enhanced his vision. Reika flashed him a few signs.

_'I really need to learn that bitch's little language.'_

"Good question. What _would_ a kid be doin' at a work site like this?"

"One of the miner's kids, maybe?" I countered, relieved that they had at least lowered their weapons.

_'Why do I care so much?'_

"The miners didn't bring family out here," Joel shot back as he walked up beside me, trying to make out anything in the pitch blackness. "You're sure you saw something?"

"Positive." I'd definitely seen something.

_'Then why couldn't I smell it, or the little bitch sense it?'_

"She probably got scared when you guys pointed your weapons at her!"

"Shit... Either way, we have to check this out, kid or no kid. If someone's down there, they'll know what happened," Joel muttered, slinging the pack off of his shoulder, opening it, and passing us each a flashlight, as well as a small gun-like device, complete with little ammo mags. "Those are paint guns, according to Ozpin. The ammo marks a surface with a glowing Dust-treated paint. Use it to mark where we've been, so we don't get lost down here. But make sure you don't use up every shot. We only have enough for two mags, each."

"Ah, Ozzy, that beautiful bastard," Ben said relieved, as he took one of the guns, before looking down at it with a nervous smile. "Don't imagine this is one of those times where we can avoid doin' this, and just say we didn't find anything?"

"Believe me, I'm starting to wish it was..." Joel agreed stonily, placing his weapon back in it's holster. "Lets just stick together, and kill anything not Faunus or Human with extreme prejudice. Understood?" We all nodded once. I had my nose, so I kept my flashlight and gun on my belt, instead opting to extend _Cerberus _and split it into it's bladed submachine gun form.

_'Extreme prejudice. Got it.'_

I led the way into the mine, trying to ignore the fact that every animal instinct ingrained in my DNA was screaming in defiance.

_'What have we gotten ourselves into?'_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Jude Redgrave - Reuben Langdon

**A/N: Hey guys hope you enjoyed the new chapter cause man it's a long one. Midterms are done and over with so joy to the world on that end. This stories getting really fun to write, length of this chapter makes that perfectly clear, and I can't believe its hit over 1400 views. Thanks for all the new follows and favorites and please leave your own comments or questions, it only makes the story better.**

**Reviews-**

**_Drake93: Have mixed feeling with Ozpins decision_**

**_Yeah Ozpin's looking a bit harsh right now, but I can't really say the guy isn't willing to send his students into possible danger if there isn't some benefit to it, especially if he believes they can handle it. The show's proving that well enough. He's a good guy but sometimes you have to make the tactical call._**

**_Edit 1/23/15_**

**_-Orion's Left Belt-_**

**_Thanks for the review, I realize oc centric stories aren't everyone's cup of tea and appreciate you giving this one a shot regardless. As for Joel's power level I agree and for the most part try to stay out of Mary Sue range with any characters that aren't supposed to be OP just yet and try to find a balance. Max's Semblance can get rough at times but I've got it down that she can barely control it on a good day to try and manage it. As for Joel I tend to look at him as more Pyrrha level when I write him, the guys got a focused combat background so he's gonna be tougher than the average, he won't be going toe to toe with Hunters or slaying massive Grimm single handed. Anyway hope you got far enough to get this review and hope you have a great day._**

**_Run ons are the enemy back then and sadly even now, been trying my best to avoid them but you are right I need to keep a better eye out._**


	11. Chapter 11

**Edited as of (10/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

THE THINGS GRIMM FEAR

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"I ever tell you guys how much I _hate_ caves?..." Ben said, for what was probably the dozenth time since we'd entered five minutes ago. "'Cause...!"

"'You really hate caves?' Yeah, you mentioned that!" Maxine growled, cutting him off and shooting him a withering glare. "Now kindly_ SHUT THE FUCK UP!_" Her voice rang off the cavern walls as she squealed in pain, bringing her arms up to try and block her ears. "_SHIT!_"

"Well, if anything's down here, thanks a lot for letting them know we're coming," Joel muttered as rubbed his own ears gingerly. "Keep it down, will you?"

I had always wondered why his hearing was better than most Humans. Trapper sensory training, he'd said, though what exactly that entailed, I had no clue.

I nudged Ben gently on the arm, giving him a warm look as I placed my marker in the crook of my arm. _"I'm **here,** Ben. This isn't like the Badlands. You're not alone," _I signed to him.

Years ago, a few months after I'd joined Bill's gang, Ben had gotten caught in a cave-in, trapping him in darkness for several hours while I ran back to the camp at a full sprint. I had tried to convey what had happened to the rest of the gang, in some twisted game of charades. He'd been physically unharmed by the experience, but dark and enclosed spaces continued to terrify him to this day.

_"I'm alright... Thanks, Rei," _he motioned back, unloading another shot of Dust paint on the wall with a loud click. _"You okay? Sense anything?"_

_"No, nothing. Certainly not a child, like the Dog Faunus is suggesting."_

He frowned, glancing at the other girl leading our little march. _"It doesn't feel like she's lyin', though..."_

_"I'm still not sensing anything, Ben." _I shook my head, ending the conversation as we neared the end of the tunnel. _"It's just... empty."_

"What the hell?" Max gaped at a large crack in the stone wall that was large enough to drive a car through, but distinctly different from the rest of the shaft. "I think there's a whole other section through here..." She peered in, smelling at the air before drawing her head back coughing. "And it's big. A whole series of them running beneath the mountain."

"Great!" Ben grimaced, throwing his arms up in exasperation before slouching forward. "_More_ caves. Just my _fuckin_' day!"

"Stow it, Carson!" Argus muttered, marching through the crack, before poking her head back out to stare at us. "Well?... Are you guys coming in, or not? Cavern's aren't gonna search themselves, y'know."

"Anyone else have a bad feelin' about this?" Ben asked, looking at us all nervously as Joel brought out his Scroll, checking the settings. "Well, alright... Guess it's just me, then."

Joel swore, shutting the Scroll off angrily. "My Scroll barely has any signal, so any communication will be choppy at best. We'll move together, then. We'll check the cavern out by sections, and see if we find anything," he explained, putting the device back in his bag. "It's going to take a while, depending on how deep these go, but we'll go as far as we can until the ship gets back."

"Why not just split...?" Max started, but Ben interrupted her with a sharp stare, daring her to say what she intended.

"How about _fuck_ that idea?"

Max groaned in exasperation, hitting her head against the wall. "This cavern splits off, though who knows how many times!? We'll be done sooner if we just..."

"He's right." Joel stepped in between them. "We're not splitting up. At least not completely, anyway. There's no idea what's down here." He pointed to me and Ben, gesturing to the new series of caverns. "First split we see, you guys head right. Me and Max will head left. That way, we can get it done twice as fast, and we both groups have someone who can tell where the other group's at. Max, you smell Grimm or anything else out of the ordinary, tell me. Reika, you sense anything or feel that we're in trouble, tell Ben, and we'll meet up when we can. That satisfy everyone?"

We all nodded, though Ben still seemed nervous. "I'd be satisfied with gettin' out of this damn pit, and back into the fresh air," he muttered under his breath just low enough for me to hear, but still avoid the other two's hearing. I nodded almost imperceptibly, though I could tell he still caught the gesture.

The Faunus girl had been right about one thing: the cavern did stink. The smell was like something old and musty had died long ago, almost nauseating, even through my face mask. Soon enough, within minutes, we came to our first cross roads, one leading further down on the right, the other leading at a slight incline on the left.

"Well, looks like this is it..." our leader sighed worriedly. "Remember to mark walls, and keep an eye out for anything suspicious, no matter how small. Whatever got those miners could very well still be in here. If it's Grimm, tear it apart. If it's a body, well... Call it in."

**"_RIGHT!_"** Max and Ben cried out. I just nodded an affirmative as we split off, Ben and I climbing upwards, while Joel and Max continued their descent.

"...What made these, do you wonder?" the rogue asked, scraping his hand along the wall. "This ain't natural... The walls are too smooth. Someone or somethin' built this..." I closed my eyes wearily. He was just talking to himself for comfort. It wasn't like I could reply in this darkness without awkwardly angling the light to catch my hands. "Must've taken years, if not..."

I frowned as his voice suddenly cut off mid-sentence, his light disappearing as well. _'Ben!?' _I spun around, but the blonde was nowhere in sight. There was just an empty expanse of tunnel. _'He was right behind me! What...!'_

A loud crash split the air around me, followed by a blood-curdling howl. It was so loud... but somehow familiar... Burning trees, smoke, screams...

I broke out into a desperate run, looking around for signs of the Dust paint, but finding none. Just the same stretch of endless gray-black stone. _'But Ben was painting the wall, right!? I saw him do it!' _Had I moved? Somehow gone down a side tunnel? _'No, impossible! Ben would've seen...!?'_

"Reika-chan..." a soft melodic voice rang down the tunnel, a voice I knew, a voice that had seared itself into my brain.

_'...**Grandmother!?**'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"You know, you need to lay off Ben..." I said as an aside to the Faunus, who had been grumbling under her breath the whole time since we'd split up from the others. "I get it; things haven't been as fun for you as you thought, with no small Grimm for you to torture. Doesn't give you an excuse for harping on him."

"Not my fault he's such a whiner... 'Oh, I'm Ben Carson, and I don't like caves, so I'm gonna keep on blubberin' and not just grow a set!...'" she said in a mock deep voice, mimicking the sharpshooter's accent, before her face twisted into a scowl as she held her weapons loosely at her sides. "You know, the second I actually start thinking the guy has some balls for standing up to Kaplan the way he did, he turns around and starts bitching about it being too dark!"

I sighed, unloading another shot onto the wall as we moved along, paint bursting in a wide splatter. "So he doesn't like the dark. Big deal. At least he can ride on a VTOL without having a heart attack."

Her ears perked up as she looked around, teeth bared. "S-_shut up!_ I don't have a problem with fucking airships!"

_'Oh, so I've touched a nerve, there, did I?...'_

"Didn't say anything about airships... Heights, then? Was wondering why you were so pale during the climb up to Ozpin's office..." I smirked as the girl turned bright red.

"I said _SHUT UP!_" We both winced as her shout rebounded through the cave painfully. "Damn it!"

"Sorry... Truce?..." I apologized ruefully, rubbing my ringing ear gingerly. _'Fucking Trapper senses...'_

I looked up at her, her face still bright red as she worked on tying her cascade of hair into a manageable ponytail. "I'm serious, though. You guys seem to get along at least some of the time. I'm not asking you to be best friends, or anything. Just work together."

"Fine... Let's just get this done, already. The thought of Cat Girl and Blondie living it up at Forever Fall, while I'm rotting in a dank, foul-smelling... Huh?" She sniffed at the air curiously, closing her eyes tightly. "...Something's up ahead."

"Is it the kid you saw?"

She screwed up her face, nose twitching furiously, "No, it's something... _Dead..._ And dried blood?" Her eyes snapped open, suddenly, as she broke into a sprint down the tunnel.

"_MAX, WAIT!_" I cried after her, but she was already fast leaving me behind, already near the edge of my light.

_'Damn it!' _I cursed mentally as I ran after her. My nose may have been nowhere near as good as hers, but even I was starting to pick up a foul-smelling odor. It didn't help that I was now having to move carefully to avoid loose rocks and gravel littering the floor...

_'Wait... That's new.' _Ever since we'd entered this cavern, the entire thing had been remarkably clear of debris, even more so than the mine had been.

"Max! Wait up!" I just kept moving after her, shouting for her to stop. Before long, I found myself staring into a roughly dug-out stone wall covered in black patches and streaks, with no Faunus in sight. The smell at this point was also nigh unbearable.

Swearing loudly, I swung the light around, searching for any other connecting tunnels, but finding none. _'She was right in front of me! How did...!?'_

I felt my foot brush against something draped across the floor. Shining the light at the ground, I illuminated at least a dozen clothed, desiccated figures, all Faunus of some variety, lying on the ground, with rotted eye sockets staring back at me emptily.

"_FUCK!_" I covered my nose and mouth with my arm, backing away quickly from the rotting figures. _'W-what the **hell!?**'_

Taking a deep breath, I moved closer to examine the bodies. I noticed instantly that were all wearing variations of the same uniform. _'Guess these are a few of the miners...' _I noted distastefully, prodding the closest with my foot. _'Doesn't explain where the others went, though... What could've...?'_

That's when I noticed their hands, or, more accurately, what was left of them. The skin on each of their fingers had been worn away, most of them down to the bone. I glanced from the injuries, and then to the dirtied wall. Slowly, realization dawned on me in horrified clarity.

I pulled my Scroll from my bag hurriedly, some of the contents spilling on the ground in my haste. "Guys, I found some of the miners! They're all dead!" I said firmly into the device, hoping against hope that the signal was getting through. "Max's pulled a disappearing act! Is anyone...!?"

A patter of footsteps clattered from behind me, cutting me off. "Max?... Max, where did you...!?" I turned around, shining my light in front of me, ready to chew out the Faunus... but froze at who I saw. Instead of my partner, like I was expecting, I was face-to-face with a young black-haired girl, maybe nine or ten years old. She stepped from the shadows, wearing a grungy hoodie and jeans.

_'No... **No!...** This is **impossible!** You **can't** be here!'_ I took a step back, feeling my stomach clench.

"Why?..." the girl asked, scratching at a pair of black bear-like ears, staring at me with a confused, horrified expression etched on her face. "Why did you hurt Daddy?... _Why!?_"

"_NO!_" I took another step back, falling to the ground as my leg got caught on one of the miners, now wearing a White Fang uniform, in my attempt to get away, eyes fixed on the child in front of me as a rivulet of red ran down her chest. "No, you... You're not here! You _can't_ be here; I saw you die!" I cried, to which she only smiled.

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Ambrose!?" I looked back as my partner's light vanished, plunging the space back into total darkness. "_AMBROSE!?_"

_'He was right behind me, wasn't he!?' _Did that idiot walk down the wrong tunnel? _'No... I didn't notice any other caverns.' _Glancing around, I noticed I couldn't make out any of the green marks along the wall. I couldn't smell them, either...

_'Did I move?...'_

Suddenly, the shadows around me seemed to blend and shift around me, skewing my sense of balance, and sending me toppling to the hard stone. _'What the...'_ I tried to get to my feet, but I just couldn't seem to find the ground. Even my sense of smell failed me, the cavern's scent fading, only to be replaced by...

Bursts of color exploded through the darkness, shaping itself, until suddenly, I found myself sitting on a tuft of grass at the edge of a large lake. A wide sketchbook sat open in my hands as the park formed around me.

_'I know this place...' _I thought blankly, taking in the sight of the rippling tide lapping at the edges of the lake's shore. _'Lysander's Lake in Mistral... Why was I...' _I flinched as a sudden ache split my skull, keeping me from remembering what I'd been doing before I came here.

"Maxine? Ah, there you are!" I stood up, smoothing the wrinkles out of the white sundress I wore as a heavily accented voice called out to me. An older woman, sporting short dark hair and beautiful hazel colored eyes, wearing a dress similar to mine, stepped from the sidewalk and approached me. "I swear, ever since you came home from that awful Huntsman school, you've done nothing but scare me half to death."

"I'm not a little kid anymore, Mom..." I told her, grinning as she caught me up in a bone crushing hug. "Anyway, I told Dad where I'd be."

"You told me you wanted to work on some sketches..." a tall, heavily-muscled man said in a rough voice as he ran up to us panting, glaring at me with crimson-colored eyes. He had shoulder-length auburn hair, the same color as my own, drawn back in a short ponytail, with a pair of dog-like ears sticking above his hair. "You didn't mention that you were heading to the other side of the lake!"

"I'm fine, Dad," I said in an exasperated groan as he caught me up in a hug of his own. "I like this part of the lake."

"Still..." He frowned, until he caught sight of the sketchbook in my hand, his face lighting up immediately. "So you've been busy, I see. What masterpiece has my little artist churned out, this time?"

I felt my face redden at his praise as I looked down at the canvas. _'What?'_

It was a detailed picture what looked to be a robotic prosthetic arm, drawn out in incredible detail. Servos, gears, wires, and all.

I thought for a split second that my dad's face darkened angrily as he peered over my shoulder. However, when I turned around, he had his familiar smile shining on his face. "Wow, Maxi. That's certainly... different."

_'What the...?'_

"I don't know why I drew it... It just popped into my head..." I stared down at the drawing, face twisted in thought. "I know I've seen it before..."

"I think I remember seeing a magazine about it in Dr. Aetius' office..." my mother added, taking a closer look at the arm. "Yes, that was it. A lot of those medical journals are raving about it. You must've seen the image on the cover of one during your sessions, what with him having them spread all over the place."

"Yeah... I guess so. It must be," I said slowly, nodding to myself.

_'Then why does it seem so familiar?...'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_REIKA!? Reika, where the hell are you!?_" I called out in a panicked tone as I sprinted down the tunnel, shooting the wall with those damn pellets as my eyes darted left and right, looking for any sign of my partner.

_'Psycho, Bitch, **anyone!** Give me someone I know, dammit!' _My legs suddenly got caught on something heavy, sending me crashing to the stone floor, with the paint gun skittering away from me with a loud clatter.

"_Agh!_" I grit my teeth, shaking out my throbbing limbs. "...Calm down, Ben, c'mon! Aura up!" I sighed as the familiar emerald glow shimmered along my skin, dulling the sharp pain to a dull throb.

_'Dark can't get me... Not if I don't let it.'_

"Benjamin..." A kind, comforting voice wafted down the corridor, accompanied by a familiar perfume... that of wild flowers and grass.

My hand shot to the stock of my rifle, keying a small button that revealed a hidden compartment, containing a short-barreled revolver. I brought the weapon up quickly, as a tan-skinned woman wearing blue jeans and a white button-up shirt seemed to materialize from the darkness, blonde hair drawn back in a tight series of braids that ran down her lower back, her bright blue eyes gazing down at me tenderly. "I told you to not to run around so much. You'll hurt yourself."

"...M... Mama?..." I muttered breathlessly, lowering the shaking gun slightly, eyes wide as I got to my feet, staring at the women in disbelief.

She smiled widely, flashing a pair of shiny white teeth my way. "Honestly, no wonder Ma says you'll give her a heart att... _AH!_"

A loud bang blew through the cavern, as the explosive Dust round tore its way through her chest, blasting a hole directly where her heart would be. I moved over to where she lay, face contorted in fury as I blew smoke from the barrel, robotic finger on the trigger. She was still alive, stirring weakly as she held her hands to her bleeding chest, eyes tearing up in agony as I stood over her.

"_Why!?_" she coughed, sending a fresh spatter of blood on the now red-stained shirt. "W-why would you...?"

"_Shit..._ You really aren't her, are you?" I growled angrily, bringing the weapon to bare, still shaking with wrathful fury. "Knew I wasn't that lucky... I dunno what you are, but you chose the exact wrong _fuckin'_ thing to shove in my face, right now!"

The creature wearing my mother's face, whatever it was, tried to say something else, but I silenced it with another shot straight to the chest, putting it out of its misery. As soon as it was dead, the entire cavern seemed to lighten up around me, shadows that I'd barely noticed seeming to recede from view.

_'So it was all this thing's fault..._' I realized, looking back down at the creature as I wiped at some of the blood that had splattered on my clothes, noting with a raised eyebrow that the stains were quickly vanishing.

Instead of the body that had lain there before, there was now a tall, vaguely human-shaped creature, with long slender limbs tipped with needle-like claws. The creature's face was covered with a skull-shaped bone mask, marked with blood red symbols, marking it as a Creature of Grimm. Pale white tentacles stuck out from beneath the mask, where the skull's mouth would be. The most unsettling thing about it, however, was its skin, which seemed to sag and flutter like a dark cloak. I shifted my focus away from its body the longer I looked, but even with the flashlight on, I could already see it starting to dissolve as all Grimm did.

"Well, you're a creepy bastard, aren't ya? Stink, too..." I knelt down next to the thing, tapping it with my gun. Funny how I hadn't noticed it before. "Now where'd you put me?" Glancing around, I realized that I couldn't make out any of the green marks I'd shot along the wall. Just dark, bland walls stretching on and on, one dead Grimm, and...

I shined the light back towards where I'd fallen, before jumping back to my feet with a small yelp. A desiccated body lay against the wall. It was a Faunus, judging from the torn pair of cat-like ears sticking out of what was left of his hair. There were four thin stab wounds marked on his chest.

_'One of the miners...' _I realized, taking a closer look at his uniform. _'Looks like he went down fightin', at least.'_

A small glint of metal caught my attention as I angled the light, catching sight of an official-looking Scroll clutched in one hand, and heavy looking pistol in the other. I took a deep breath, before taking hold of the Scroll.

"Sorry, buddy..." I apologized to the corpse as I pried the fingers open, feeling slightly ill as stiff flesh cracked under the metal force of my hand, before pulling the device from its grip. Luckily, the tool miraculously still had power, lighting up after a few seconds. I scanned its contents, which were mostly charts and figures, though I did stumble across a few video entries that were highlighted.

_'According to the stamp, these were filmed days before the SDC lost communication...'_

Pressing play, I waited patiently, until a burly man with a thick mustache, and close shaved blond hair, appeared on the screen. He was standing in one of the office set ups. Judging from the heavily padded uniform he was wearing, it was safe to say this person had been no miner.

_"This is Head of Security for Schnee Dust Company Mining Site #1340, Harold Marshal..." _the man said in a gruff voice, bowing his head respectfully towards the camera._"Today at 0730, miners opened up a crack leading to a series of caverns unconnected with our current operations here. We cleared the mine for any Grimm activity, as per standard protocol, but found nothing. At the moment, we've ordered the workers to stay out of the caverns, and restrict themselves to the residential areas while we investigate further. We have high hopes, sir. Perhaps this mine **will** yield some profit, after all."_

I flipped to the next message, dated a few days after the first. Harold's face appeared once again, though this time something was certainly off. The man looked as if he hadn't slept for days. Dark circles were under his eyes, and he was in heavy need of a shave. _"Mr. Schnee, sir..." _Even the man's voice was haggard; raspy. _"Today we lost track of three more miners... The rest of the Faunus don't want to go into the mines anymore. And that old cat you put in charge, Bastet? He's got everyone in a frenzy over shadows in the caves. I know you said you wanted us to push them, but the men are **tired.** They're seeing things..." _The man paused for a second, clutching at his head in apparent discomfort. _"Sir... I saw Margaret in the mines during inspection, just standing in the shadows watching me... But that can't be right, can it, sir? I mean, you gave me that gift basket after her accident. Such a nice card... We put a body in the ground... Were you lying to me, sir? Was everyone lying to me? **Is my wife in the caves right now, waiting for me!?**"_

The video cut off abruptly as I shook my head, thoroughly creeped out.

The next video showed a different man, thin with red hair slicked back, and clean-shaven. I also noticed he wasn't looking much better than Harold had in the last message. _"This is Edward Pembroke, former assistant Head of Security for Schnee Dust Company Mining Site #1340, now acting Head of Security." _The man sighed, running a hand through his hair nervously. _"Sir, today Harold Marshal disappeared into the newly discovered caverns, along with many of the other workers, all displaying signs of paranoia, and, forgive my candor, sir, **downright fuckin' insanity.** They were gibbering on about their loved ones being kept from them in the caves. Me and Bastet tried our best to calm them down, but some of the security with them had weapons, and threatened to shoot if we didn't let them go in! Since then, we've had no communication with any of them, and more and more are going in every day, not to mention we found one of the crazy fucks trying to mess with our communications, until we drove him into the caverns. Send help please, sir, and a goddamn ride out of this hellhole!"_

'_So, Schnee knew there was somethin' goin' on here... And he **still** wanted us to check it out for him... Damned bastard...' _I gritted my teeth as I moved on to the last entry in the Scroll.

This time, an old Faunus appeared on the screen, with grey tinging his shoulder-length hair, and the pair of cat ears he possessed. He appeared seated in a chair, looking as if he hadn't bathed or slept in a week, though, unlike the others, still seemed mildly aware of himself. A grim confidence oozed from his amber colored stare. _"Mr. Schnee... or whoever's watching this message right now... **IF** anyone's actually watching these things, based on the answers we've gotten back from our calls for help..." _the Cat Faunus spat bitterly on the floor. "_My name is Leon Bastet, the Foremen the SDC placed in charge of this little slice of hell. Over the last few days, these things - almost caught one myself - have been systematically influencing the workers and security, drawing them into the series of caves we found. I have no idea why, but I'm the only one left out here... Even now, I hear the voices calling me in. Saw my son yesterday, even though I know fully well that he's in Vacuo right now with his family, not talking to me." _The old man chuckled sadly, scratching at his cat ears. "_That's how it always starts... I've picked up a few things from the demolitions experts in the thirty-odd years I've worked here, and have rigged up enough Dust to wipe this mountain off the map. Problem is, I don't have the balls to set it off, knowing I'll be caught in the blast... Just one more failure on my part, I suppose... But I won't let those things take me without a fight!" _He pulled a pistol from his pocket. I then turned to look at the corpse next to me, eyeing the very same pistol clutched in its hand. _"To anyone watching this, do what I couldn't and **bury** these bastards! For all our sakes, Human or Faunus. These things **CANNOT** be allowed to roam free!... And one last piece of advice. The one I caught perished with the sun. If you can escape the cavern with your mind intact, stay in the light, because if dusk falls... then you might as well start praying... Good luck... And for what it's worth... I'm sorry."_

_\- TERMINATE MESSAGES?-_

I switched the Scroll off, and stuffed it in my pocket, giving the corpse one last pitying glance, before pulling my own Scroll, talking as I ran down the corridor as fast as my legs could carry me.

"Psycho! Psycho, are you there!? Something's wrong with these caves! Some kinda Grimm's living in 'em, and got the miners! It'll get us, too, if we don't get the hell outta here! I'm searchin' for Reika now, but I need to know where you guys are!"

"_-my fault..." _my leader's voice whispered through the speaker through a hiss of static.

"What was that? Joel, I didn't catch that!" I replied, though thankful I'd finally gotten through.

"_All my fault... It's all my fault... I didn't stop it!... **It's all my fault!**"_

I'd never heard Ambrose speak like that... Even after everyone figured out who he was, I'd never heard him talk like this. The rest of his words were drowned out as the signal cut off.

_'Oh shit...'_

"...Bitch, it's Ben! I don't know where you are, but Psycho's goin' nuts, right now!... Bitch!? Maxine, are you there!? Talk to me, call me an idiot, a dumb shit, or anything!_Please!_" I caught myself, berating myself mentally for just how desperate I sounded. I waited a few seconds, but was met with no response.

"Damn it!" I shouted, coming to a halt, swinging the light around, and looking desperately for any patch of green paint I could. _'Damn it, Max!'_

"Reika! Look, I know you can't answer me, but I know you have your Scroll on! If you can hear me, do somethin'! Tap your Scroll against a fuckin' rock, for all I care! _JUST LET ME KNOW YOU'RE THERE, DAMN IT!_"

That last bit came out as a shout, the echo ringing off the walls in the ensuing darkness. Still no response... I screamed in frustration, punching the wall with my metal fist, putting a sizable dent in the wall, and shattering the Scroll's casing into a hundred little pieces. I kept running, trying to calm myself down, pistol in hand.

_'Just need to find everyone, knock Psycho out of his little episode, and get his ass towards thinkin' up a solution! Yeah... That sounds good, solid plan me... Shit, I'm pathetic.'_

I cried out in relief as I finally found a trail of shimmering green Dust to follow, meaning I must have been close. '_Ambrose, you fuckin' beautiful bastard!'_

Unfortunately, it seemed whatever evil held sway in this hole knew that too. "_Ben!?_"

I froze, turning towards a side passage as Maxine stumbled around a corner, holding her arm gingerly with a look of surprised relief on her face as she caught sight of me.

"Bitch?..." I said hesitantly, weapon still at my side as I pointed my light towards her, illuminating her face.

"Fuck... You won't believe it, Ben, but there were these things! They... They grabbed Ambrose, and dragged him deeper into the caves back there! Stole my weapons, too! I barely got away..." She took a step closer, but halted as I held my pistol up, taking careful aim. "W-what are you...?

"You ain't Max... She wouldn't run from a fight. That sadist wouldn't back down if there was an enemy to fight, and she was still breathin', even with no weapons. And she_definitely_ wouldn't leave someone behind, no matter what she might say to the contrary." I said calmly, eyes fixed on those familiar reddish-brown orbs.

"Ben, what are you saying?..." she said, laughing nervously. "This is a joke, right? Of course I'm me!"

I shook my head. "'Sides..." I said giving her a sly wink and a smirk. "Max's got a mole under her left eye... Missed that little detail, did ya?"

"What!? No she doesn't...!" the creature said, eyes widening as it realized its error, just before my round took its head off with a wet pop, shattering the illusion in a shower of blood and gore.

"Friggin' dumbass..." I frowned just as two more of the creatures, not even bothering to change form, lunged for me, tentacles flailing and claws aimed at my heart. "Max calls me Carson, not Ben..."

I flared my Aura, activating my _Draw_ as the world slowed around me to a crawl, the Grimm moving as if in slow motion. With Aura-enhanced reflexes, my pistol unloaded two perfect head shots before the monsters had even known what happened, dropping them to the ground in ragged heaps. "And you bastards are _way_ too slow."

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Grandma Murasaki - Maile Flannigan

Conan Argus – Crispin Freeman

Sophia Argus – Lydia Mackay

Abigail Carson – Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Harold Marshall – Kent Williams

Edward Pembroke – Sonny Strait

Leon Bastet – Christopher R. Sabat

**_A/N: Hey everyone hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chapter is probably going to end this arc as we try to get back onto the main story. Tried to go for a creepy nightmare motif for these new OC Grimm that at the moment I'm calling Wraith's (Still taking suggestions), friend of mine plays a ton of D&amp;D and told me all about these Mind Flayer monsters from his latest campaign. Got me thinking about how scary an actual Grimm like an Ursa would be physically, though what if there were more sinister kinds of Grimm out here that have other means of hunting people. From there spawned these Grimm that move in the dark and draw you in with things you love or fear, drain you of life, then send you digging away mindlessly expanding their own habitat until you drop. Thought it would also be decent chance to show more about the characters too though frankly I feel like an ass for putting even fictional character against these things. Also going to nip this in the bud and make it perfectly clear that Ben has serious family issues that will be explained at a later date (Also props if you can spot the reference). As always feel free to leave your comments and ideas, they only make the story better._**


	12. Chapter 12

**Edited as of (10/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

WE TRY TO FORGET

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Hurts, doesn't it? The guilt..." the specter asked again, voice cold and callous, sounding alien coming from such a young face. "You joined the Trappers to protect others. Instead, you became the same sort of monster that kills a little girl's father before her eyes..."

My legs collapsed from under me, hands clenched over my ears. "I-I've changed!" I said firmly with as much calm as I could muster, speaking more to myself then to the ghost of the dead girl standing in front of me. "I couldn't prevent your death; I'll never forget that... B-but things are different now! I-I've tried...!"

The child let out a blood-curdling laugh, glaring at me with undisguised hatred. "You've 'changed,' have you? Now you seem to just hunt Grimm, but even now the bloodlust calls to you, doesn't it? You won't be satisfied with such prey for long... Not when those who hurt you and those you love still roam free." Shadowy figures rose up around me, all dressed in bloodied White Fang uniforms, all of them killed at my hand. "You're a killer, Joel Ambrose... Why do you think the Headmaster sent you out here!? You're a weapon; a tool to be aimed by others and set loose..."

"Shut up... Shut up, shut up, _SHUT UP!_" I cried out in anguish as the specter smiled with a sharp=toothed grin, her tiny hand slowly reaching out towards me.

"No, seriously. Please do," a voice called out from down the tunnel, as a bright light burst into view over the ghost's shoulder. Ben leapt into view, a pistol and flashlight held aloft in his hands, barrel pointed towards me. "All your shouting's startin' to give me a headache!"

He fired once, bullet whizzing past my ear, and impacting with something over my shoulder with a wet splatter. A jolt of pain went through my skull, as something screeched unearthly in pain. Looking behind me as the child and figures disappeared like a heat haze, my body reeled back as I was met with the sight of a twitching human-like creature in place of the Bear Faunus, spasming weakly on the ground.

Ben walked up, gazing at me nervously. "Joel, you alright? I don't know what that thing showed you, but you need to understand it _wasn't real._" He glanced over my shoulder, grimacing as he shined a light over the corpses lying at the end of the tunnel. "You're okay. It's _gone._"

"I-it wasn't... Ben?" I stared at him blankly, head still throbbing. "W-what the hell are you...?"

_'Wait...** It wasn't real?**'_

I took another look at the creature's body, noticing the Grimm skull mask standing out in the darkness, even now, tinged red by a bloody hole as the body already started to disintegrate. "...What is this thing?..."

"Some kind of subterranean Grimm that the miners must've dug up..." Ben answered, still eyeing me strangely. I realized that I was still on the ground and scrambled to my feet, shaking myself off. "I found a Scroll on the body of the guy who set up the bomb at the entrance. Turns out he was the last survivor. As for everyone else... Well..." He cocked his head towards the corpses, putting his artificial arm on my shoulder. "These fuckers... They get in your head, make you see things that aren't there, and skew your sense of reality." I noticed his mouth twitch slightly, but didn't remark on it, as my eyes were still fixed on the monster at my feet.

_'It was all a fake... It wasn't real... **SHE** wasn't real!...'_

...But wasn't it? That monster had drawn that sick recreation from somewhere, the doubts in my mind that I'd tried to suppress all these months. This _THING_ had delved its way through my own thoughts, twisting what it had found, and used it to hurt me; to break me. Used **_HER_** against me...

I paused, suddenly aware of the fact that Ben had backed away in alarm, hand drawn back. My Aura was flaring wildly, setting my hair on end, making sparks jump across my limbs, and my eyes glow with a brilliant blue murderous light.

"Hey, Psycho...!" Ben started, but was cut off when a loud keening screech reverberated through the cavern.

Two creatures, identical to the one fastly fading at my feet, scrambled around the corner, eyes glowing crimson in the shadows. Ben let out a hastily muttered curse, fumbling with his light in an attempt to turn around. There was no need, as a silver dagger was extended and already in the air within a second embedding itself in the center of the closest beast's head with a meaty thump, sending it rolling onto the ground in a raggedy heap, and jerking once before falling still.

Its fellow didn't hesitate to leap over its fallen partner, skin folds already shifting, wavering, and blending into the shadows. Its mask, however, was a beat too slow, and presented the perfect target. I moved past Ben in a blur, Aura-enhanced speed bringing me in front of the creature in an instant, as my hand crashed into its head, palm first. My fingers dug into the white bone-like material with enough force to send cracks spreading across its surface.

Letting out a panicked squeal, the monster tried to bat me away, but before it could even raise its claws a heavy pulse of Aura sent it to the ground, synapses fried as electricity coursed through its system. A flicker of movement caught my attention; another one of the creatures having crawled along the tunnel's ceiling dropping down towards me, tentacles flailing claws outstretched. I briefly registered Ben calling out a warning, but my body was already moving on practiced instinct, sidestepping its claws as I angled myself in, catching hold of its neck, and twisting its body in one motion. The Grimm had time to issue a surprised screech just before its neck snapped from the force of its own fall, falling limply over my shoulder, before being dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

Ben stared from me to the three bodies with a look of astonishment etched on his features as I turned back towards him, reaching down to extract my dagger with a brief exhale.

"...I think these creatures probably got to the others as well. Max disappeared after running off this way."

My words snapped him back to reality, judging by the startled jump he did. He then nodded quickly. "Uh... Yeah, I think so, too. Probably what drew her in in the first place, now that I think about it. No wonder Reika couldn't sense her." He shook his head, staring along the walls of the tunnel. "I noticed a few openings and splits as I came through here. I take it you didn't?"

"No. For all we knew, this was just one long tunnel," I murmured in reply, kicking at one of the creatures, anger still not sated, and even more disturbed than before.

_'If the tunnels are this expansive... Just how long have these things been down here? How many people have rotted away digging their holes, until their bodies gave out on them?'_

"...We're putting a stop to this. _Here and now_," I growled as I glanced back at Ben, who nodded in agreement, face set. "We're going to find the others and get out of here. Then we're blowing these assholes to hell."

"Sounds good to me, Psycho... Sounds good to me," the rogue replied, reloading his pistol with fresh rounds.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"So, Psycho..." I started, flinching as the white-haired Huntsman in front of me shot me a look over his shoulder, eyes still cold as ice. "You, uh... You feelin' alright?"

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing, turning back around. _'Okay... Guess not,'_ I thought sadly, staring at my leader's armored back, still thinking back to when I'd first found him.

Whatever these things had shown him had definitely affected him, not that I could blame him. I still shivered as I remembered Mom stepping from the shadows out of nowhere, just as I remembered her all those years ago. The feelings it evoked... Fucking shit. The creature that had attacked me hadn't expected my reaction, so I doubted that it had actually understood my feelings behind the thought, merely going for what would hurt worst.

_'Still... To see Ambrose breakin' down like that...' _Whatever that his attacker had shown him must've really got to him.

_'I saw a glimpse of the Trapper back there, not the Huntsman,' _I realized with a start. I'd known Ambrose had killed people before. Hell, the guy admitted it to me himself after I met him. It wasn't like he was wearing that collar to be fashionable. _'I guess I never really thought about him actually followin' through with it before.'_

This Ambrose had seen his opponents, and had taken them down with brutal, if clinical, precision. There was no hesitation in his movements, or mercy. I tried to compare the two different sides of my leader I now saw. _'And Bitch said she'd want to fight him at his best...' _I had to admit she might beat him in terms of fighting Grimm, and her Semblance was powerful, if a bit unstable. But in a no-holds-barred sparring match? Joel could likely take her apart without breaking a sweat.

We encountered little in the way of resistance as we traveled through the winding caves that made up this labyrinth. Any creatures we did find met their end at Psycho's hands, with the same cold efficiency as those before. Occasionally, we would stumble across creatures in a multitude of different shapes and forms, as if confused as to which one to try. Some of them left us snarling in anger, others some somber, or shaken. There were a few interesting cases, however...

"Well, if that's not proof they're gettin' desperate..." I commented to my teammate after a particularly awkward encounter, wiping a stream of blood from my nose, and smearing it across my newly reddened face. "So what'd you see, Boss?"

Ambrose just laughed, face as red as mine as he glanced down at the offending beast's corpse. "Yeah, like I'm gonna tell you."

"Oooh, naughty, naughty boy, Psycho..." I teased, nudging him in the ribs. "Come on, fess up! Who was it? Ice Queen? Ninjette? Blondie?..." I noticed his eye twitch slightly. "_Blondie,_ huh? Hehe, well can't fault you for that one." I punched him in the arm.

"Shut up!" he snapped, shifting uncomfortably.

"What? We need to lighten the mood a bit. anyway, or those fuckers get to win... _Sooooo_ what was she doin'?"

He growled, a thin trickle of blood running down his nose. "Ben, I'm warning you...!"

I cut him off grinning widely, thoroughly enjoying my little game. '_Need to keep his mind off this shit... Calm him down a bit.'_

"Look, I don't see why you're gettin' so embarrassed, man. Blondie's a _very_ beautiful young woman. And trust me, I should know. Wasn't jokin' when I asked her if she had a twin back then. Now, it's perfectly natural for men to have certain... urges at our age. Nothin' to be ashamed of!"

"I can't believe we're talking about this, right now..."

"Not like you wouldn't have a shot with her, I would think. You're a handsome enough man in the right light, after all..."

"_Stop._ _Talking._"

"Psycho... Joel... You do realize I won't judge ya if you've never... Y'know..." I motioned with my hands, raising an eyebrow.

Joel tensed suddenly, stopping in place, and slapping a hand over my mouth. He closed his eyes, muttering under his breath just loudly enough for me to hear. "I have, actually. And _no,_ I'm not going to tell your perverted ass about it. Now shut up; I think I heard something..."

I pushed his hand away, but kept silent, drawing on a bit of my Aura to sharpen my senses. Sure enough, I could just make out the sound of laughter, happy and innocent, ringing out from a side passage up ahead.

"Max!" I said, turning to him suddenly. Judging by the look on his face, he'd come to the same conclusion as he drew his weapon. "Think this is another trap?"

"I don't know... But it's the best lead we have, and if we can get her away from these things, she can lead us to Reika. Then we can get the hell out of this hole."

I gritted my teeth and nodded, following him as we ran down the passageway. _'**Please** be alright, Max...'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

I laughed again along with my mother, as my dad tried and failed to catch the frisbee, leaning back until he was sent flailing to the ground in a heap. "You're such a klutz!" I ran over to him, helping him to his feet.

"Not all of us went to Huntsman school, Maxi," he groaned sheepishly as he wiped grass off his jeans. "And contrary to what you seem to think, not all dogs are great at catch."

"If you're finished getting embarrassed, dear..." Mom called out to us, comfortably seated in the shade underneath a large oak tree. "You still haven't told Maxine about the big news."

"What?" I turned back to my dad, who was smiling widely "What is it? What're you two keeping from me?"

"Well, Maxi..." His eyes shifted towards Mother again, the same warm glow I remembered shined out of them.

_'...'Remembered?' But he's right here...' _I frowned, but thought little of the mistake, focusing intently on my father as he placed his hands on my shoulders.

"Things have been improving at work, what with my promotion and all. Plus, your new painting's already attracting buyers, not to mention your gallery."

"Dear..." She gave him a stern glance, signaling him to hurry up.

He shrugged, waving her off. "I'm getting to it, honey. It's called 'build-up;' every good announcement's got one!... Anyway, Maxi, with so many things going well, your mother and I decided..."

"We're having another baby!" Mother said quickly, cutting him off as she got to her feet, and made her way over to where we stood. Dad's Faunus ears drooped in disappointment, probably because he wanted to make a big show of it, like always. I wasn't paying attention, squealing in excitement as I ran over to her, and tackling her in a tight embrace.

"Maxine, control yourself!" she said sternly, though her rebuke lacked its usual bite.

I got off of her quickly, giving her a short apology, before immediately barraging her with questions. "_Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh!_ How long have you guys known!? What is it!? Is it a boy!? A girl!? Oh who cares, that's so _great!_ Does Aunt Carmen know!? Do you have any names!?"

My father laughed loudly, patting me on the back. "See? I told you she'd take it well," he chided Mom, scratching at my ears playfully.

"It's just..." I frowned slightly, gazing down at my mom's stomach ruefully. "I thought you two couldn't have anymore kids? You told me Mom's body couldn't take it."

"The doctors have assured me I should be just fine," the older woman replied quickly, likely trying to put my mind at ease. "And just think. In a few months, you'll have a new little one to look after."

"Yeah, I just..." I paused, sniffing at the air as two new scents drew closer. They were foreign, but... somehow familiar. A sharp twinge from that persistent headache that had plagued me since earlier struck again, pain blotting out the thought.

Craning my head over Dad's shoulder I noticed two figures approaching, their features shadowed, and somehow out of focus even in the afternoon sun. My father noticed them too, pushing both Mother and I behind him, teeth bared openly at the new arrivals, his being more canine than my own. I caught sight of a glint of metal, and the telltale whirring of gears as a long staff extended in one of the figure's hands. The other, I noticed, had a pistol clutched at his side. Another shot of pain burned its way through my skull, but I tried to stay centered.

_'These two are dangerous. They'll hurt my family!' _Memories of how people, Faunus and otherwise, had treated me and my family sprang to mind, as a voice whispered through it. _'They'll take my family away from me if I don't stop them!_'

"Dear?..." Mom whispered, voice shaky with fear, but Dad just shook his head.

"Sophie, it's okay. Run, and get Maxine out of here! I'll handle this!" he said, not taking his eyes off of the approaching figures who maintained their position, looking from each other then to me, or at least I think they were.

_'**I'm** the one they want.'_

Had these two seen us playing together, and figured it out on their own?... But why would that matter? Acceptance of Faunus/Human relationships had been on the rise since before I'd left Huntsman Academy and came home... Or was that not true?

_'Damn it, what's **wrong** with me!?'_

Dad stood firm, but couldn't hide his hesitation. He'd trained as a Huntsman, just as I had years ago, but had dropped out due to his family being unable to support him. Beyond that, he had no experience fighting, and was unarmed. _'Wait... Do **I** have experience?'_

"Dad, back off! I'll handle them!" I said confidently, striding past my father, pushing aside his attempts to hold me back easily. I was suddenly aware of two large bladed guns in both hands, my sundress having faded into a pair of torn red jeans, a ragged t-shirt with the crest of a dog head biting on a skull, and a heavy sleeveless flak jacket. I also felt taller and stronger, my body lighter and less sluggish.

_'Why am I confused? I brought these with us today before we left,' _my mind decided for me as I held the weapons aloft... _'Wait... I thought I left Huntsman Academy? Must've kept these with me... Though why would I have these on me right now, in any case?' _The persistent ache made it impossible for me to focus on anything but the current situation. _'Who cares about all that!? Wonder later, protect parents now!'_

The figures leapt into action, darting opposite of each other. The pistol wielding one squeezed off a few shots. I thought initially that he was just firing wildly, until I realized the bullets' intended trajectory.

"Oh no, you don't!" I screamed in anger, barely managing to deflect the bullets before they hit my father, Dust rounds screaming off the axe blade of the gun in my right hand. I returned a spray of fire with my left gun to drive him back, bullets barely missing him as he rolled away. His partner was on a similar course, leaping at my mother with speed that could only have been achieved through Aura, long blades extending from the ends of the staff, thus converting it into a double-edged spear.

_'Cowards! They're targeting my parents to throw me off balance!'_

I spun around, using the momentum to knock away the bladed point just in time, catching him in a lock. "You're fighting me, asshole!" I growled, staring into the figure's unseen eyes, his face still strangely hazy. My opponent kicked away suddenly, throwing me off balance, before lashing out in a series of quick strikes. He seemed hesitant for some reason, his movements slower and weaker than they had been a second earlier.

_'Is he trying to hold back!?' _Bastard. Did he think me weak enough that he didn't even need his full strength!? I would show him, gritting my teeth as I drew upon my Aura, and exalting in the rush of power that I directed towards my opponent. Almost immediately, his weapon paused mid-swing, as if caught by an invisible force.

I grinned despite a bead of sweat running down my brow from the exertion. My Semblance: the thing that made me unique. It was what had earned me that scholarship to train as a Huntress in the first place, its power allowing me to manipulate my weapon, as well as the space around me, with ease.

_'Then why did they let me leave when I'd had enough?'_ a small unbidden voice at the back of my mind, different from the first, asked in confusion. I snapped back to reality, the figure had let go of his weapon, instead drawing back a hand clutching two thin throwing knives, face focused behind me at my parents, who were now clutching one another.

"_I SAID YOU'RE FIGHTING **ME,** ASSHOLE!_" I screamed, catching the would-be assassin in my Semblance, raising him from the ground, and tossing him aside like a ragdoll. He flew through the air, colliding hard against the oak tree's branches with a loud crack, before falling to the ground, unmoving. His partner called out in alarm, his voice sounding distorted, impossible to understand. I brought my twin weapons together, reassembling the heavy battle axe. Panicked, my opponent fired again towards my parents, only to find his bullets stopping in midair, dropping to the ground harmlessly.

"Who are you!?" I asked angrily, leaping for the strange man who barely managed to avoid bisection "_WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?_"

I could hear my parents cheering me on. _'I'm doing it, protecting them. This is what I should be doing!' _I pushed out with my Semblance, knocking him aside as he tried to right himself for another shot. I was above him in an instant, my weapon pressed against his neck, close enough that I could see the emerald glow of an Aura struggling to hold the weapon at bay.

_'Aura again? Why are trained Huntsmen targeting my family?'_

"That was amazing, Maxine!" my mother called out happily, a toothy smile shining on her face as she ran up behind me alongside Dad, who I noticed was staring down at the two men with an expression of hateful glee on his face. I couldn't recall ever seeing my father's face like that, even after Mom died...

...Wait.

My face scrunched up as I clutched for my head with one hand, the other keeping _Cerberus _pinned at our attacker's neck. _'Mom's not dead. She's right here!' _But memories appeared through my mind. Flashes of an attack similar to this one, screams, shouts to run... A gunshot... A flash of steel...

"What's wrong, dear?" my mother asked, cocking her head in confusion. "Go ahead. Kill him."

"What...?" I turned around to gape at her, head still feeling as if it were being torn apart from the inside by a rabid Beowolf.

"Well, you've got him pinned. And then you can finish off the other one," Dad said, gesturing to the still prone figure lying a short ways away. "They meant to hurt us, after all. Your family."

My mom nodded, looping her finger absently through a lock of hair, just as I remembered her doing years ago. "Your father's right. Kill him. Two quick swipes, and then we can go back to the lake. You said you wanted to draw some more, didn't you?"

"N-no... _NO!_" I stared at her. "Something's wrong! Mom, you hated the thought of me fighting, and you would never hurt a fly!" My eyes shifted towards Dad, noting a hungry gleam in his eyes which now seemed reflective, like dark red glass. "And you... You saw what I was becoming; my urges! You thought Huntsman Academy would give me an outlet! That it was better I hurt the Grimm, than other people! Especially after..."

"Foolish girl!" my mother snapped suddenly, voice cracking like shattered glass beneath a boot. "Forget those things! They aren't important. Your happiness, your family..." The space around her seemed to shift, until, suddenly, she held a crying form in her arms, wrapped in a white blanket. "See?... You made the baby cry."

"No! You're _not_ them!" I cried out, image after image flying through my head, as I lost my grip on my axe, the weapon clattering loudly as it struck the ground. "You never had a baby! Those muggers murdered you!" I turned to face the burly Faunus, his eyes shining hatefully. "And you... You left after Mom died... It was Aunt Carmen who took care of me! _WHO ARE YOU!?_"

Before they could answer, I was suddenly turned around and pulled into a tight embrace, face pressed against what I realized was my pinned opponent's chest. He had gotten up when I was distracted. I noticed a glint of metal as the figure held me close, raising the arm that held his pistol, which was an exact replica of the one I'd been drawing before.

_'So... familiar...'_

"It's alright... Close your eyes, Max..." a familiar voice whispered gently, canine senses picking it up easily. "Don't open them until I say so."

I shouldn't have listened, not with two strange things masquerading as my parents standing behind me, or while being held by some strange man with a gun. For some reason, however, I trusted him, and did as he asked. I clutched him tightly, shivering as twin gunshots rang out from above me, followed by a pair of inhuman screams as hot tears burned trails down my face.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

In my time alive, I've faced desperate raiders, soulless attack drones, and wild animals of both the Grimm variety and otherwise... But _never_ have I hated anything with as much passion as I did these shadow bastards.

"You think she's gonna be okay?" I asked Ambrose, cocking my head towards the Dog Faunus. The Huntsman shrugged, wincing as his shoulder throbbed painfully. His Aura had taken the worst of Max's Semblance, though his arm had been dislocated in the collision and was set painfully back in place, along with a pulled muscle in his leg. His stark white hair was now a light pink, discolored by a nasty cut that had yet to heal fully. "She hasn't talked at all since we told her about those things," I grimaced, dabbing at my shirt, the fabric still damp from earlier.

"You've seen what these things can do..." he replied, shooting me a stern look. "Everyone deals with pain in their own way. Some need a good cry, and others need to vent." He shivered flexing his fingers, likely remembering his own experience. "I don't know how yours was, or how you escaped, but mine was a damn nightmare... And she was with them even _longer_ than we were."

_'Reika...' _My partner was still out with those things. The thought of these things alone with her, tormenting her... I clutched my pistol even more tightly. _'What would that be like? She barely has any memory to begin with!'_

"She's still on her feet, though, and that's something... Just give her some time."

"Right... Let's just find Reika, and get the hell outta here," I said, more to myself than Psycho, before coming to a stop as Max paused suddenly, sniffing at the air loudly.

"I've got a scent..." She looked back towards us. Aside from a slight red tinge under her eye, there was nothing left to show she'd broken down. "It's faint, but it's definitely Murasaki. And something else... Those creatures, I think. Something's up, though."

"_Shit!_" I swore loudly, kicking at floor. "They got her, too! I should be with her, right now!"

"Stow it, Carson!" Max snapped, giving me a sharp glare. "I smell _blood..._ Thing is, it's not Human, at least not all of it."

"Not Human?" Joel walked over to her, closing his eyes. "So it's not Reika's? Then...?"

"She's still alive. Injured, but probably not too badly. Most of it smells the same as the Grimm that got me after... after Carson took them down." Her mouth twitched somewhat, though if Ambrose noticed the slip, he pretended to ignore it. "My guess is the runt got rid of hers, somehow, and retaliated. Bit scratched up, but she's winning."

"They aren't infallible..." I piped up, drawing their attention. "They do fuck up occasionally. And once you see through it, it's a lot harder for them to get you again." The one that came after me was proof of that, assuming a form that made me angry, rather than sad or contented. "Reika wasn't able to sense anything before, so maybe..."

"She knew it was a fake from the start," Joel finished, nodding to himself. "Make's sense. Let's get a move on."

We broke into a full on sprint, Max running ahead of us, issuing commands as we charged down passages and side corridors. Psycho could barely keep up with us with his leg, but managed to grit his teeth through the pain, Aura flaring as he tried to sustain himself. Within minutes, the sounds of battle began to roar from up ahead, the boom of gunshots and the telltale crash of metal on stone. The sound was instantly recognizable.

_'Holy shit! How many are after her!?'_

We finally managed to reach the end of the tunnel, the space opening up into a large cavern with a dome ceiling, as Joel pointed his light into the space. The floor was littered by the remains of over a dozen of the spindly creatures, bodies either riddled with bullet holes, or missing whole sections from her pile driver. The girl herself stood at the edge of the room in bloody, torn clothes, mercilessly slamming her weapon's tonfa head into the stone, pulping another Grimm's head in a brutal tempo again and again. I could see cracks spreading from the point of impact all the way up to the ceiling.

"Reika!" I rushed forward, a relieved smile plastered on my face. It faded as soon as the girl spun to face me, her hair usually kept swept back out of her face now hanging forward in a lank curtain over her eyes, which looked at me with barely restrained fury. Combined with her mask, the whole effect gave her the look of a rabid animal as she raised her weapon. Max snarled, raising _Cerberus_, though Joel restrained her before she could do anything more than thumb the safety. I noticed the small girl was panting heavily, a long scratch running up her arm, tinged violet with Aura as it slowly but surely closed.

"Reika?..." I tried again, raising my hands non-threateningly. "It's me. Ben, remember?... Your partner?..."

_'What the hell did those things do to her!?'_

The mute stared at me for a few seconds, before recognition entered her eyes. "That's good, Reika. Remem... _Oof!_" I doubled over as the girl lashed out with an Aura-powered fist, catching me in the stomach, and sending me to my knees. "Reika...!" I started, before she caught me up in a tight hug that I awkwardly returned, patting her on the back.

_'Shit... I'm just Mr. Comfort today, aren't I?' _I sighed internally as I looked down at the girl. '_She's okay, though... We're all okay...'_

"Rei..." I pushed her away, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay? W-what did they show you?"

The girl stiffened but raised her left hand, flashing a quick series of signs barely visible in the dim light. _"It's not important."_

"Rei, it's...!"

"_It's **NOT** important!" s_he signed again, more forcefully this time. I raised my hands again, this time in surrender as I got to my feet.

"Fine, fine; it's not important," I muttered, looking back at the other two with a nod.

A loud screech rang down the hall, shocking us all into action.

"_GET OUT! OUT!_" Joel called over the din as we broke out into a run. Max lead us as we made our way through the twisting passages. "How much farther!?"

"Not long!" Max called back, gesturing up ahead, where I noticed the telltale green paint spattered along the wall. "Entrance should be only a few minutes...!"

A loud cry from above cut her off, as two of the creatures leapt down from the ceiling above her. One was knocked away as my bullet blew off its head, the other took a throwing knife to the shoulder, and fell to the ground writhing.

"Shit!" Psycho clutched at his arm, wincing. He'd meant to kill the thing instantly, but he'd forgotten about his arm, the injury throwing off his aim. His Aura surged as sparks ran down his arm, the blade lodged in the Grimm sparked to life, finishing off the injured beast with an electric crackle. "Keep going!" he cried out.

I noticed the a drip of blood running down his face. _'He's focusing his Aura on his leg...' _I resumed the grueling pace, the cries of these monsters growing louder from behind us. '_He must almost be dead on his feet!...'_

We all were, I realized. Max was panting loudly, though trying to pass it off as anger, while Reika's eyes seemed dazed. Even my arm was getting harder and harder to move as my own Aura decreased. I almost hadn't been able to make that shot.

"Come on!" I fired back behind me at the shadows following us, most of the shots impacting off the stone, but judging by a few pained shrieks, some of the rounds must have hit home.

After a minute, we found the cavern entrance, passing through the crack and making our way up the mine's shaft, suddenly breaking into the light of the fast-setting sun. We kept running, though, ending up sprawled several dozen feet away. Joel pulled the signal beacon out and pressed the button, the device emitting a loud beeping noise.

"Holy shit!" Max coughed, looking back at the tunnel fearfully. I could make out a few moving shapes. One of the Grimm tried to crawl after us, but as soon as its leathery black skin made contact with the sun's light, it sizzled loudly, forcing it back into the tunnel. Bastet's message came flooding back to me.

"_Sunlight!_" I cried out, getting to my feet. "_They hate sunlight!_"

"Well we're running out of sunlight!" Max yelled back, looking out at the sun. "We need to get out of here!"

"The pilot's going to be a few minutes..." Joel growled angrily, still lying on his back heaving. "He won't get here in time."

He was right. A long shadow was already beginning to form, shading the entrance of the cavern. "Fuckin' hell..."

Reika slumped her head forward, placing her face into her hands.

"The bomb..." I muttered, an idea forming in my head. "The bomb at the entrance! It was set so it would take these things out!"

"And half the mountain along with it..." Joel finished, his eyes closing.

_'Right... Forgot that part.'_

I scratched at my head, trying to think of something else, when our leader spoke again, voice sounding resigned. "...It would work, though."

"Man!..." Max's face fell into the sand laughing wildly. "This is so _fucked..._ It would be an awesome boom, though... And the charge was aimed up, not at us."

"Are you kiddin' me!?" I looked at them aghast, realizing what they were thinking. "You do realize we'd be caught in the debris still, right? And the shock wave? It's half a goddamn mountain!"

"We'd stop these things, though..." Joel looked at me intently. "Blow these things back to kingdom come, and make sure they don't hurt anyone else... Not the worst way to go..."

The shade had spread by now. The Grimm were starting to exit the tunnel, red eyes glaring at us hungrily. I glanced at Reika, who looked back at me, nodding solemnly. I closed my eyes, mind reeling back, until a sort of... acceptance... clicked into place.

_'Always did want to go out with a bang,' _I thought to myself as I chuckled out loud, looking around at my teammates. _'Though I gotta say, in my head, I was hopin' it'd be a few years down the line, at least... Maybe in a bed, with a few gorgeous beauties present...' _My eyes fell on Max, who smiled evilly, reddish brown eyes fixed on the Grimm._'Well... could certainly do worse.'_

"Those fuckers don't even know what's coming..." she murmured, eyes widening with excitement, as if to steel herself for the inevitable. "Maybe I can... Maybe... _NO!_ I _can_ do it!"

I ignored the rest of her words, raising my pistol and taking aim for one of the exposed Dust cores. My gaze shifted at the last second towards the Grimm closest to us, its body perched on all fours, snarling, tentacles flailing.

_'Burn in Hell, you rotten sons of bitches!'_

I flared my _Draw,_ time slowing down as I fired, watching the bullet fly towards the core as the Grimm tried and failed to intercept it. The round pierced the outer shell, and suddenly it was as if the sun had come down from the heavens, as light poured from the tunnel, cracking stone as the whole world shook.

_'Beautiful...' _I thought numbly, as a glowing reddish form leapt in front of me, arms outstretched. It was then that the world went dark.

* * *

**_-Jude Redgrave-_**

I'd been halfway through to my destination, relaxing comfortably next to a small flare heating up a can of beans, intent on getting some grub in me before picking up the kids, when the distress signal rang out from the transceiver. _'Shit, shit, shit, **SHIT!**' _I leapt into the bullhead's cockpit, not even bothering with pre-flight checks, before the engines cried out as I roared into the sky towards the work site, pushing the bird to her limits.

"This better not be some prank to get me to pick 'em up faster!"

'_Stupid, reckless Huntsmen kids!' _I thought, placing the flight helmet over my head. To think years ago, I'd wanted to be one of those nutcases. Every little boy and girl did at one time or another, I supposed, raised on tales of heroism and adventure. Even after the sobering revelation that my own skills with Aura made me unsuitable for actual combat, I still wanted to do my part against the Grimm. Becoming a combat pilot seemed to be the next best thing. Nothing like shredding Grimm from above with a heavy machine gun, while ferrying the real heroes to their destination.

Enlisting at eighteen and serving three years in the Kingdom's military, I'd been selected by Ozpin himself as a pilot only a month previously. This disaster was my first routine assignment.

"Come on, Lucy! Come on!" I urged, patting the ship's dials affectionately. One of the oldest models created, the craft had been a relic in service to Beacon for years, and had belonged to my predecessor: a surly veteran named Gregor who I'd co-piloted for. She wasn't the prettiest bird in the sky, but she was reliable, and had apparently been flying since well before he'd joined up.

The mountain was in view, silhouetted against the waning sun, pretty as a portrait, when suddenly the horizon lit up in an enormous flare of multicolored fire, lighting up the sky clear as day, and taking the mountain along with it. The shock wave buffeted the small craft hard, sending it into a wild spin as stone shards from the mountain fell around me, one particularly large one cracking the glass canopy as it impacted.

"_OH SHIT!_" I pulled the yoke back, cranking back the engine, and barely managing to keep her in the air as a plume of smoke rose up from where the work site had lain previously. The picturesque mountain looked as if it had had a fight with an ice cream scoop and lost. _Badly._ The blast flattened the surrounding forests.

_'What the hell did those kids **do!?**' _I mentally screamed, as I gaped at the wanton destruction, waiting for the billowing smoke to clear.

Bringing Lucy down into a controlled hover, I switched on the searchlight, trying desperately to find any sign of AMBR, but the entire area was covered in rubble and debris.

_'Oh... Ozpin's **not** going to like this...' _I groaned inwardly as I swung around for another pass.

Just as I was about to give up hope and start back for Beacon, a loud boom rose up from the ground a few meters away, sending me scrambling for the controls, ready to get the hell out of here in case whatever had taken out the mountain was back for Round Two. After a few seconds of no exploding death storms, I worked up the nerve to check out the area, shocked to see four students crawling out of a hole in the ground, all accounted for. They all seemed alive and intact, though I noticed the Faunus girl was supported by the one with the artificial arm. I quickly brought the Bullhead down to the ground quickly.

"I don't believe it!..." I called out as I steppe from the cockpit to meet them, wincing a bit as I took in the state of them "You kiddos alright?"

Bloody, battered, and covered head to toe in dust, they stepped silently into the ship. Closing the side doors, I noticed them all slumped against the panels, not even bothering to secure themselves. The Dog girl seemed to have knocked out, her head on the poncho-wearing one's shoulder. Their leader, the tall one with the white hair, though at the moment it was more black and pink, came up to join me in the cockpit a few minutes later, after making sure the rest of his team was settled, falling into the co-pilot seat with a groan of utter exhaustion.

"...If you don't mind me asking... What the hell happened back there?" I asked nervously, flinching back as he turned to face me with a haunted look in his eyes that didn't belong on such a young face.

"Trust me... You _don't_ want to know," was all he'd said for the rest of the trip back as he typed up a report to send ahead. "You_ really_ don't want to know..."

_'You know... Maybe I got off easy for not being a Huntsman, after all,'_ I gulped, patting the controls one last time. _'Sorry I ever regretted you, babe.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

I stepped off the Bullhead with a relieved sigh, the sight of Beacon Tower and the lights pouring from a few of the rooms acting as a comforting balm. _'We made it back... **All** of us...'_

It had been a close call, and it was all thanks to Max. The Dog Faunus had leapt in front of us when the bomb went off, using her Semblance to somehow bend the force of the explosion, as well as the debris, around us. She even managed to blow us a way out afterwards, in a display of near god-like power. The strain had finally caught up with her, though, and she'd fallen unconscious once she'd stepped foot on the aircraft.

_'Probably for the best... She'd be freaked out, otherwise,_' I reasoned, making my way back to the school with the rest of my team, my partner in Ben's arms slumbering peacefully.

At least that made one of us. Ben and Reika had managed to catch some sleep on the trip back, while I'd stayed up typing up the mission report, detailing our little nightmare for the school. I still picked up on their strain, however, their movements sloppy and uncoordinated. Reika especially looked the worse for wear. Her injuries had already healed, though the effort had left her swaying on her feet, her Aura depleted. I could relate to the small girl, as my body ached more than it had in years.

On approach, I wasn't surprised to see Ozpin flanked by Goodwitch standing at the landing pad waiting for us, a concerned look on his face as he came to greet us. The look on my face was almost too numb, if the fact that my vision had narrowed at him was any indication.

"Joel, I received your report. Are you...!"

He didn't get the chance to finish as my fist crashed into his cheek, sending the Headmaster to the ground with his glasses flying. What annoyed me the most was that the move was sloppy, slow, and completely telegraphed, yet he still hadn't even bothered avoiding it. It was almost like he was humoring me by letting me make contact.

_'Or maybe it's his way of apologizing!'_ I reeled back, hissing through gritted teeth as pain shot up my arm, still not fully healed. The pilot cried out in shock, while the rest of my team just stood back, looking nervous if more than a little sympathetic.

"You... You son of a bitch!" I growled, staring at the Huntsman, ready to defend myself if he struck back. _'Let him try it!'_

"Mr. Ambrose!" The blonde Huntresses' crop was in her hands in an instant, but she was stopped by Ozpin as he got to his feet, quickly placing a hand on her shoulder while he rubbed his cheek gingerly, a bruise already forming on his pale skin. To his credit, he didn't try to use his Aura to heal the injury. I probably would've tried hitting him again if he had.

"It's alright, Glynda..." he reassured her, staring at me intently. "He has more than enough reason to be upset." She looked ready to argue the point, but lowered her weapon slowly, giving me a sharp look that I returned unflinchingly.

"_Damn right,_ I do! We _all_ do!" I snapped harshly, gesturing back to the rest of my team. "I don't care if we're skilled or not. I don't even give a damn about you using whatever pieces you have available, or whatever bullshit you want to use to justify this!" I took a step forward. "You have me, Ozpin. The collar proves that... But if you _ever _endanger my team again by using us as pawns... There's no Grimm in existence that can compare to what I'll do to you when I...!" I couldn't even say anything else after that. I was so angry. Instead, I reigned my fury in, and led my team off of the platform back towards the academy, leaving the two professors and the nervous pilot standing there staring after us.

* * *

"...Get them in bed," I ordered Ben, as we entered the dormitories.

"What about...?" The sharpshooter looked at me questioningly before nodding, face sifting to a more serious expression. "Will do, Psycho."

"Thanks, Ben... You did good, today. Honest..." I clapped him on the shoulder with my good arm, cocking my head towards Reika. "You all did."

"Don't sell yourself short, man. You did the best you could in a bad situation," he replied, returning the gesture. "Punchin' and threatenin' the Headmaster, though..."

"I know..." I glanced at my fist soberly. "Not one of my proudest moments, was it?" I admitted, cheeks flushing. "Haven't let myself lose control like that in years..."

He just laughed, staring down at the Faunus in his arms. "Ah, well one of us had to do it with Max out. Better you then the guy with the metal fist. Now all I need to do is beat the shit out of Ice Queen's Daddy, and we'll be almost even for that shit storm."

I made sure they had all entered the room before making my way down the hall to the nearest shadowed space. Even though the caves were far behind us, the phantom child's distorted laughter continued playing on repeat in my head. I tugged at the collar encircling my neck, feeling as if the small metal loop was suffocating me where I stood.

"_You're a killer, Joel Ambrose..." _I slumped back against the wall, crouching against the floor, clutching fruitlessly at my ears. "_...A weapon. A tool to be used by others..."_

The phantom was new, but the words were old, questions I'd asked of myself sitting alone in that cell that I thought were long behind me. The thing about prison, though, is that you get a lot of time to yourself to just think about what you did to end up there... And I'd had five long months with nothing but my shadow for company.

"Damn it..." I muttered, feeling warm tears travel down my cheeks. All those faces, all that pain, all for a damn grudge. I could hear their voices, still. I began beating on the side of my head, hoping they would go away... "_Damn it!_"

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

'_Man, what a day!' _I thought, cracking my back as I made my way back to _JNPR's_ room, finally finished with Professor Peach's stupid sap homework, being the only one who hadn't managed to get it finished.

Since we'd touched back down, RWBY and JNPR had been having a little party, celebrating Vomit Boy's first kill. Ruby had spent an hour relaying the gory details of how he'd decapitated the Ursa in one swing, felling the terrible beast, and saving Cardin's ass in the process, slight embellishments included.

Awesome Grimm killing adventure stories aside, however, I was just relieved the whole of JNPR was getting along again. Joel had been right, after all. Apparently all Jaune had needed was just a bit of time to get his priorities straight. Speaking of the Huntsman, he and his team should've been getting back from their own mission right about now.

_'I should swing by their dorm, and get 'em to tell us about how their mission went!' _I grinned excitedly as I moved down the hallway. '_Maybe I shouldn't, though. They could be totally wiped out_... _Tired, I mean,' _I corrected myself on the choice of words. It might've been their first official mission, but it wasn't like AMBR couldn't handle it. As I neared their room, however, I heard a slight whimpering noise coming from down the hall.

Curious, I followed the sound down the stone corridor, catching sight of a familiar figure curled up next to an open window, head clutched in his hands, while they tapped harshly on the temples, moonlight throwing shadows across the floor.

"...All my fault... It's all my fault; it's all my fault..." Joel whimpered over and over, shoulders heaving. "I'm so sorry... _I'm so sorry..._" It was as if he didn't even notice me, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him.

"Joel...?" I asked hesitantly, making my presence known as I stepped closer. From what I could make out, his whole body was covered in a fine layer of dust, his clothes torn, the plates of his armor scuffed and dented.

"_Joel_," I repeated, this time more confidently. The Huntsman froze, turning his head slowly to face mine, face twisted in a pained grimace. His eyes though... I'd seen that look on Ruby's face years earlier whenever she had a nightmare. After our mother's death, I'd taken on the responsibility of comforting my little sister on such nights, Dad either too busy and too broken up to give the girl the comfort she needed at the time. So like any good sister, I stepped up, letting her curl up beside me, telling her everything would be all right, keeping the monsters at bay.

I dropped down instinctively as I placed my arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. He stiffened and for a few seconds. I thought he would try to pull away. Instead, he buried his face in my shoulder, breaking down completely as he gripped at my arms tightly for support. "I'm sorry... _I'm so sorry..._" the Huntsman kept repeating over and over, voice muffled by my hair as I stroked his back slowly, cooing softly in his ear.

-END

**_A/N: Hey guys, so ends the first part of this story and man this took awhile to write. Thanks for all of your support and hopefully the next part will be out soon. (Thank you thanksgiving break for being right around the corner.) Gonna be taking a little break and get some work done on other things I've been neglecting._**


	13. Chapter 13

**Edited as of (10/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

MOVING FORWARD

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'This is a bad idea...' _I groaned internally, stepping from the cramped elevator into the CCT's open communications space. _'A very, **VERY** bad idea.'_

I walked past rows of computer terminals, many occupied by other students wrapped up in cheerful conversations with friends and relatives. After a few moments, I found the open suite I'd been assigned and sat down, the monitor springing to life with a light ring as I cleared my head.

_"Hello, Mister Ambrose..."_ a calm female voice rang out from the speakers. _"Welcome to the Beacon Cross Continental Transmit Center. How can I be of assistance today?"_

_'Damn, it's getting harder and harder to tell these things are AI...'_

"Ah... Yes, I need to place a call to this address..." I typed in the string of numbers my contact had provided. "Pretty sure it should be located somewhere within Atlas. I'll pay if there's a fee."

_"One moment, please..."_

The terminal then dimmed, the intelligence searching for a usable connection while running the string of numbers against known addresses, before lighting up with a loud beep as it found a recipient. Moments later, a pleasant-looking short-haired brunette, maybe a year or two older than me, appeared on the screen sporting a friendly smile.

_"Thank you for calling the Atlas Branch of the Schnee Dust Company Research and Development Division."_ Her cheery voice wavered as she took a good look at me. I was suddenly very aware of the fact I was wearing a faded blue t-shirt and jeans.

_'She could've warned me I'd be calling him at work...' _I thought nervously, cursing my contact. '_Not exactly the most professional look, I suppose.'_

_"May I ask the nature of your call, sir?"_ she asked, regaining her composure.

"Right..." I stated confidently, sitting up in my seat. "I was hoping you could direct me to a Jake Ambrose? I was under the impression he was working under one of your staff as an intern. He's fifteen... no, sixteen, now. Big guy, really tall? I was hoping to speak with him."

The secretary nodded, a note of recognition playing across her face at the name, before accessing the terminal in front of her. _"We **do** have a Professor Jacob Ambrose employed within development by that description."_

"That's him, I think," I spoke up quickly, leaning back in my seat, brows furrowed. '_He hasn't gone by 'Jacob' since he was five... Wait, **Professor?**'_

"You said he's employed there?"

_"Yes! General James Ironwood brought him onto the Special Projects Think Tank personally, after acquiring one of his prototype designs,"_ she answered, a note of admiration in her voice.

_'Look, Jake, you have a fan,' _I thought with a grin.

_"He's a real prodigy! Sixteen, and **already** changing the world."_

"Sure is..." I agreed.

Jake had always been above and beyond his peers, tinkering with whatever he could fin. From Scrolls to Dust batteries, he worked hard to try to understand how things worked. Unlike Mom and I, Jake took after Dad, his Aura deemed unsuitable for training as a Huntsman.

Rather than mope about it as other children usually did, my younger brother had taken it in stride, developing a new chemical-based method of forging Dust-treated silver at eleven, surpassing Bastion's current formula. Add on a scary talent for robotics rare for anyone outside of the Kingdoms, plus the fact that, by thirteen, he likely knew more about Dust than my teachers at Aegis, it was no wonder he'd risen as far as he had in such a short time.

_'If only Mom and Dad could see him now...'_

_"And what exactly is your relationship to the Professor?"_ The young woman stared at me suspiciously. _"Are you a friend? A relative?"_

"His brother."

_"Brother?... That's odd... Professor Ambrose has never mentioned..."_

"He wouldn't," I cut her off a bit more sharply than I'd intended as she moved to check her file. "We, uh... We aren't exactly close," I said more calmly this time, giving her an apologetic look.

_"I see..."_ She fidgeted in her seat nervously, frowning slightly before bringing a finger to an earpiece hidden behind her hair. _"I can try to patch you through to his Scroll. It'll just take a moment."_

She leaned away from her mic, speaking softly into the piece. I wasn't able to catch everything she was saying, but judging from her expression, what she was hearing from whoever was on the other line wasn't too positive. One quick glance at her expression told me all I needed to know.

_"I'm sorry sir... I-it seems the professor is busy at the moment. Maybe you could call back at a later time, when he's more available?"_

_'At least she's being tactful about it...' _I thought bitterly, making a mental note to ask my contact to hack the Schnee mainframe and give this girl a paid vacation, no questions asked.

"No, it's quite alright... Just do me a favor, and make sure he gets this number." I quickly relayed my Scroll's contact info, attaching it to the call, before reaching towards the disconnect. "Just in case."

* * *

_'Well... That could have gone worse.' _I practically collapsed backwards onto the CCT building's front steps, closing my eyes wearily. _'I suppose he could've actually responded.'_

Leaning back, I pulled my ear buds from my pocket and placed them in my ears, cranking up the music's volume to maximum. My head swayed to the beat as I tuned out the busy world passing around me. Fast, loud, and all encompassing...

_"...A weapon. A tool to be used by others..." _I was jarred back into reality, as a screeching peal of laughter exploded through my eardrums, drowning out the music.

"_DAMN IT!_" I snarled, tearing the buds from my ears angrily, slumping forward in a cold sweat as I panted heavily. "Damn it..." I said more quietly, more mindful of the fearful stares I was receiving from passersby.

_'No, scratch that...' _I realized, following their stares to my hands, which were at the moment sparking with wild arcs of electricity. _'Shit!'_

I tried to regain control of my Aura, but no matter what I tried, I just couldn't bring myself to calm down. "Ah, crap, not again!" I groaned, holding my hands out away from my body.

My Aura would wear out eventually, as it had for every other time this happened in the last two weeks since the mission. The sparks would fade, leaving me exhausted, starving, and somewhat charged, but relatively unharmed.

_'What was it that Yang suggested? Punch something to calm down? Run_ _laps_?_' _Couldn't hurt to try.

I hadn't talked to Yang about what happened the night we came back, and never brought it up again, even when we were alone together, a fact that I was more than thankful for. The whole situation just felt... awkward. I'd given the others a decent rundown on what had happened, but left out a few of the more personal details. They tried their best to beat into my skull during the early days that the mission, for all its hiccups, was a success.

_''Hiccups...' An understatement if I ever heard one...'_

We all got back relatively unharmed, with only a few minor injuries. My shoulder was the worst, by far, and even that had healed after a few days of rest. But that definitely didn't mean everything was normal.

Ben put on a good act, regaling tales of his daring heroism to any aspiring Huntress that would listen. But it all just seemed too forced to be entirely genuine. As for Murasaki, I could probably count the number of times I'd seen her anywhere in the time since on one hand.

And throughout all of that, somehow, it was possible Max was even worse, having woken up after about a day's rest in her bunk, somehow oblivious to the fact that she'd kept half a mountain from crushing us. She found ways to cope, just as Ben had, albeit in a more... _active_ capacity, having already been suspended from sparring for sending two other students to the infirmary, while simultaneously causing havoc across the school with her homemade bombs.

_'And now my Aura's acting up for the first time in years... Just great...'_ I hadn't shocked someone unintentionally since before I'd joined the Trappers... Well... aside from a few instances in my darker moments.

"_Sal-u-tations,_ sir!" a cheery voice rang out loudly next to me, my hands sparking brightly as I jumped up.

A girl with short curly orange hair, wearing a pink bow, and sporting a pair of almost too bright green eyes, with freckles on her cheeks, stood in front of me, hands at her sides as she wore an old fashioned blouse and a pair of stockings.

_'How did she get so close!?' _Even distracted, I should've noticed her. _'Sloppy...'_

The girl leaned forward slightly, eyes fixed on my hands inquisitively. "Are you aware that your body is currently emitting a dangerously high level of electricity for the average male of your approximate age and build?" she said with the same level of enthusiasm as her greeting.

"Um, I'm... sorry?" I said awkwardly, taking a short step back to put some distance between us.

_'What the...?'_

"There doesn't seem to be any signs of physical harm..." she noted, examining me. "But you do seem to be experiencing agitation, likely from a recent trauma or experience... Do you need assistance or medical attention? I can alert authorities..."

"No! No." I shook my head quickly, raising my hands to stop her before jumping back to avoid touching her, cursing myself. The girl just stood there, watching me curiously, seemingly uncaring of the fact she almost received a few thousand volts to her system. "I'm fine. Really." I tried to reassure her, giving her a wide smile.

The stranger nodded. "I see... So _this_ is how people hide pain through opposing emotional outbursts and physical cues."

"Right... Wait, what?"

"Your reactions are portraying a false image of your well-being to others in an attempt to avoid causing them stress, or to allow them to assist you. My father told me that it's a common defensive response."

She gave me a smile of her own. _'**Oookay...** I am officially more than a little freaked out, right now.'_

The girl cocked her head slightly, as if she wasn't sure of something. "Is that not correct?"

"No... I-I mean yes." I scratched at my new headache when my eyes widened. I pulled my hand away, realizing that my Aura back in control.

_'Okay, note to self: this happens again, just find something else to distract you.'_

"Look, see?..." I held my hand up to show her. "All better now. Thanks."

"So you are alright now? Wonderful!" She jumped up and down excitedly, before holding out her hand. "My name's Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Joel. Likewise." I shook her hand awkwardly, wincing slightly. For a girl who was barely at my shoulders in height, she had a grip like a vice. "Thanks for your, uh... help. I appreciate it."

"I... helped you?" Penny murmured under her breath.

"Yeah, you did," I assured her.

"Then... can you help me?" She looked up at me nervously, shifting her feet slightly. "I thought I'd take a walk to the harbor and see the festival preparations, but I seem to to be lost. So..."

"So you want directions?" I finished for her, looking around at the surrounding cityscape. _'Strange girl. She's probably here with her family for the festival. Maybe the tournament.'_

Penny didn't seem to look or carry herself like a Huntress, but I supposed the same could be said for Ruby... Well, aside from the giant scythe, anyway. "I can take you down to the wharf, if that's what you want," I said after a few seconds shrugging my shoulders.

"You would do that for me?" she asked happily, a wide smile fixed on her face. "I wouldn't want to be a bother. Father always says..."

"It's alright, really! I don't have anything else to do today, anyway. Besides, I can't just let you wander around the city alone." I motioned for her to follow me. "The city might look nice, but there are some places someone like you might want to avoid. Plus, it's just the friendly thing to do."

"Friendly..." she murmured, as if testing out the word on her tongue. "Does that mean we're... _friends?_"

I stared at her in confusion, noting the child like look on her face. _'Bit of a_ s_trange question to ask someone you've just met...'_

"Uh... Sure. Why not?" I sighed, surprised when the girl let out a shrill squeal of elation, before pulling me along the road with unexpected strength, practically dragging me along the pavement.

"_Yay!_ We're going to have such fun, friend!" Penny said in that cheery tone her voice seemed to default to.

_'What have I gotten myself into?' _I lamented internally, doing my best to remain upright and point out directions, as the strange girl pulled me along while humming cheerily to herself.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Ah crap..." I muttered angrily as I stepped out of the gym's firing range to a host of cheers from those watching me. I twisted my artificial appendage in its socket with a mechanical whine, as I waved off attempted hanger-ons that I was in no mood to deal with at the moment.

Since my attempted burial by mountain, I'd been picking out dust, rocks, and other bits of residue from the components of my arm, and it had thrown off my aim a few degrees. It also itched like crazy.

_'Could ask Rosie to work on it, if she isn't too busy. She's been itchin' to get her hands on it,' _I groaned, scratching my head in irritation as I rounded a corner, stepping out into a garden while taking a deep breath. '_Problems for another day... Not like I don't have enough of those...!'_

I noticed a flash of dark color from the corner of my eye and turned around. I instantly regretted it, and let out a cry of fear and surprise. One of the creatures from the caves, those wraiths, shadows, ancient horrors from the dark places of history, or whatever the fuck the Professors decided to call them, stood right in front of me, barely a foot away, reared back and ready to pounce. _Glory _was sitting in my locker, too far away to reach. I was in shorts and a long sleeve I'd used for training, so no concealed knife.

_'Don't need one!' _All of that flashed through my mind in a second as I raised my right arm, all thoughts of discomfort muted by the indescribable urge to smash this fucker's head in!

"Oi, Carson!" an authoritative voice called out, giving me pause. I spun around, catching sight of a familiar canine Faunus walking down the path. She had a paint spattered bag and an easel in her arms as she shot me an irritated look. "Calm your shit, and take a closer look, would you?"

I spun back to the creature... No... It was a perfectly detailed painting of the creature, realistic to the point that it was ready to jump out of the wall and right at me.

"H... How'd you...?" I reached out hesitantly, metallic fingers meeting stone with a small clink.

"I wanted to make them real to the people here," she said simply, dropping what she held and plopping down on a small grass patch across from the wall, hands on her knees and eyes fixed on the painting.

I sorta just stood there, gaping from her, to the artwork, then back to her. "_YOU_ made that?" I gestured to the mural, plussed. "You?"

"Yes, me," she replied, removing a small sandwich from her bag. "That's mildly insulting, y'know." She continued through a mouthful of food, ears twitching.

"Forgive my disbelief..." I grinned, sitting down next to her. "It's just... Bombs, I can understand. Paintings, though? It just seems so..."

"Peaceful?" she interrupted tauntingly. "Boring?"

"I was gonna say 'delicate,' actually," I continued on, taking a closer look at the detailing. From where I sat, it was possible to tell that the beast extended no farther than the wall. But up close...

"Bomb making takes some finesse too, you know," she muttered under her breath, pouting as she took another bite. "I know it's not the best work..."

"You're kiddin', right?" I gaped at the Faunus. "Take it from me, you _definitely_ hit the realism factor." I flexed my hand. "Bit of a heart-stopper, that thing. Since when can you paint?"

"Ever since I was a kid, I suppose," she replied as she pulled a battered old sketchbook from her bag, before handing it over to me. "My parents thought I needed an outlet for my aggression."

I began sifting through the sketchbook. Inside was page after page of rough designs, landscapes, etc., each one brilliantly detailed and looking almost as if you could pluck it right off of the page. '_Holy crap...'_

"You know, you could make a lot of money with these," I suggested, genuinely impressed. "This is just..."

"...You ever heard of Mistress Bordeaux?"

"...That big artist outta Mistral?" I recognized the name. My father's gang had "purchased" some of her work on occasion. Lots of valuables moving by train, these days...

...Wait!

"_You're her!?_" I let out a yelp, spinning to face the embarrassed Faunus girl. "B-but she's more than _twice_ your age! There's even photos of...!"

"That's my Aunt Carmen..." Max admitted, ears drooping sadly as she pulled some grass shoots from the ground, letting them fly off with the wind. "She stepped in, and handled all of the public appearances and interviews. She thought people would respond better to my work if it looked like it came from her, rather than some no-name Faunus girl."

"Bullshit."

"No, she was right. People loved my work. And it's not like I cared if people knew it was me, or not. She handled the business end of things, and it got my family through some hard times."

"...So this was your aunt from your Human side?" I asked hesitantly.

Max nodded, a small smile playing across her lips. "My mom met my dad under... awkward circumstances. No one in Mom's family ever really approved of him, except for Carmen and her daughter, Sonia. Dad did his best to make money at one of the Schnee's quarries, but things were rough, and we didn't like asking for handouts."

"Oh." I got to the latest works, chuckling to myself.

"What?" she asked, trying to glance over my shoulder.

"You missed my good side." I showed her the drawing, a collection of sketches detailing my arm, one of which had the metal shell peeled away to show the circuitry beneath.

She snatched the book away from me, glaring angrily and... blushing. _'Aww, someone's embarrassed.'_

"I can pose, if you'd like. I know it's hard to catch this chiseled visage." I flexed, shooting her a toothy smirk and a wink.

"Shut up!" the Huntress growled, her Aura flaring suddenly. I then found myself flying through the air, impacting hard into the large pond. I broke the surface, sputtering and coughing water out, while the Faunus was at the bank, a look of panic in her eyes.

"Geez, Bitch, can't take a joke!?" I groaned, spitting some water to the side. '_Least I don't need a shower now.'_

"Oh my God... A-are you okay!?" I glanced up, surprised to see genuine worry in the Faunus' dark eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm..."

"Uh, Max? I-it's alright." I pulled myself to shore, soaked to my skin and freezing, but none the worse for wear. "See? Still whole." I glanced down at her.

"I shouldn't have freaked out... Rrrgh, _damn it!_" Her face scrunched up as she clutched at her hair with one fist, while rapping her head hard with the other. I noticed the faint glow again as the branches in the nearest tree started to rustle wildly. I could even make out the sound glass rattling from some of the closer window panes.

"Uh... Bitch?" I said, reaching out for the girl. The air around us seemed to shift, and, for a tense moment, gravity seemed non existent. "_MAX!_"

The sound of her name seemed to force her back to reality. As soon as her eyes snapped open, the strange outburst of energy ceased, causing me to stumble slightly as gravity reasserted itself.

"Damn it..." She glanced up at me fearfully, eyes watering. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Stop sayin' that!" I grabbed her shoulders, staring at her intently before giving her a wide smile. "I'm okay, alright? My bad."

"...It was those _things..._" She looked back at the wall, undisguised anger etched onto her features. "They got inside my head... I can't stop thinking about them!" She pushed me away, stomping up to the piece of graffiti. "I hate how they got in my head! How they made me do what they wanted..." She trailed off, sounding guilty. She'd avoided talking with Psycho since the mission, despite him making it perfectly clear he had no hard feelings. "I hurt Ambrose... And I almost killed you..."

"But you didn't..."

"I almost _did!_" She turned on me, shouting now. "I see them everywhere, now. I even tried to copy that drawing of your arm from something they showed me... Their damned lie, and I bought it! They fucked with my head, and I let them!"

"And we brought a goddamn mountain down on them for it!..." I reminded her harshly, holding my arms out to my sides. "They got to everyone. Psycho was a goddamn wreck, and Reika... I don't even wanna think about what they showed her to make her act like that."

My partner had been little more than a ghost for the past few weeks. She didn't even come back to our room to sleep most nights.

The Dog girl pointed a finger at me angrily, seething now. "They didn't get you, though! Even Murasaki went nuts! You were the one who figured it out. Not Ambrose, _YOU!_... How?"

Sighing, I merely shrugged. "Guess I got lucky... Or unlucky, dependin' on how you look at...!" I flinched suddenly as the girl grabbed me, slamming me against the cold stone wall. I tried to push her off, but she wouldn't budge.

_'Right, Faunus. They're stronger than Humans.'_

"Explain," she growled, eyes glaring into mine. I tried to use my arm to push her off, but I couldn't move the appendage. Max growled, Aura back in full effect as she kept my arm affixed to the wall. "_Explain!_" she repeated coldly.

_'So it's all good when she controls it, then...'_

"...The Grimm showed us images, yes, but I don't think they really understood what they were makin' us see, or at least how it would affect us."

"Meaning?"

My usual jovial facade was starting to break, as my face shifted to resemble what I was feeling at the moment: annoyance. "Look, Bitch, can we do this another time? I gotta...!"

She cut me off by slamming the rest of my body to the wall with her Semblance. "I've asked you two times already, and you've given me bullshit answers!" she snapped, unaware of my fists clenching at my sides. "I wanna know how the _fuck_ you didn't get caught in their trap! _NOW!_"

"_I shot my mom!_" I spat out, my patience having reached its limit as I used the initial shock to push her away. "There, happy!?"

The huntress took a another quick step back, eyes wide. "Y-you... W-_what!?_"

"The one that got me was either stupid as hell, or it just didn't understand how it would make me react. Rather than calm me down, it just pissed me off."

"Y-you... You shot your own..."

She froze as I flared my own Aura, slamming my flesh and blood fist against the wall, and cratering the painted beast's head. "It's a long fuckin' story, and I _don't_ want to tell it. So do me a fuckin' solid, and don't ask." I stepped away from the destroyed mural, rubbing my now bleeding hand gingerly. "Just don't."

* * *

**_-Glynda Goodwitch-_**

"How did he do it?..." I asked myself, for what felt like the hundredth time, as I reviewed Team AMBR's mission report.

Mr. Ambrose's account of the Grimm they encountered was especially troubling. Creatures that could manipulate the mind of their victims, even to the point of turning them against friends... Research had unearthed only a few accounts of similar creatures, but the records were old, stretching back to long before the war. It contained stories of how these monsters had snared even the most experienced of Huntsman and Huntresses.

_'But not Benjamin... Why?' _I removed my spectacles, massaging my aching eyelids. "Murasaki..."

It was not as if he was the only one to break their hold. Reika had as well, though that was due more to her Semblance, and even then her emotional state was compromised.

_'Carson kept his senses, and went on to extract his team...' _According to the report, he had located information provided by one Leon Bastet, head foreman of the site. Perhaps he had a trick to resist them? _'But that was after the first encounter. That couldn't be the reason... If only the boy weren't so tight-lipped.'_

A sudden rap at the door broke me from my reverie. "Come in."

Speak of the devil. Reika Murasaki walked through the doorway, looking as if she'd been sleeping on the roof. Her clothes and hair were disheveled, and she seemed to be covered in a fine layer of dust.

_'She hasn't improved...' _I thought grimly, noticing the wild look in her eyes through her curtain of hair, face unreadable under her mask.

"Ah, Reika. Take a seat..." I gestured to the open seat in front of me, showing the girl a warm expression. "I was getting worried when you stopped coming to our sessions. Your team leader even put in a request to locate you."

_"I don't want to be around the others, at the moment..."_ the girl signed, fingers blurring rapidly in front of her so quickly, that even I had trouble translating. _"I appreciate their concern, but I am fine."_

"Really?" I motioned towards her appearance. "Reika, I'm here if you want to talk..."

_"That's what I'm here for."_

I paused, asking her to repeat the motion again for reassurance. "You... You're certain?... Well then... What would you like to talk about?"

_"What I saw in that cave..."_ The small girl shook her head, as if to steel herself, before continuing. _"I've been running it through my mind... And I wanted to discuss it with you. Get insight."_

"Have you spoken with anyone else on this matter? Mr. Carson, perhaps..."

_"**NO!**"_ she interjected quickly, waving a hand to stop me. _"Not Ben! You will not tell him!... He'll only worry."_

I wanted to argue, but the look the young woman shot me froze the words in my throat. "Alright..." I nodded in surrender, grabbing up my Scroll, and clearing a blank space, opening Miss Murasaki's file. "Tell me everything. I promise that your team won't be informed."

-END

**_A/N: More of a filler "after the fact" chapter this one, haven't had a lot of time to write with finals right around the corner but I'm definitely should have more available by the end of the month.._**


	14. Chapter 14

**Edited as of (10/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

FRIENDS?

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Alright, you two, hands where I can see 'em! Nice and slow!" a young girl with a green pixie cut, face covered in piercings, said smugly. Her companion, a burly toe-headed boy with a pudgy face, stepped out from one of the alley's shadowy edges, cracking his knuckles before drawing a long knife covered in tiny nicks.

"Give us your valuables, and you can go. Make trouble, and things might go a bit badly for you," he said, eyes resting on Penny a bit longer than I was comfortable with.

"So... what did you want us to do, again? Raise our arms, or give you our money?" I asked sarcastically, rubbing the back of my head with an annoyed sigh. "You have to give clear instructions in this kind of situation, or you'll just confuse people."

_'I warned her that cutting through the back alleys was a bad idea...'_

Amazingly enough, the orange-haired girl beside me seemed more confused than afraid, green eyes wide as she examined the two thieves in front of us. "Joel... are we getting robbed?" she asked innocently, turning her head to face me with a questioning expression.

I glanced back with a raised eyebrow. _'Okay, I understand a little naivety. But seriously!?'_

"You know what? I think so," I commented, chuckling to myself as the two idiots looked to each other nervously, more than a little bit put off by the apparent lack of fear their quarry was showing. "Probably just some minor thugs looking to score off of tourists for the festival set up. No big deal."

Penny clapped her hands excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Oh, that's so _exciting!_ I've never been a part of a robbery, before!"

The big one looked at her with a dumbstruck expression, before staring at me, gesturing to the squealing girl. I just shrugged, just as confused as he was.

"What the hell's up!? You some kinda nutcase, or something!?" he growled, brandishing his weapon threateningly, taking a long stride towards her. "Now hands up, or I'll...!"

I took a casual step, now standing between him and my companion, cold blue eyes boring into his ruddy hazel-colored irises.

"Penny, I've got this. Don't worry," I said calmly. "As for you, put that away before you hurt yourself..." I advised, nodding to the knife in his hand. "Trust me when I say that you've picked the wrong target. Just back off, and let us pass. Then we can put this whole thing behind us." Rather than backing down, the man's face reddened angrily, taking another step forward, before tensing as I raised my left hand. "Alright, one more step, and I take that knife from you. Last warning."

He let out a cry as he lunged forward. In one swift motion, I spun inside his guard, catching a hold of his weapon hand's wrist in a vice grip, before finally twisting it painfully, while delivering a quick palm to his fat face. I winced slightly as I felt his nose cave in beneath my hand. Hadn't meant to get him _that_ hard. The thug reared back, unable to escape my grip as I twisted his wrist again, bringing him to his knees as I stood over him.

With an exaggerated slow pace, I reached out with my free hand, and plucked the weapon from his locked hand, before letting him fall back to the ground, clutching at his face.

"Told you you'd hurt yourself," I said matter-of-factly.

"_Joel!_" I tensed as Penny's voice rang through the small space, catching sight of a green flash of hair, as the boy's partner sprinted forward. A thin box was in her hand, with two sparking prongs. It was a desperate charge, with no thought or coordination behind it. On reflex, I raised the hand holding the knife, ready to eliminate the... threat?

My eyes widened as I started bringing the blade down. Images of the Bear Faunus girl's face laughing at me sprang to the forefront of my mind. At the last moment, I caught myself, managing to stop myself just as the weapon was about to enter the side of her neck. Unfortunately for me, that meant that the girl's attack succeeded, driving me into the wall as she drove the taser hard into my side before I could raise my Aura in defense. My body jerked involuntarily as energy coursed from the device, nerves and muscles flaring painfully.

"Too slow, asshole!" she smiled, chalking up my hesitation for poor reflexes, as she activated the stunner again, sending another burst of electricity coursing through me "Should lay you up for a few...!" Her smile faded, however, as my body began to glow a bright blue, one hand dropping the knife as it grasped the tool, the other going to her shoulder.

"That hurts, damn it!" I muttered, flooring the girl with a quick shock, her eyes rolling back into her skull as she fell unconscious next to her groaning friend. I stretched languidly, before letting out a short wince as I withdrew the prongs from my side, the twin pinpricks already starting to heal, though I still had some new holes in my shirt, as well as a small bloodstain.

"Shit... You alright?" I looked back towards Penny, who was now staring at me curiously. "Uh... Sorry about that. Did I scare you?"

"I'm so sorry... You said that you had it handled, but I spoke out anyway," Penny mumbled mournfully. "I distracted you..."

"No, no, that was all me," I consoled her awkwardly, kicking at the big guy. "I wasn't paying attention. Without your warning, it might've been worse."

_'I would've probably killed her...'_

I knelt down, slapping the big lug's face, eliciting a frightened, pig-like squeal. "We're gonna continue on our way, now. Your girlfriend, or whatever she is to your dumb ass, is just knocked out. Get yourselves to a hospital, get patched up, and then think on what happened today."

"My arm... Rrrgh, _shit,_ man! I think you broke it!" he cried pitifully.

I just shook my head, getting back to my feet. "Your wrist, moron. And it should just be bruised, not broken," I told him, kicking him onto his knees, and watching him scramble away. "Don't be such a baby."

I gestured for Penny to follow as we made our way out of the alley. "So, Penny, that's a perfect example of why alleyways are generally a bad idea to go down. The people that hang around in them _never_ have any manners, at all."

"I understand," she nodded, eyes darting to the hole in my shirt. "Are you okay, Joel? You seem to be functioning normally."

"Yeah, yeah..." I looked down at my side, before showing her the thin white scars along my arms. "I'm used to it. My Semblance lets me take way more volts than most people can, and direct it back at my enemies. Plus, I have implants that deal with what my Semblance can't handle, so my muscles don't lock up. I did hate the sharp prongs, 'cause between you and me, I kinda hate needles, but the electricity itself just stings a bit as it passes through."

I stopped her as a golden-haired boy ran past us. Judging from the similarly colored tail on his rear, he was some sort of Faunus. Monkey, maybe.

"I see! That is very interesti...!" Suddenly, a white form crashed into her, sending both tumbling to the ground.

My hand went to my waist, subconsciously seeking one of my knives. _'Seriously have to work on that!' _my mind chided itself as I took a closer look at our "assailant."

"_Weiss?_" I asked in surprise, noticing the familiar pure white hair and "combat skirt." The heiress herself was shaking her head out. "Weiss, you alright?"

"Joel?" she stared at me, seemingly just as confused as I was, as the rest of RWBY ran up behind her, panting slightly. "What are _you_ doing here? Wait... The Faunus!?" She looked around wildly.

"Uh... Weiss?" I gestured towards Penny, who was just lying there like a board, staring up at their faces happily. The Huntress let out a short yelp, leaping to her feet.

"_Sal-u-tations!_" the fallen girl said happily, still lying on the ground. Weiss looked aghast, while I just chuckled under my breath.

"Uh... Hello," Ruby said awkwardly. "You too, Joel." I waved back amiably at the young Huntress-in-training.

"_Sooo..._ Are you... okay?" Yang asked, glancing over her sister's shoulder.

"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking!"

I knelt down next to my new friend, "Uh, Penny?... You wanna get up?"

The girl looked conflicted for a few seconds, before nodding to herself. "Yes."

She was up on her feet in an instant. As she dusted herself off, I noticed that the girls had all taken a step back cautiously, almost simultaneously. I then looked back at the other girl, and saw that she was looking to each of us in turn.

"My name's Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby." Ruby reached out a hand for the girl to shake.

"I'm Weiss," the heiress replied nervously.

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" the blonde asked rudely. I shot her a quick glare, while Blake elbowed her in the side. "_Ow!..._ I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" the orange haired girl said again cheerily.

"You already said that," Weiss noted, eyebrow raised.

_'Social skills at work, Ice Queen.'_

Penny paused, a puzzled look on her face, before nodding absently. "So I did!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

It was strange, the way she acted. It was as if she were unfamiliar with actual conversation. _'I've met people who might be considered awkward, but this feels... different, somehow.'_

"So, you are all friends of Joel's?"

"These are actually the friends I told you about, earlier." I gestured to RWBY with a flourish. Penny nodded, a look of amazement on her face as she glanced between us.

"Oh, so when you told me about the Ice Queen...?"

"Hey!" Weiss cut in angrily, shooting me an icy glare. "Why does everyone...!?"

"Yep. She's who I meant."

Weiss was fuming, face red as she crossed her arms, glaring angrily at my way. "How dare you spread rumors about me! You'll give people the wrong idea!... What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked suddenly, looking between me and Penny suspiciously. "Don't tell me she's someone related to your..."

"_No..._" I cut her off tersely. "We actually met earlier today."

"That's right!" Penny jumped in energetically. "I'm new to this city, and Joel was kind enough to offer me assistance in navigating it. It's been so exciting! We even got _robbed!_"

"...E-excuse me?" Weiss looked taken aback by the statement and looked to me. The others had similar looks of confusion.

I shrugged, giving them all a reassured grin. "Well, they didn't rob us _exactly,_ since we didn't actually lose anything. Some thugs just thought they'd get lucky. No big deal."

"Joel handled the situation impressively, immobilizing the threat with a ninety-two percent efficiency rate!" Penny added, managing to earn more stares with that one.

_'Ninety-two percent, huh?... Must be counting the surprise attack.' _Weird way to phrase it, but it got the point across, I supposed.

She turned, curtsying as she bowed her head to me. "Thank you, Joel. I should be fine from here onward."

"Right, if you say so. Take care of yourself, alright?" I nodded, extending my arm to shake her hand one last time, a gesture she returned, before walking over to RWBY, bumping fists with Yang.

"So, um... What's her deal?" she asked under her breath, cocking her head towards Penny.

I just shrugged again, not really certain on the answer to that question myself. Something about the girl felt... off. It wasn't her personality, though it was strange. Nor was it... well, anything particularly dangerous, if there was anything particularly dangerous about her to begin with. Something was just... _off..._

"Well, anyway, it's been a pleasure to meet you. Sorry for running into you!" Weiss said, turning on her heels and walking past us, followed closely by Ruby, who waved back.

"Take care, friend!" she called back at the girl, who suddenly had a strange expression on her face.

Yang motioned for me to follow, leaning in closely. "Okay, Joel, you have _got_ to explain that one. She was... weird," she whispered under her breath.

"You actively try to blow up buildings when someone gives your hair a split end, and _you're_ calling _her_ 'weird?'" I retorted, giving her a sharp look.

She winced slightly, looking back apologetically. "Okay... Sorry. But you see it though, right?"

Eh, I couldn't deny she had a point, though her tact could be certainly be better.

Weiss looked around, peering off to the right. "Now. Where did that Faunus riffraff run off too?"

I noticed Blake flinch slightly at the comment. Was she talking about that Monkey Faunus that ran past us? It had to be. I gave the ebony-haired Faunus-in-disguise a light nudge, shaking my head as she glanced back at me askance. _'Leave it...'_

"What did you call me?" We all jumped as Penny was suddenly in front of us.

_'What the...!?' _I looked back at the space she had been standing previously, finding it vacant. From the corner of my eye, I saw Weiss trying to do the same, though it seemed she was still trying to register the fact that she had moved so quickly, looking back at the orange-haired girl and where she had stood over and over.

Yang's face was a mask of embarrassment, blushing furiously. "Oh, I'm sorry! I definitely didn't think you heard me!" she stammered out, while I just face-palmed.

Karma at work, everybody._ 'Smooth, Xiao Long... **Real** smooth.'_

"No, not you..." She walked right past us, looming over Ruby, the smaller girl seeming to shrink slightly. "_You..._" she said, eyes fixed on Ruby...

Oh, wait. That's right.

"Me? I-I don't... I... What I... Um, uh..." She looked around at us for support.

"You called me 'friend...' Am I really your friend?" Penny asked, a rather hopeful tone in her voice.

Friendship. It was a good thing. At least she won't get her arm almost ripped from its socket.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

I slammed the door to AMBR's room behind us. Pretty sure I left a few cracks in the door from the force "I said _lay off!_ I'm serious!" I growled at the Faunus girl that had followed me inside, and was, at this moment, the single most annoying part of my day.

"And I said we're not leaving it at that! I mean you just told me you shot your damn mother, for cryin' out loud!" Argus spat back angrily, plopping her ass down on her bed, glaring daggers at me. "That's not something you just throw out there!"

"Oh. By 'throw,' do ya mean 'forced out of me while you had me pinned to your twisted little mural?' Yeah, that's fuckin' fair!" I shot back venomously, metal fingers clenched on the... _Shit!_

I took my hand away from the doorknob, the metal handle twisted and warped beyond recognition. _'Psycho's gonna kill me...' _Ah, I'll deal with that problem later.

I turned around, taking a deep breath. "Look, just drop it, alright? It's none of your business."

"Oh, but you're usually _soooo_ talkative..." She gazed down at her nails. "Hell of a time for you to clam up now." She looked up, dog ears twitching slightly. "I already told you my family situation. If you're afraid I'll squeal like Cardin did to Ambrose...?"

"Really? You telling me you paint for your Aunt equates to why I hate my mom? Man, why do you suddenly give such a shit?" That certainly shut her up. It was a good question, though. Maxine's not usually this driven. She was annoying, but this was grating even for her. "Well?..."

"-ou one..." she mumbled unintelligibly, nails digging into her sheets.

"Huh?" I leaned forward, cupping my ear in annoyance. "Not sure if you noticed, but my ears aren't as good as yours. I ain't a dog, remember?"

I winced when she clutched at her ears protectively, a fearful expression on her face. _'Great, and now I feel like a huge dick. Fuckin' shit...'_

"Look, I'm sorry for that comment, alright? Way too far." I said, rubbing my neck awkwardly. "But would you mind speakin' up? I couldn't hear what you said."

"...I feel like I owe you one..." she said audibly this time, though I still did a double take.

"_Excuse me?_" I said gaping at her, anger almost forgotten. "Huh?"

"Are you fucking deaf!?" she practically shouted, jumping to her feet angrily. "I said I owe you one, damn it!"

I rubbed my ears gingerly, confused. "You owe me? What for?"

Her face fell slightly, her hand curling into a fist. "You rescued me from those... those things, back in the cave."

I remembered what she meant. When Psycho and I had come upon her in the caves, she had attacked us, the Grimm using her as a shield and a blunt instrument at the same time. Her power overwhelmed Joel when he got too close. Would've killed me if she hadn't hesitated for those few crucial seconds it took to turn it around on them.

"You saved all of us from those things..."

"...Is that why you've been so nice to Psycho, lately?" I asked, realization popping into place.

Over the last few days, I'd noticed the Dog Faunus being strangely compliant with our leader's orders. Well... for her, anyway. She attended classes, practices, and didn't talk back as much as she usually did. She'd gone on a crusade through the school with her little acts of terror, but had spared the three of us, RWBY, and JNPR.

"You feel responsible for his injury... Why? He's already said he forgives you." The Boss could be strict, but he didn't seem the type to hold grudges, or hide his feelings. At least for situations like that, where she was pretty much under something else's control. "And you don't owe me anything, either. Honestly, I'd like to say you'd do the same for me. 'Sides, we needed you to find Reika for us."

"It was still me hurting you two..." she said sadly, looking crestfallen, ears drooping. "So I thought I'd make it easier on him. At least for a while, until he gets his thoughts all sorted out... But it's not just that. The way you killed those things, not making me watch... I wanted to thank you..."

"So you literally houndin' me for a _very personal_ piece of information, on a thing I _DON'T_ wanna talk about. _THAT'S_ you helpin' me?" I pointed at my chest, a grin forming despite myself. "Shit, Bitch! I'd hate to see you when you're not carin'... Oh wait. That's right! You rip 'em apart! I forgot, silly me."

"Can you not be a dick for maybe just right now?" she groaned, rubbing her temples. "This thing obviously upsets you. My Auntie told me that talking with your friends can make you feel better when the world seems grey..."

I gawked at her, before bursting into a fit of laughter, clutching at my side with my metal arm, and slapping my left knee with my flesh hand in an effort to avoid collapsing. "_Aaaaahahahahahahahaa!..._ Aww, that's _adorable,_ Maxie! Really, I'm touched! Really... Ohohoh, God, I'm cryin'!" I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye.

Her eyes flared, taking a step towards me fist raised. "Not as touched as you're about to be, you little..." She paused, stepping back, eyes closing tightly as she breathed in, then out.

Holy shit. She _actually_ wants to help me. Any other time, and my head would be halfway through the wall by now.

"Look, can we please just talk?" she said carefully, a vein twitching above her eye. I noticed a pencil float up from the bag she'd thrown at the foot of her bed. It suddenly snapped in half, before seemingly grinding itself into wood shavings in mid-air.

"Fine, fine!" I shook my head, swearing under my breath as a smile grew across her face. "...You really wanna do this here?"

"Yes." She sat down cross legged on her bed, a smug look on her face, though I noticed her eyebrow twitch slightly in dismay when she noticed the pencil.

I pulled up a chair, grabbing a pack of cigarettes from underneath my bed, and a lighter from the waist pocket of the school blazer slung across my desk. "Alright, congratu-fuckin'-lations," I applauded her, pulling one from the pack, while using my foot to kick open the window. "Not even Reika knows the full story about this, or if she does, she hasn't bothered to fill me in that she knows. Lucky you."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Do you _have_ to do that?" I asked, wrinkling my nose in disgust as the foul stench wafted across the room. There wasn't a lot of it because of the window, but the stench was still present.

"You want me to talk, you're damn well right, I do," he grinned, blowing a smoke ring from his mouth, firing a smaller wisp through it.

_'Cocky asshole...' _I thought bitterly, doing my best to avoid breathing through my nose.

"Alright..." the rogue started off, leaning his feet on the desk, dipping the chair back on its hind legs. "...Now how much do ya know about my dad's gang?"

"Not much..." I answered truthfully. Aside from the fact that his father had been captured, and the gang was in the wind somewhere deep outside the Kingdom's borders, I had no idea. "You used to brag about raiding trains, I know that."

"Right. William 'Bill' Carson was pretty famous in the Badlands for just how much he was able to piss off the Kingdom's governments, while stayin' out of their reach at the same time," he explained, blowing another ring, eyes gazing wistfully out the window. "They couldn't touch him 'cause he stuck to the wilds like glue, only leavin' for raids, and such."

"What stopped them from just sending troops in and nabbing him?" I asked, slightly confused by their lack of action. "If he was such a big criminal, why didn't they follow him?"

The bastard laughed again, more of a chuckle than the outburst he had before. Seems he was more wary now. "Movin' through the region's outside the Kingdoms isn't as easy a trip as you might be inclined to think. Just ask Ambrose, or anyone else who's lived out there. It's practically _impossible_ in large groups outside of settlements. Small, too, maybe, unless you know how."

"Why's it impossible?"

Ben just sighed, holding up his flesh and blood hand, counting off fingers. "Well, imagine weather that's chaotic and unpredicatable, at best, treacherous terrain rangin' from steep cliffs, dry wastelands, to dense jungles. Then, of course, you can't forget the plethora of dangerous elder Grimm and wildlife that make their nests out there, willin' to snatch up anything larger than a field mouse, and you have somewhat of an idea of how terrible it can be." He waved his hand at me. "My Pa was a nuisance, but he always made sure not to go too far as to become a real threat. That way, he wasn't worth the resources it would take to nab him. That meant they had to rely on the forces of the local towns and cities to deal with him, which, in a way, made it _more_ dangerous."

"How so?"

This was actually somewhat interesting. I'd heard stories of the Frontier, Wastes, and Badlands growing up; everyone in the Kingdoms had. There were urban myths and stories of how small settlements could crop up overnight, only to be gone by morning without a trace. Permanent cities such as Bastion, the place Ambrose grew up in, were few and very far between. To actually make a living outside their walls...

"Well, Frontier cities means Frontier Justice," he said, as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "Unlike the cushy prisons you guys have down here, out there a lotta towns just kill criminals when they catch 'em. Reason my dad's called 'Hangman's' 'cause they actually succeeded in stringin' him up. Story changes every time he tells it, but the point is that they wanted him dead, and he barely got out of it with his neck still attached to his body... Well most of it, anyway. Left a nasty scar." He traced his neck, shivering.

"And this has to do with your mom how, exactly?" I urged him on.

A look of annoyance crossed his features, before settling back into his cocky mask. "Well, for your information, my mom was one of the sheriffs in charge of catchin' him," he said as shrugged. "I'll spare ya the sappy story of romance and rivalry, but the two ended up together. Mom and Dad ran the gang together for a time, and then out plopped my fine ass."

"Wait. Your mom was a sheriff? So she gave up her job to go be with your dad?"

"Yep."

"And she ended up with you, huh? Ouch..."

He laughed bitterly, but kept his cool, actually giving me a few pity claps. "Bitch, you wound me... And to answer your question, yes, she did. Had me, and then four and a half years later, she had my little sister, Annabelle, or Annie, as we all took to callin' her..." As the name escaped his lips, something changed in his eyes. They seemed brighter, and a genuine smile stretched on his face, the biggest I'd ever seen him make. "Little thing... Calm, too. Never cried, even durin' storms, or when the Grimm tried to attack... Brave as all hell..."

"What happened?"

A part of me didn't want to know. It must've been bad. It always ended bad.

His eyes darkened, smile vanishing as if it had never been there to begin with. "Mommy had a change of heart, and abandoned the gang. Left in the middle of the night without tellin' anyone... All I remember is wakin' up to find Bill 'Hangman' Carson drinkin' on the edge of a cliff the next day, lookin' out at the sunrise."

"She left you."

"Oh, I _wish_ that was all that bitch had done," he growled, a timber I'd not thought possible in his voice, more a snarl than anything else. "We were travelin' on one of our best routes for the winter - a windin' passage through the cliffs that had been clear of Grimm for ages - when we got ambushed by Law Keepers on both sides, hemmin' us in." He took the cigarette in his robotic hand and grounded it slowly in his palm, even as it burned, watching the embers smolder harmlessly on the thick metal. "It was a secret path that only the top rankers in the crew knew... People like my mother... She _sold us out..._ Everywhere around us, people were firing' again and again, sendin' bullets flyin' everywhere..."

Carson paused, taking in a strained breath, before continuing. "We... We fought our way out of it... But in the crossfire, one of the rounds hit my dad's carriage, where my sister and Ma, my caretaker, were hidin' out. Ma got hit... but she made it... Annie, she... she..." He breathed in deeply, eyes watering for maybe a second, before he rubbed them furiously, erasing all trace. "...So now you know why I shot that fucker that looked like my Ma... And when I find that double-crossin' bitch, I'm gonna use this arm..." He held up the hand, ashes falling through cold metallic fingers, "and tear out her lyin', child-murderin' heart out myself..."

"...Ben, I'm... I-I'm so sorry..." I said, gazing at the boy carefully. He sighed, letting the chair fall forward as he stood up, stretching out his limbs. "...B-but the Professors told us that the creatures likely showed us something we loved. People we cared about?"

"Who says I don't love her? She's my Momma, after all," he said simply, tossing the ashes out of the open window. "Doesn't mean I won't do what needs to be done by Annie." He walked over, patting my head with a smile on his face. "You know what, Bit... Max? This actually really helped. Let me vent this stuff out... Thanks."

From there, he just walked from the room, leaving me in stunned silence as I rubbed my head awkwardly. _'Crap...'_

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

I was alone on the edge of the rooftops, just staring at the waning sun, barely moving.

_'I'm taking all of this rather well, I suppose...' _I thought to myself wearily, shrugging my small shoulders and shivering slightly against the cold. _'At least I told someone...'_

I was Reika Murasaki, age 16, if my math was right. The last known survivor of a small Frontier village, of which its name I couldn't even remember, that had been wiped off any maps that had been bothered to keep track of it over a decade ago by the Creatures of Grimm.

_'I remember now... An old woman, who may or may not have been my grandmother, telling me to run and hide as she was slaughtered by those monsters. Fire and death everywhere I turned...'_

I'd run of course, just like I was told. Just like every child had practiced. We were told to go into the woods while the Grimm stalked us, capturing friends and relatives both. I knew, though, unlike the others who scattered. I knew where the Grimm would be. I could feel them there as if I could see them with my own eyes. It was how I avoided them, how I found Carson's gang, and met Ben. My power... My Semblance.

I reached behind my head, sifting through locks of hair, until I found the strap holding my mask in place. _'That was the point, wasn't it? Hide behind their face. Hide what they did to me... What I lost...'_

I remembered speaking before the attack. Laughing, singing, and other things a voice was used for. Then after the attack, it just wouldn't come out, no matter how much I tried. The mask clattered next to me, as I took a deep breath of clear unfiltered air. Three long scars met air, remnants of the reptilian-like creature that had killed the old woman and that strange bird. One ran across the right side of my lips, the other two carved horizontally down my right cheek.

"...Reika?" I stiffened as Ben's voice called out from behind me.

_'There's an old service entrance to get up here. Did he really...!?'_

The boy himself stepped into view beside me, wearing what must've been his gym clothes, prosthetic in full view as he drank from a flask, probably something Professor Goodwitch would likely penalize him in a heartbeat for possessing on campus. I wanted to grab up my mask. I could have it on my face again within a second... but for some reason, my hands just wouldn't do it.

"Thought you'd be up here. Always did like heights and sunsets..." His eyes widened when he noticed my mask on the ground, gaze traveling up to my face. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. I just stared back at him wide eyed, mouth slightly agape. Rather than laugh or shrink away, he just grinned, shrugging his shoulders as he took a swig from the flask. "You know, sometimes I forget you don't have tentacles or somethin' under that thing." He paused for a second before sitting down next to me, offering the flask. "Rough day?"

I glanced at the silver bottle for a few seconds, before nodding slowly, taking the drink from him and downing it, shivering at the bitter taste.

_"Thank you..." _I signed, face twisted as I handed the alcohol back.

"No problem, partner."

-END

**A/N: Two updates in 24 hours thanks to Drake93, I finally finished this chapter. Bit of a set up chapter with the action still to come. Enjoy everyone.**

**(Update): Hey everyone, was wondering if you could help me with a problem I've been mulling over. I know I put this down as an OC/Yang but that was more to try and distinguish this one from my other Fic. Honestly you all deserve some say in this and I'd like to know your opinion. For me it's between Blake, Yang, and Velvet. I can do maybe a bit more with Blake and Yang though but that doesn't by any means exclude her**


	15. Chapter 15

**Edited as of (10/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**A/N: So I'd like to thank all of those that contributed to my little impromptu relationship poll. And the winner is...Yang by a freakin' landslide. Enjoy.**

PRELUDE TO CONFLICT

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Well, that was... fun," I noted sarcastically as Yang and I left RWBY's dorm room, the sound of her partner and teammate's shouting still managing to be audible, even through the heavy door. "You sure you're still going to have a room left to go back to after this?"

"Sorry..." Yang groaned, rubbing her eyes wearily as she fell into step beside me, lilac eyes bloodshot. "Can you _please_ not talk for a minute? I'm enjoying the peace and quiet." She took a deep breath, smiling as the sound of shouting faded away with distance. "Oh _yeeeaaah..._ That feels nice..." Her reverie was short lived, however, as a worried look crossed her features. "You know, I don't think I've _ever_ seen Blake that angry before... I mean, this is Weiss everyday. But Blake..."

"Weiss probably just touched a nerve. Was bound to happen eventually," I replied, unable to hide my own concern at the Faunus' behavior. She was usually so calm and collected. I'd noticed Blake tense up whenever she heard people like Cardin make comments about the Faunus, but she'd always managed to let it go over her head before...

_'I guess hearing it from her own teammate was finally just too much,' _I wondered.

"You have to admit that Weiss _was_ going a bit too far with what she was saying, right?"

"I'm with you there. It's worrying," Yang agreed, before shaking her head vehemently. "But it's probably just a spat. Those two have never seen eye-to-eye, after all." Her face lit up, thinking for a second, before turning back to me. "Hey, you said you met that Penny girl at the CCT, right?"

"Yeah," I answered, thankful for the change in subject, though I couldn't shake the nagging doubt that something bad was going to happen.

She grinned happily, giving my arm a light punch. "So you did it, right? You called him! Your brother, I mean. How'd it go?" Yang had been nagging me for weeks to try and make contact. _Of course_ she'd be interested in how it went.

"Ah, yeah... Well..." I guessed my reaction was proof enough as her smile faded away, a frown replacing it.

"That bad, huh?..." I nodded, a frown on my face as I scratched at the back of my head. "Sorry. I didn't mean..." Yang said apologetically, but I waved it off.

I had already come to grips with our conversation, or lack thereof, after Penny had found me. The trip back to Beacon had given me more than enough time to reflect on what had happened.

"It's not your fault. I was honestly expecting it, so it wasn't too much of a surprise..." I said quickly, doing my best to reassure her. No need for her to feel guilty about trying to help me. "We didn't exactly talk. He had a secretary taking calls for him. The important thing is that I know he's doing okay, and he knows I want to talk. It's all up to him, now."

Jake was stubborn; even more so than me on some points. But I could at least hope he'd come around eventually.

I laughed under my breath, before pausing in the hallway. "Actually, I wanted to thank you. I'm not sure if I could've even tried that without you talking me into it. You didn't have to."

"I-I'm sure you would've... I didn't do anything," she said in a flustered tone. I caught a glimpse of scarlet coloring on her cheeks as she turned away embarrassed.

_'Wow, that's rare...'_

"You just seemed so sad when you first told me about how you two left things off..." she said after a few seconds, glancing back towards the direction of RWBY's room, a somber look in her eyes. "You two are brothers, right? I mean, me and Ruby fight, of course. We'd get angry at each other sometimes, but I couldn't imagine how I'd feel if my little sister hated me."

I couldn't imagine Ruby hating anyone, but I could see where Yang was coming from. If anything, I was jealous of what the sisters had. The closeness they shared, despite their many differences. My brother and I had only grown apart as the years passed, even before the White Fang, as he had delved more and more into his projects and research, while I was focused almost entirely on my training. The Red Hand was just the last nail in the coffin.

_'A coffin I'm trying very hard to break open with her help,' _I reminded myself, giving my head a good shake, before before placing a hand her shoulder. She sent a warm smile back at me, sending a warm flush burning across my own cheeks as I quickly broke contact, coughing nervously. Yang seemed to snap out of her own daze, laughing awkwardly.

"W-well I, uh... I think I can make it from here," I stammered out. "Thanks for your help again. F-for my brother, I mean... _Aaand_ everything else, I suppose. I really do appreciate it."

"Y-yeah... No problem! Happy to do it," she said cheerily, running a hand through her mane, picking at a few scattered strands. "I should be getting back, anyway. Kinda feel guilty leaving Ruby alone in the middle of that." She held out her fist. "So... See ya."

"You too..." I bumped my fist against hers. "Keep me posted, will you?"

"Will do," the blonde replied, giving me one last wave as she walked quickly down the corridor. My eyes followed her until she rounded a corner. When she was out of sight, I slumped back against the stone wall, running a hand over my face with a groan.

_'Damn, that was nerve-wracking... Smooth, Ambrose... **Real** smooth...'_

When did things get this awkward? Was it that damn cave?... Thoughts of the Yang doppelganger the Grimm had shown me came unbidden to my mind, and I almost laughed.

_'Great. As if things weren't awkward enough, as it is...'_

I punched my head angrily, swearing under my breath as I wiped at my nose. I waited a few seconds to let the blood leave my face, before moving to my door, swiping my Scroll across the electronic lock.

Oddly, it still hadn't opened up completely._' That's weird... Did it always screech like that?' _I wondered.

Two things immediately caught my eye as I stepped into the room. First, the knob, and even sections of the lock, were almost completely warped out of shape. No wonder the door seemed strange. Second, and even more disturbing, was that my Faunus partner was curled up in the fetal position on her bed in her sleepwear, eyes red as if she'd been crying. Those eyes quickly registered my presence, and narrowed at my approach.

"What the hell happened to you?" she asked, voice cracking slightly as she rested her chin on her knees, sniffing loudly.

I realized what she must've meant immediately. My shirt was torn, hair tousled, and I could already feel the bruise forming above my eye, though my Aura was rapidly dealing with it.

I shrugged, sitting down on my bed with a groan as I leaned back against the wall. "Long day. What happened with you?"

"None of your business, Ambrose," she growled, giving me a sharp glare. Must've something really bad, if she's this upset.

"_There's_ the Max I remember!" I exclaimed happily, clapping my hands together. "You've been _way_ too nice, lately. It was starting to bother me."

At least that means she might be over what happened in the cave. _'I already told her what happened wasn't her fault...'_

"Shut up!" she snarled angrily, as her Aura flashed briefly, throwing a pillow with her Semblance. The fluffy mass hit my face hard, slamming my head back against the wall with a crack.

_'Okay... I deserved that...' _I lamented, rubbing at the new bruise as I pulled the pillow away. It was nice to see her control improving, I supposed. At least I hoped it was improving. She herself seemed a bit shocked, but pleased with herself. _'So it's the former, then. That's nice...'_

My now-aching skull throbbed painfully in earnest. Her face fell suddenly, the pillow floating back to her bed slowly, gently setting down next to her. "Ambrose... Joel?... Am I a good teammate?"

I wasn't expecting that, my eyebrows raised slightly in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"I know I haven't always been the easiest to work with, and Carson has it right... I _can_ be a complete and utter bitch sometimes..." The Faunus scratched at her ears, face slightly red. "But I'm not a _terrible_teammate, right?"

Was she... Was she really asking my opinion on something?

"...Well... In my opinion, you certainly are a handful sometimes. You're reckless, you don't follow orders well, and your personality is, well... scary, a lot of the time."

She nodded, bristling only slightly at the comments. _'Holy shit, she's actually listening.'_

"While I don't think we're nearly as coordinated as Ben and Reika are in terms of working together, I _do_ think this can be changed. And if we work together hard enough, we could _really_ tear shit up. More than we usually do alone, anyway."

While RWBY definitely leaned towards a balanced mix of offense and defense, and JNPR seemed to specialize more in the latter, AMBR was most definitely an assault-based team, with Max and I at the forefront, and Ben providing cover from afar, with Reika covering him. It wasn't grand strategy, and we weren't working on specific combinations like RWBY was, but it had worked so far. Max would usually charge in, and I would clean the leftovers, with the two of us watching the other's back as needed.

"Besides, can you imagine me with someone like Cardin, or Kaplan? I'm pretty sure I lucked out. I'd be back in prison by now, if I had to deal with someone like them."

"And my being a Faunus doesn't bother you?"

"Should it? I made my stance perfectly clear long before you found out I was Red Hand," I said, closing the curtain between the beds so I could change without her freaking out. Ben had tried that once... Took me two days, and a _lot_ of improvised carpentry skills to fix our bed after that.

"By the way, do you know where Ben and Reika are? There's a real team building moment going on here, y'know," I asked, chuckling under my breath. I shivered suddenly as her side of the room seemed to shake slightly.

_'Huh. So Ben's involved in whatever got to her. Shit, what'd that idiot pull now?'_

"I don't know where he is... And his shadow's scarce, as always..." Max said, voice tinged with something. Anger, maybe?... No. It was something else. "Why don't you call 'em?"

I got a vague sense that that would probably be a bad idea. A very, _very_ bad idea. So I let the subject pass, laying down on my soft bed, and staring up into the upper bunk's canopy. I held that position for awhile, thinking about the day's events. Penny, Jake, and Yang. I thought about them for a good while, at least long enough for Max's snoring to start ringing through the room.

My eyes had just closed, ready for sleep, when my Scroll lit up, _I Burn _blaring over the speakers. It was Yang... Why the hell would she be calling?

"Turn that fucking thing off!" Max grunted irritably.

I reached for the Scroll before the Faunus could try something, quickly moving to accept the call, when a loud banging at the door shocked us both up.

Max swore loudly as she jumped out of bed. "_What the hell!?_" She pulled the door open, a loud snap as the twisted metal had reached its limit.

_'Goodwitch is going to kill me...' _I groaned internally, until I noticed a surprised-looking Ruby standing outside our door, cowering under Max's withering gaze.

"_What!?..._" she asked, voice cold as ice.

Yang rounded the corner, Scroll clutched in her hand as she glanced from her sister, to me, then to the irritated Faunus girl, a guilty and panicked look on her face.

"I-I-I..." Ruby stammered out in a pitiful squeak. I felt for her. An angry Max was never a fun prospect to deal with normally An angry and tired Max, though? Well...

The cloaked girl gave her head a quick shake, her legs quivering only slightly as she stared the Faunus full in the face, silver eyes determined. "We need your help."

"...Excuse me?"

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"So you're sayin' Ninjette ran off?" I asked in surprise, ducking under an incoming right hook, wincing sympathetically as the heavyset thug got floored by a girl almost half his size. "And her team wants our help in trackin' her down?"

_"Makes sense. Between Max's sense of smell and Reika's Semblance, it shouldn't be too hard,"_ Psycho's voice crackled over the receiver, words almost drowned out by a large crash, as Reika put another thug through a table, sending glassware flying to widespread cries and scattered cheers. _"Where the hell are you two, anyway? What's with all the shouting?"_

I glanced around at the crowded club space, or what was left of it, anyway. "Just spendin' a bit of quality time in Vale. Thinkin' of spendin' the night, actually."

Reika and I had spent a long time on that rooftop, before I, in my delightfully buzzed state, had the amazing idea to catch one of the last flights to Vale, dragging the solemn mute along with me after picking up our gear from the lockers. Two clubs, a weird tea shop, and an impromptu street concert later, the two of us had ended up in some dodgy underground club in the darker parts of the city. They hadn't asked for an ID, so I was just grand. Apparently, this was where a lot of Vale's younger generation, at least the ones looking for cheap alcohol and loud music, liked to frequent.

_'How had things gotten like this?' _I wondered, nudging one of the groaning forms next to me with my toe. We came in, I chatted up the hot bartender, got a few drinks that my Aura was unfortunately burning off rather quickly... _'Right, that was it!' _I nodded, craning my head to look over at the boy, twitching as he hung off the side of the bar counter in a pile of shattered glass and teeth. He'd tried to proposition Reika, and hadn't been smart enough to take her silence as an answer. Dumbass got all offended, and actually tried to take her mask off, to which my partner had, of course, responded to... Rather violently, I might add. Suffice it to say, his friends, or bodyguards I supposed, weren't happy.

"Fun nightlife, really! Blondie would _love_ this place! Actually, give me a sec, would ya?" I joked, flashing an apologetic grin the bartender's way as I rifled through Dumbass' pockets with practiced efficiency, pulling out his wallet with a short whistle. Yep, classic rich kid trying to throw his money's weight around. I took a few moments to check his buddies, grabbing what I could, before placing the hefty lien pile in front of the shocked woman, crawling up on the counter so I could look out onto the dance floor.

"_OI!_"

Reika, who was currently in the midst of a large throng of onlookers, two brutes' heads under her arms, stared up at me wonderingly. I gestured to my Scroll and then to the exit. She nodded, clapping their foreheads together, before dropping the two with a thud to the hard floor. She made her way over to the exit almost mechanically, the crowd parting before her nervously.

"As for the rest of ya...!" I shouted, gathering everyone's attention as I motioned from the money pile, and then to the groaning figures on the ground. "_DRINKS'RE ON THEM!_" That got them cheering. The DJ began blasting the music again as I hopped down.

"Here..." I took out my own wallet, adding the contents to the pile. "That should cover repairs. Sorry for the trouble."

She nodded, blushing as I gave her one last toothy smile, and strode towards the door, practically having to wave off my new fans as I brought the receiver back to my ear. "Alright, I'm back.

_"...I don't even want to ask,"_ my team leader groaned in exasperation. _"Anyway, it's good that you're down there. Yang and Ruby think it's likely she left the campus. Problem is, we're stuck here for the night until the station opens. Do you think it might be possible for you two to track her down?"_

"Hmm, not sure... Reika's Semblance's useful, but it's not perfect in crowded areas. A city has way more individual Aura signatures all movin' around at once," I explained, accepting a shot from one of the passing dancers. "Not to mention some people's Auras are easier to track in general, like yours or Blondie's. Ninjette'll probably be difficult to pin down."

_"Thought it might be like that..."_ he sighed in disappointment. _"If it's impossible..."_

"Hey, hey, I never said it was impossible, did I!?" I said quickly, downing the glass in one go. "_Gah!..._ It'll just take longer. We'll have a look 'round; don't worry."

I hung up, laughing as Reika glared back at me, stretching out her arms lazily. She didn't have Bitch's destructive power, or Psycho's technique, but it was easy to forget just how much raw strength the small girl had. "Good workout?"

She flipped me off, pointing towards the Scroll. _"What did he want?"_

"Ninjette, Blake, seems to have vanished. Run off, or whatever..." I relayed, placing the Scroll in my pocket. "Rosie thinks she might've come to Vale, but they can't follow up on that 'til mornin'. So we're their first go at locatin' her."

_"Why'd she run?"_ she signed inquisitively.

"Somethin' happened between her and Ice Queen. I didn't ask what," I shrugged, cringing as she kicked me hard in the shin. "_Ah!_ Sorry!... Thought you'd want to hear it from her anyway, right?" I whimpered, massaging the new bruise gingerly. "Look, you can track her down, right?"

_"Yes, of course,"_ Reika nodded, a small violet glow seeming to radiate off of her as she closed her eyes tightly._ "She was on the same airship we were on, along with some Monkey Faunus. I'll just track him down."_

"Oh... Wait, she was on the same airship!? Why didn't ya say anythin', sooner!?"

_"She seemed sad, and we weren't involved. It wasn't our business to pry, so I didn't say anything. Besides, I didn't even know she was running away at that point,"_ she answered simply, eyes still glued shut as she twitched her head in random directions, almost like Max did when she tracked a scent.

_'I wonder what it's like?'_

"Fine, fine..." I groaned, scratching my chin as I glanced up at the stars, barely visible behind the blinding neon cityscape. "So... We track her down..."

_"And depending on the situation, we might just lose track of her."_

I dropped the glass my drink had been in at that, the cup shattering on the hard sidewalk with a crash. "Well, well, well... Now _this_ is a surprise. Reika Murasaki wantin' to _rebel?..._ I must be rubbin' off on ya."

_"If she's hiding for a good reason, then she stays hidden,"_ she gestured simply, leaving no room for argument.

I just shrugged my shoulders, gazing longingly at the cheering crowd, before letting out a weary sigh. Grabbing our gear from where we had stashed it before, we made our way out into the night.

_'No rest for the wicked, as they say...'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Do you have a scent yet?" Ruby asked for what must've been the dozenth time since arriving in Vale this morning, looking away quickly as Max shot her a dark look. "Well... do you?" she asked hopefully.

"Look..." the Canine Faunus growled deeply, voice rumbling in her throat. "I can tell you're worried, Rose. But when I get the fucking scent, I will fucking tell you I have the damn scent, _OKAY!?_"

"...Yes, ma'am..." the cloaked girl leapt behind Weiss, who shielded her with an arm, glaring indignantly at my teammate. I felt for her, but Max was right. She had explained that tracking a scent, especially in a crowded city, was no easy task when we started.

"Lay off, Max!" I called out from the back, shooting her a pleading look. She turned back around, grumbling to herself.

I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly, before looking over at the blonde walking beside me. Yang had a dark expression on her face, and had been quiet since we'd met up. "We'll find her, Yang. Don't worry," I said, gesturing to Max.

"How long?" she asked, staring at me. Her fists were clenched tightly at her sides.

"Huh?"

"How long have you known Blake was a Faunus?"

I was wondering when this would come up. I'd tried to feign shock along with Max, but I guess I wasn't as convincing as I thought. No use hiding it at this point...

"...I've known for a while, now, though I only had it confirmed a few weeks ago." Yang seemed to bristle at that, the air suddenly felt just a little hotter. "She thought I might've been sent by the Trappers to take her out. I told her I wasn't, and she begged me to keep it a secret, and I agreed. Happy?"

"Not particularly..." Yang grunted, shaking her head fiercely. "I should've realized it sooner! If I had, I would never have let Weiss say all those awful things!"

"It's not exactly something you expect someone to hide..." I pointed out, raising my hands up as she turned on me, red eyed, "I couldn't tell you, alright!? She didn't want you, or anyone else, to know. I chose to respect what she wanted, or is that...!"

My rant was cut off by a loud, echoing guitar riff coming from my Scroll, playing _Who Did That You_. _'Ben.' _I pulled it out, noting the new message. They had been unsuccessful in their search, and were waiting to meet up.

"Damn it," I cursed under my breath, calling for the procession to halt.

"Did they find her?" Ruby implored, silver eyes dulling as I shook my head.

"They want to meet up." As a team leader, I had access to certain Scroll functions, one of which being a navigator keyed to respond to my teammates' devices, so I could locate them. Unfortunately, Blake had left her Scroll in her room. "We should head over and find them. Having Reika will help take the pressure off..."

"Actually..." Yang stepped forward, smile on her face as she grabbed a hold of Max and Ruby. "How about you and Weiss meet up with them, while the rest of us keep looking? Two search parties would let us cover more ground, and find her faster."

"B-but...!" I tried to say, staring at her in confusion as she practically shoved the confused heiress towards me, storming off with her squirming captives in tow.

_'Well... Someone's angry.'_

I face-palmed, groaning as Weiss tried to call after them. "...So I guess it's just you and me, Ice Queen..."

"_Lovely..._" she scowled, turning her nose up at me as she walked down the street away from me. "Well!? Aren't you coming!?"

"I would, but you're going the wrong way." I held up the Scroll, smirking as I pointed over my shoulder. "Though if you'd rather go your own way, then _please_, by all means..."

"I was right before. Sarcasm _IS_ beneath you," she said venomously, eyes narrowing into slits as she begrudgingly followed after me, heels clacking incessantly against the concrete in a rapid tempo. "So..." the heiress said after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, hands on her hips. "Yang didn't seem to happy with you, did she?"

"Picked up on that, did you?" I shot back, accidentally bumping into a dark-skinned girl with green hair and vivid red eyes, muttering a quick apology to her and her friend. "She's just pissed that Blake was more comfortable letting me know about her secret than her, her own partner."

"Must sting knowing that your friend would be more comfortable having a degenerate, who made a career out of hunting down her former friends, know her secret rather than her, huh?"

_'Ooh, shots fired. **Real** mature...'_

I grit my teeth, turning to face the annoying heiress. "First of all, I was never told anything! I figured it out on my own, and didn't go around shouting it from the rooftops! But apparently _I'm_ the bad guy, because I chose to respect her request for privacy! Secondly, it's not as if _you're_ going to be winning any friend of the year awards, either! What the hell did you say to Blake to make her run off like that!?" I countered, grinning as the Ice Queen's face flushed scarlet.

"I told her the truth. That I detest the animals that attacked my family and our business partners. The same group that hurt so many others, while she would sit just back and defend their actions as 'misunderstood!'"

"That doesn't mean you can blame all Faunus for a rough childhood!"

That got a reaction. Her eyes widened as she placed a hand on my chest, shoving me backwards roughly. "D-don't you _dare!_ Don't you _dare_ act like you know at all what I went through because of them!"

"Please, _Miss Schnee..._" I gave her an exaggerated bow. "I spent _months_ shadowing your every step, remember? Carrying your bags for you during your shopping sprees, waiting through hours after hours of tutoring and vocal coaches. And then there were all those stuffy social calls your father had you going to."

Come to think of it, this was the longest conversation we'd had regarding the topic of our history since Weiss had first confronted me. _'Actually, this might just be our longest conversation in **weeks...**' _I thought dryly.

"Don't remind me..." the heiress shook her head, trembling with barely restrained fury.

I noted the rapier at her side, and a small part of me was worried that I'd end up frozen in ice. Didn't think a shirt, jeans, and a few armor plates would help much there. I was being still restricted, at least where my weapons were concerned. My only means of defense at the moment were my Semblance, a throwing knife I'd managed to sneak past Goodwitch, and a small vial of Dust that I pawned off of Yang for emergencies.

"Besides, you think attending me for a few months is enough to really understand...!?"

"What, you're whole childhood? No. But I can say that, over the entire time I spent with you, I _maybe_ saw your father speak to you - and I don't count greetings and 'updates' about how your lessons are going as a conversation, either - maybe what, three, four times?" I noted, shivering slightly as I recalled the times just standing there behind a mask and a uniform, while the Schnee patriarch had essentially interrogated his daughter, reflecting over every little error, every slight imperfection. At the time, I just remembered feeling bad for the poor girl, hearing her cry in her room while on my rounds... "I know very well that you had it rough..."

She laughed, actually laughed at that, shaking her head in apparent disbelief. "I can't believe I'm having this discussion... That _YOU,_ the _Trapper,_ are actually trying to tell me to forgive the White Fang for what they've done!"

Her laughter died however, shifting to one of fear as a ripple of electricity went up my arm. I noted this, staring down at my hand in shock, before suppressing it quickly.

"I-I'm..."

"Weiss, you're right about me," I agreed to her surprise and confusion, panting slightly as I shook out the arm. "I _am_ a degenerate. A criminal... Hell, I don't even remember how many people I've maimed or killed. Never kept track of it, like some of the other Trappers did..."

"Joel..." she said weakly, a guilty fearful look crossing her face.

"And as for the White Fang, I still hate them. Even now," I continued on, eyes set and voice strangely calm, considering how I felt. "Every time I see another one of their 'protests' on the news, I just want to..." I sighed heavily, pausing, before giving her a small smile. "Blake was terrified, you know. Of you all finding out about her secret, and what she used to be. I kept quiet because I could relate to how she felt. That, and she didn't seem dangerous."

I remembered the flash of fear in her eyes, her fist lashing out towards me. How sick it made me feel afterwards.

"To be honest, I'll probably never forgive those anti-humanist bastards, no matter how much time passes. It's just too set in stone for me... But people like Velvet and Blake proved to me that not every Faunus wants violence. Some _do_ want peace... People like us just need to give them the chance."

"...Y-you're... You're right..." she admitted after a few seconds, shoulders slumping, and looking crestfallen as she stared at the ground blankly. "Damn it... You're right."

I set a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "We'll find her. Don't worry. We'll just meet up with... Oh, that _SON OF A BITCH!_" I swore loudly in realization, while Weiss gazed up at me indignantly, the tender moment long forgotten in one manic rush of anger.

I raced off down the road, eyes fixed on the Scroll's navigation screen. _'Please be wrong, please be wrong, **please be wrong!**'_

I turned down an alley, coming upon a pile of broken down boxes, picking through it with a scowl.

"Joel Ambrose, what is wrong with you!?" Weiss shouted after me, breathing heavily as she slumped over, clutching at her side. "Have you gone completely insane!?"

She froze as I pointed to a pair of Scrolls tucked neatly in the pile, a small, dimly lit message left on one of the screens.

_"Sorry, Psycho. You wouldn't mind being a pal, and looking after these for a while while I deal with this whole Ninjette thing, would ya? Thanks!" - Ben / P.S.: Couldn't resist, but seriously. Keep an eye on these, would you? Goodbitch'll have my hide if I lose another one."_

"Godammit..." I growled, feeling an uncomfortable chill emanating from Weiss, even as I flared my Aura, overloading the small device in a shower of sparks and crackling metal, before taking a deep breath. "_BEEEEEEEEEN!_"

* * *

**_-Blake Belladonna-_**

"...So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence. And instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am. A criminal hiding in plain view. All with the help of a little, black bow." I felt my ears twitch slightly beneath my bow, Sun merely nodding as he took a sip of tea, cup held aloft by his tail.

_'That seems useful.' _I'd always been interested in my race's biology, scientists long ago giving up on classifying just how many varieties had come about. The abilities gifted by such traits also seemed to vary. From my night vision, to Maxine Argus' sense of smell, and here now with Sun's arm-like tail. I'd even heard tales of Faunus who could fly through the air like birds. Such stories only fueled my curiosity, and my anger that the White Fang had made pariahs of us all.

"So... have you told your friends any of this?" the other Faunus asked, staring at me over his cup. I hung my head shamefully, not even bothering to reply.

"_Yeaaah,_ I think that's a no, bud."

We both jumped as a loud voice rang out jovially through the cafe we were seated in. I looked around, shocked to see Ben Carson, AMBR's sniper, flipping through a newspaper, grinning broadly. I hardly recognized him in the drab grey suit and glasses he wore.

_'Was he here the whole time?'_

"See? Told ya the disguises would work!" he said to the person across from him, who I now realized was his partner, Reika.

I'd met the younger girl before, though at the time she'd stuck to either her combat gear, or the standard school uniform. Seeing her in a bright green sundress, blushing scarlet beneath a wide brimmed straw hat that obscured her face in shadow at the right angle, hiding the distinctive mask she wore, was... different.

She signed a few words in their private hand talk. "Aw, don't be like that! False trails, disguises, and intrigue. I feel like an agent in some movie!" More rapid sign language followed, fingers moving so quickly, I could barely catch any indication of what she might be saying. The blonde, however, seemed to understand perfectly. "Yep! And I even have my beautiful partn... _AH, FUCK!_" He let out a loud yelp as the mute jolted their table upwards, spilling hot tea into her teammate's lap. "_Shit, girl!_ That's a rental!"

"_Excuse me!_" I cleared my throat, trying to get their attention. Sun, meanwhile, was trying his best not to burst out laughing, his teacup rattling as he tried to hold it steady. "How long have you two been here, exactly?"

"Long enough. And we wanna help." He leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms behind his head.

"Help?"

"With whatever you have planned, of course!" He nodded enthusiastically, emerald eyes lighting up. "That you're still in Vale implies that you don't wanna leave Beacon. But you haven't gone back 'cause you wanna prove somethin' to the Ice Queen, right?"

I was taken aback. A person who I barely knew was offering to help me out. This practically screamed "suspicious." "Why would you want to help me after hearing what I was? My being related to the White Fang doesn't bother you?"

The pair looked at each other, the sniper chuckling to himself as he shook his head. "Ninjette, look at who you're talkin' to. My bunkmate and leader's a former anti-Faunus terrorist, with a kill count, I might add..." Sun choked into his cup at that. "My other teammate's a sadist who blows up lockers for fun. And as for me and my partner..." He motioned towards himself and Reika. "We used to rob Dust trains to make a livin'. You really think a _FORMER_ White Fang background's enough to scare us off?" I... I couldn't really find a fault with that logic. "Look, Reika thinks we can trust you. And if she's okay with you, than so am I." He held out his mechanical arm, Sun's eyes widening to the size of dinner plates when he caught sight of it. "Benjamin Carson. A pleasure to be workin' with ya!"

* * *

**_-Emerald Sustrai-_**

"Joel Ambrose, huh?..." I looked down at the small photo on his ID as I picked through the lifted wallet lazily. "So this is the guy Cinder wanted an update on?" He didn't have much. Just a fresh-looking driver's license and a few spare Lien.

_'Guess that would make sense if he was in prison not too long ago...'_

"He's tall, I'll give him that. But he doesn't look _that_ impressive to me..." Mercury scoffed, rolling his shoulder with his usual cocky grin plastered on his smug face. "Bet I could take him, if it came down to it. I don't get what the Boss is so worked up about?"

"It's probably the White Fang bitching, again. Having a former Trapper in town must make them nervous," I replied, sighing as I placed the wallet in my back pocket. "Not exactly sure of his skills, though I'll admit... he's not half-bad looking, I suppose."

"_Seriously?_" My partner stared at me, eyebrow raised. "I thought you liked them with a bit of muscle?" He flexed his arms, shooting me a sly wink as I rolled my eyes.

"You didn't feel his butt. Guy _definitely_ works out." I giggled at the look he gave me, moving quickly towards the abandoned building Cinder was supposed to meet us at, along with that Adam character from the White Fang.

I couldn't say I was too excited at the prospect. Cinder was intimidating enough, but at least she had personality. The Bull Faunus, on the other hand, seemed stuck between brooding, angry, and homicidal maniac twenty-four-seven, and he had been even worse since Cinder denied him a chance at Ambrose.

"My preferences aside, he could still be trouble. We should keep an eye on him, just in case."

"I don't get why we can't just finish him off ourselves? Take care of the problem before it begins, y'know?"

"Cinder said no. He's too high-profile at the moment, and she doesn't want us revealing ourselves this early. Not to mention that there are rumors of the Red Hand mobilizing. Best to let them clean up their own mess while we get off with the benefits," I explained, delivering a swift series of knocks on the door, a hidden panel opening up to reveal a pair of beady eyes. "It's us. Let us in." The panel closed as the door swung open, a Faunus dressed in full White Fang garb stepped aside, hand on the hilt of a sword hanging at his belt, and shooting us a dirty look as we passed.

"Good boy," Mercury laughed, patting the guard on the shoulder as we passed. I saw a flash of anger in the guards eyes, but he seemed to think better of it, instead spitting on the ground venomously. "Keep up the good work."

"Why do you insist on antagonizing them?" I groaned, running a finger through my hair as we stepped into a long corridor. "This partnership's tense enough without your dumb ass starting something."

"What? It's all fun and games. Guy's got to have a way to work off stress sometimes, right? These Fang guys need to learn how to take a joke." He laughed it off, though I noticed him shoot a look back at the guard with a sinister look in his eye.

_'Poor guy...' _I thought, almost feeling sorry for the hapless guard. He'd be in the ground within the week.

"Wonder if Torchy's doing alright all by his lonesome?"

"I still think Cinder should've put us in charge of this operation. Something this big could set the plan back a long time. If he screws up..." I muttered, clenching my fist tightly. It made no sense for her to trust this no-name thug with the two of us around, and Roman messed up big already when he let a little girl show up his goons."

"Hey, you're the one that's usually preaching everything the Boss says, so don't start complaining just because things don't go your way," Black chided me as we neared a large red door. "Besides, if you're lucky, Torchy'll have a little 'accident' while on the job tonight," he said, giving me another wink.

"What did you...?"

"Let's just say... you weren't the only one rooting around in our Trapper's pockets. Maybe if you weren't so focused on his ass, you might've noticed," he laughed darkly as we stepped into the shadowy room, the door swinging closed behind us.

-END


	16. Chapter 16

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

COMBAT READY?

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"Hey, Yang?..." Ruby spoke up as we stepped out of the bustling cafe, a confused and worried look on her face. "What happens if we don't find Blake?..."

"Don't talk like that!" I said firmly, spinning on her as I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Have some confidence, will ya? Even Maxine says we're getting close." I looked over at the irritated Faunus for support. "Right?"

She stopped sniffing at the air, an annoyed expression crossing her face. "First off, Xiao Long, I never said we were close. I just said we had a _lead._ The trail's faint, but she must've stopped by here, maybe... two, three hours ago at most. Along with someone that smells like fruit... Bananas, maybe?" She shook her head, taking in a long breath. "Yup, definitely bananas."

"But a lead's still a lead, right? That's something we can follow," I said hopefully. The Faunus had been difficult, but she had gotten us this far.

"Doesn't mean we'll find kitty girl any faster," she grumbled back with a scowl. "I wasn't exactly trained as a bloodhound, you know!"

Ruby still seemed crestfallen. "But what if she doesn't want to come back?" She turned to glance at Penny, that strange girl that Joel had been with yesterday, who was gazing around at the crowded streets in wonder. We'd run into her soon after the split, and upon hearing the details, agreed to help in the search.

"...Did I say something wrong?" the girl asked me.

"No, of course not! You were right. Blake should've told us," I reassured her. "She should've known she could trust us. We wouldn't have treated her any differently."

"You so sure about that?" Max muttered darkly, ears twitching as her mouth curled into a small smile. "I'm not sure Schnee would agree."

"Not even Weiss would've..." I started, but the canine let out a bark of laughter, grating on my already-fraying nerves.

"Not openly, she wouldn't..." she said, glaring at each of us. "But it would affect how you'd act at first. You guys would be _amazed_ how differently people would treat me whenever my Aunt got me to wear a hat over these." She gestured to her ears. "She meant well, and wanted to spare me the stares, but there was a point where I'd just had enough of hiding. Doesn't mean I don't get why Belladonna would want keep it up, though. Most Faunus aren't that lucky to have the option."

She was right. Some Faunus could hide their features easily enough. However, there were just as many others, like Joel's friend Velvet from CFVY, who stuck out more.

"From the way it sounds like, she probably could've stuck up for herself a bit more..." she continued, shrugging as we turned into an alley. "But Schnee wasn't making it easy, was she?... Why the hell am I smelling Carson?... Maybe Ambrose passed by here, too. But then why wouldn't he say anything?" she mumbled to herself ignoring us as I drew Ruby into a one-armed hug.

"She has a point..." the red-haired girl said after a minute, leaning her head against my arm. "It must be hard, having people judge you for something that's not your fault." She glanced up at me wonderingly, eyes narrowing. "Sis, why were you so mad at Joel, earlier?"

"So you did notice?" I said, sighing as I twirled a finger through a lock of golden hair. "I... It's complicated," I said after a few seconds of thought, looking at my sister. "I guess I was just mad at the thought of my partner, a person I'm supposed to rely on, and one of my friends keeping secrets from me, as if they couldn't trust me... At least enough that I blew up at Joel, when really the only thing he did wrong was be a decent friend. Meanwhile, Blake's been dealing with this all on her own, and everything is just..._ Arrgh!_" I screamed into my hands, hating the fact that I was this close to tears. Maxine let out a groan of annoyance, while Penny seemed intrigued. "I'm such an idiot!"

"No, you're not!" Ruby said loudly, giving me a very un-Ruby-like glare, arms crossed. "You just made a mistake! Everyone makes mistakes. Joel knows that, so I doubt he'll be mad. And as for Blake, we'll find her, and tell her that no matter what she is, she's still a part of Team RWBY! And we'll accept her no matter what!" she finished her tirade, before letting out a long breath, gazing up at me sheepishly. "...Okay?"

In response, I pulled her into a tight hug, red head struggling slightly. "You're the best sister ever, you know that?"

"_Ack..._ Ah. Yeah! I know, I know... Now n-need... _air!_" the girl yelped, sighing in relief as I loosened my grip before returning the hug in earnest.

"So that's what it's like to have a sister," Penny noted whimsically as she stood next to Maxine, staring at us with a fascinated look on her face. "I wish I had one."

"Hey, if you two are done with the mushy shit, I have a trail to follow!" the Faunus called out irritably, making her way out of the alley and back into the crowded street. "Stupid Ambrose, making me deal with all this! I'll rip him a new..." she snarled under her breath.

I just stared back at Ruby, smiling as we followed after her, a weight feeling as if it had been lifted off my chest.

_'We're coming, partner! Hang on!' _I thought, punching my fist into my gloved hand in excitement.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asked a stunned Blake, as we stared out at the scene before us.

Multiple people sporting Grimm masks and White Fang uniforms began attaching hooks and cables to SDC shipping containers. _'No doubt about it. Still, it can't be easy,' _I thought, glancing at the raven-haired Faunus.

"No. I think, deep down, I knew... I just didn't want to be right," she said, staring mournfully at the symbol emblazoned on their backs.

I found myself staring too, after a fashion. I'd heard of the White Fang, and the kind of trouble they caused in major cities. But I'd never personally seen one, until now.

_'Or maybe I have, and didn't know it... **NO!**' _I shook my head fervently, drawing stares from the others. _'Won't do any good to start doubtin' people.'_

I've known my share of Faunus, and for the most part, they ran the gamut of personality, just like everyone else. There were assholes, saints, and some just making it through the day as best they could.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" a derisive voice called out, practically oozing narcissistic asshole, as a man in a fancy white coat and black bowler hat, hiding orange hair, and sporting a cane, of all things, disembarked from one of the Bullheads, clapping his black gloved hands together. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, sooo why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

"Uh... I'm no expert at his... But that guy does _not_ scream Faunus to me. Just sayin'," I said as an aside, sharing a look with Reika.

I recognized the bastard. Roman Torchwick. Wanted for a recent string of Dust-related robberies over the last few weeks. He apparently fancied himself the Crime Lord of Vale, if his reputation was anything to go on.

"This isn't right. The White Fang would _never_ work with a Human. Especially not one like that," Blake said, getting to her feet suddenly, and drawing her blade.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" Sun said nervously, eyes widening.

"Now, Ninjette, think about this before you... _aaaand_ she's gone," I groaned as the ninja leapt down. Moments later, I watched the unfolding scene through my goggle's zoom-in feature. Blake held Torchwick at swordpoint while he was berating one of the Faunus, drawing the attention of every goon on the docks.

_'Nice. Least this makes things easier...' _I slapped my head down on the rooftop, reaching for my rifle as Reika affixed her tonfa to her arm, arming her pistol.

"Is she always like this?" Sun asked as Blake called out to the White Fang, pulling her bow off to reveal a pair of black-colored cat ears as she tried to appeal to them. It was actually kind of hot, to be honest. Reckless and stupid, but hot.

"She ain't on my team, buddy!" I replied, standing up as a large explosion fired off of Torchwick's cane, blowing the Feline Faunus away from the orange-haired thief. "Reika, cover our friend down there!" The mute nodded, leaping off the roof "You fight, Muscles!?"

"Are you talking about... U-uh, yeah! I can fight," Sun pointed to himself before nodding, glancing down at the steadily growing mob of troops. "I knew coming to Vale would be a blast!" The Faunus whooped as he drew a small red gold tube, extending it into a long staff similar to Psycho's weapon, before flipping down into fray.

I just shook my head, bringing my rifle to my cheek as I took aim. _'Bastards are lucky I only brought stun rounds. Like fish in a barrel...'_

I chuckled under my breath as I depressed the trigger, gun thumping as it sent a round rocketing into one grunt's shoulder, blasting through his pitiful Aura barrier, and sending him back with a cry of pain. Unfortunately, that drew the attention of his buddies, who cried out, taking aim with rifles of their own.

_'**Aaaaaah,** shit...' _I broke into a run along the rooftop, ducking as hails of gunfire chipped away at the space around me, wincing as I felt one or two ping off my Aura. I managed to deflect a third one off of my right arm in a shower of sparks. _'There's a reason I'm a goddamn sniper!'_

I took a running jump off the edge of the building, rolling behind a concrete rim that lined the roof of the one next to it. Taking a deep breath, I flared my Aura, tapping into my _Draw_ as I felt the world slow down around me. With Aura-enhanced reflexes, I brought _Glory _to bear, cocking my head to avoid a stray bullet as I squeezed off three perfect chest shots in quick succession. I was able to see each bullet impact, their bodies falling in slow motion, until my Semblance gave out, time returning to normal speeds

"_HELL YEAH!_ Suck it, assholes!" I cried out, slumping against the partition, panting slightly. _'Good. A few dozen more, and we might start gettin' somewhere.'_

"He's over here!" an unfamiliar and very unwelcome voice cried out a short distance away, as one of the grunts, face scaled like a lizard's underneath his mask, crawled up the other side of the building, yellowish eyes glinting in the dim light. "Nowhere left to hide, Human!" he snarled, raising a clawed hand as he charged me.

_'Shit!'_

I tried to move, but my body wouldn't listen, my Aura needing a second to recover, and my gun couldn't change into its bayonet assault rifle form in time. I needn't have worried, however, as a shadowy form leapt down from the same building I had, landing in front of me in a flash of stark white hair. I couldn't believe my goddamn luck.

"_Psycho!?_" I had time to say, before the former Trapper snarled in a surprisingly guttural, almost feral tone, catching the attacking Faunus mid-sprint. He twisted his opponent's arm back, flipping him onto the ground on his back with a grunt of surprise and pain, the White Fang grunt's limb twisted at an awkward angle. Before the lizard could even react, Ambrose was on top of him, slamming his palm down on his chest hard, Aura flaring as his sent a ripple of electricity. The Faunus jerked wildly, before falling back limply. The Huntsman stood up, stretching out his arm before glancing over at me.

"Uh... Psycho?"

"...Thought I was done fighting Faunus..." my leader said in an irritated voice, kicking at the prone goon hard, eliciting a small moan of pain.

_'Thank fuckin' shit he's alive,' _I silently cheered. The thought of a murderous Ambrose looking at me the way he was now sent shivers down my spine, though to be honest, the current Ambrose wasn't very comforting, either.

"The hell's going on!?" His voice was drowned out by a series of explosions coming from Torchwick's direction, as he fired shot after shot from his cane at what must've been Reika and Blake.

_'Good, they're still fightin'.'_

"The White Fang are after the SDC Dust! The guy blowin' shit up is...!"

"Roman Torchwick, I know. You aren't the only one watching the news!" Joel cut me off, eyes taking in the scene, from Ninjette and Reika's near dodges, to Muscle's one-man crusade against the rest of the White Fang Troops within an instant, and finally the Bullheads flying around, either trying to pick up Dust, or looking for a shot to take. Thankfully, though, it seemed they hadn't noticed us yet.

"You alright?" he asked, as he reached out with his hand.

"Peachy..." I laughed, grasping it as he pulled me up. "So how the hell did you fi... _ACK!_" I was cut off as he drove his knee into my stomach, before delivering a quick punch to the face as I doubled over, pushing me back to the ground in a heap.

"...I take it you're still pissed about the Scrolls?" I coughed, wiping some blood from my nose as I looked up at the Huntsman-in-training, grinning broadly.

"What the hell do you think!?" He gestured to a nearby building a short distance away. "I've got Weiss calling the cops as we speak, but it might be a while before they make it. Get to that building, and cover Blake and Reika. I'll support that monkey guy down there." His gaze traveled to the large scale fight, faltering slightly. The Monkey Faunus fought well, but he would be overwhelmed without help.

"You going to be okay?" I asked nervously, dusting myself off as I got to my feet. I noticed for the first time that, although he wore his combat gear, the guy had no visible weapon. No knives, staff, or anything. That wasn't the only thing I was worried about, though. "Look Psy... Joel... No one's askin' you to..."

"I'll do my best not to kill any of them," he replied, stepping to the corner of the roof, looking back at me. "If I go nuts, though... don't hesitate to shoot me... Please."

Before I could reply, he'd already leapt off, face looking scarier than I'd seen it in a long time. _'I actually almost feel sorry for those Faunus, down there...' _I shrugged, glancing up just in time to see a familiar red cloak scaling the building Ambrose had pointed out. _'Least I'll have pleasant company, I suppose,' _I thought before looking back at the spot the huntsman had just vacated.

'_Careful, Psycho. Don't want that nickname of yours gettin' too literal...'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'Kill them all with extreme prejudice! Leave **none** of them alive!'_

I pushed the old adage out of my head as quickly as I landed on the hard concrete, Aura softening the blow.

_'That's not me. Not anymore...'_

It had been a close call, though, with that Faunus back there. Just a bit more power, a few more seconds, and I would have had another corpse on my hands. It didn't help that I was running the gamut between nervous and furious at the moment. I began walking calmly towards the throng of at least over a dozen Faunus, thin knife extending in my hand.

After finding, and destroying, Ben's Scroll, I had discovered that my wallet had also disappeared, replaced instead by a strange note that had this dock number emblazoned on it, along with the words_"TROUBLE, ASSHOLE" _written in thick black letters across the top. I'd sent Weiss to go fetch the police, and made my way here. Imagine my surprise to find who else but the White Fang attacking my friends and teammates.

Something was wrong, though. The White Fang rarely took in outside help from Humans, unless if there was absolutely no other choice. Still, they would never put someone with Torchwick's rep in charge of this many troops, or at least not without a damn good reason. It was unprecedented, even for them.

_'That comes later. Focus on the present.' _A few of the Faunus had turned to look at me, weapons raised as the blonde Faunus in the center threw off his current attack, turning to stare at me as well.

"Soldiers of the White Fang!..." I shouted out, making sure each of those present could hear me, a few of them whispered to each other, confused. "My name is Joel Ambrose! I recommend, for any of you who don't want to end up in a hospital, or those with a weak heart, that you run now, or I can't guarantee your safety!"

They just glared at me dumbstruck, a few even laughing, until one of the bigger ones shut them up, stepping forward.

"I know you, Ambrose! You're that Trapper that went rogue and slaughtered his own boys, aren't you? The one that was all over the news months ago." That definitely got an effect. Sun stood now almost completely ignored, standing awkwardly in the middle of a now very angry group of Faunus, whispers of "Trapper" and "Red Hand" becoming steadily louder. "You know, I've always wanted to test myself against a Trapper..." the big guy growled, raising a wicked looking blade that seemed more cleaver than sword with a wild grin. "I guess you'll have to do!"

He let out a loud battle cry, leaping forward with his weapon coming down in a wide arc. I almost grinned, sidestepping the awkward blade swing as I slammed my armored knee into his ribcage, cracking the chestplate and bone with a loud snap. The trooper let out a strangled cry, falling to his knees, clutching weakly for his sides, before I mercifully knocked him out with the butte of my knife.

"Too boastful... Anyone else?" I said simply in a bored tone, spinning the knife in my hands, trying and failing to suppress the surge of pure adrenaline and elation that rose up with the victory. The Red Hand had one thing right: this _is_ completely different from fighting Grimm.

The White Fang troops looked to each other for a few seconds, before they charged at me en-masse. The Monkey Faunus managing to hold up a few, but I still found myself up against eight or nine Faunus.

_'And no weapon, either. Admittedly, I've dealt with worse... I think?'_

I moved forward, giving the ones in the front a second's pause, which was all I needed to close the gap, delivering a quick heel to the first one's kneecap, hearing a loud pop as I passed by him. I then elbowed the one next to him right in the face. Within seconds, another two were down, one bleeding from a stab wound to the leg, while another sported a dislocated arm and bruised windpipe, as I found myself back-to-back with the tan-skinned Faunus with the staff, the remaining White Fang soldiers having encircled us. More were on the way, if the shouting we heard was any indication. I was actually amazed that these guys hadn't pulled guns on us, as they had with Ben, though I supposed with this many of them around us, the idiots thought they wouldn't need them.

_'Better for my odds, then.'_

"So, I don't think we've been properly introduced. Joel Ambrose," I said casually to the Faunus behind me.

"I heard. Name's Sun. Sun Wukong," he replied, laughing as he spun his staff in front of him. "So I guess your teammate wasn't kidding about the whole Trapper thing?"

"_Ex-Trapper thing..._" I corrected. "Though I'm guessing it won't matter much to these guys." A sudden explosion, larger than the others, rang out from further down the docks. Torchwick was bringing out the big guns, it seemed.

"We need to finish this up!" I called out to Sun, the Faunus nodding in response.

We made to move when the sound of turbines roared above us.

**"_Awwww,_ crap,"** we said in unison, as a pair of Bullheads roared above us, turrets taking aim...

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"Stay still, you little...!" Torchwick growled angrily, firing of another shot that Blake barely managed to avoid taking head on. The force, however, blasted her off of her feet, leaving her prone on the ground, struggling to get up.

I attempted to attack while he was focused on Blake, but he saw me coming, swinging the cane around to catch my side. I coughed weakly, no sound coming out audibly, but I could taste blood on my lips as I staggered away. I clutched the point of impact, as Torchwick twirled his cane in his right hand, moving to finish me off.

"Finally!" he said in a relieved tone as he flashed me a sadistic grin. "Look, I'd love to keep playing with you both, but I do have a schedule to keep! And my boss isn't the type to be kept waiting, trust me." He raised his cane high, "Now let's see what's under that mask, shall we?"

"_Hey!_" what sounded like Ruby's voice rang out, as a pair of gunshots split the air.

The first one connected with the cane mid-swing as he brought it down, blowing him off balance. The second one scored a hole right through his bowler hat. I looked towards the direction of the shots, relieved to see the familiar cloaked forms of Ruby and Ben high-fiving on a rooftop a distance away. It was hard to tell, but I could also make out an orange-haired figure, but my vision was getting blurry, so it was hard to tell for certain.

"Hey, Torch_dick!_ I hope you weren't too attached to that cereal bowl on your head!" Ben taunted, as he pulled down his right bottom eyelid with his middle finger, his tongue sticking out.

Torchwick clutched at his hat, staring at the ruined piece of fabric with a look of pure rage, before taking a deep breath, smile back on his face as he looked over at the duo, crumpling the remnants in his fist. "Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime? And look, you even brought friends." He ejected a few scattered bullets from his cane before reaching into his pocket, bringing out an orange tipped shell that was longer than the others, a smiley face on the side.

From the looks of it, Ruby was distracted by whoever else was there. Laughing wildly, Torchwick loaded the shell, before firing a blast that seemed smaller than the others, but traveled much faster on a direct course for the red hooded girl. To my horror, however, Ben pushed himself in front of the blast, reaching out as if to catch it, eyes glowing green as he pushed his Aura to the limit to make it in time. I made out a robed form being blasted back, before a loud scream split the air.

"Tch... Well, least I got one of them," Roman sighed, shrugging as he turned his attention back towards me. "So, where were w...!"

Anger as I had never known before seared through my brain, erasing everything but the need to hurt the piece of scum as much as physically possible. In an instant, the head of my weapon had impacted with the bastard's sternum, throwing him through the air. My hand tore my mask off of my face before I realized what I was doing, throwing it to the ground as I spat out the blood in my mouth. My scarred lips twisted into an animalistic, terrifying snarl, as I stalked towards the man, skin shimmering with a purplish glow, all thoughts of pain put aside.

Before coming to Beacon, Ben and I had been placed through a battery of tests, similar to examinations given to graduates of traditional Huntsman Academies. Ben had passed with flying colors, despite still adjusting to the use of his new arm, and his less-than-cooperative attitude. I, on the other hand, with my lack of literacy, struggled greatly in everything but the physical attributes. So much so, that they were ready to reconsider my attendance altogether. Their opinion changed, however, after a routine scan of my Aura levels, the results of which took six follow-up examinations, and a full board of experts, to confirm that I naturally produced an Aura several times stronger than average.

Ben was shocked, to say the least, while I was hardly surprised. I used my Semblance to detect danger, and my Aura to fight it. Such a thing was natural. Ben and the others in Carson's gang had merely assumed I was physically strong, or just lucky. Perhaps this mindset had more of an effect than I'd realized, as I found it difficult to form an effective barrier with my Aura, resulting in a deceptively weak defense. In terms of offense, however...

Gritting my teeth tightly through the pain welling from my side, I slammed down on the pavement with all my strength, sending a large section of concrete into the air. _Strike Lotus' _pile driver slammed inward as I punched the debris, shattering it into multiple sharp sections which rocketed towards Torchwick. The white-suited man barely managed to swat the large pieces away with his cudgel, though I saw cuts on various parts of his body from those he couldn't deflect.

"Well..." the orange-haired criminal said in disbelief, staring at me with an expression akin to disbelief. "You're certainly full of surprises, aren't you? Not too bad looking without the mask, either. Minus the blood and scars, of course."

My mind snapped as I launched, screaming silently as I landed blow after bone crushing blow, Torchwick barely managing to parry the tonfa with his cane, which was fast beginning to dent under the pressure.

"Geez, learn to take a compliment, would ya!?" he called out, leaping backwards and signaling for some of the White Fang troops to abandon their attempts at hooking up the containers in order to support him. Soon enough, I found myself boxed in by about a dozen Faunus.

"Get her!" he called out, Faunus attacking me from all sides.

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Damn it!" I swore angrily, leaping behind another shipping container as the Bullhead's latest salvo tore through where I'd stood seconds previously, rounds blasting through the metal carriers like a hot knife through butter.

_'I can do anything like this!' _I groaned internally, taking a glimpse around the corner as the pair of airships hovering at the entrance to the maze of containers switched places for the next assault. Sun was couched down across the killing field, unable to move for fear of being torn apart. When the ships first appeared, we had tried to mix amongst the White Fang ground troops, making us harder to hit without also hitting a friendly instead. The Faunus had wised up, however, as ground troops broke off to continue hooking up shipping containers, leaving the airships to finish us off within a seemingly endless supply of ammo. The troops that remained herded us into this killbox, playing shooting gallery with the airships, and keeping us from responding for more than a few seconds at a time, while also having us constantly on the move.

"I'm out of shells! Any ideas?" the Faunus called, holding up his gunchakus, chambers clicking empty. "You wouldn't happen to have any more of those knives, would you!?"

I shook my head. I'd managed to take out a few of our pursuers, however, I'd lost the knife I had shortly after we'd entered, the thin blade breaking as I tried to deflect a lucky sword slash. I was amazed it had lasted this long. The things were made for piercing power, not durability.

Sun groaned loudly. "What do you think that scream was?"

"I don't know, but it can't mean anything good!" I replied, crouching low as one of the Faunus troops spotted me, moving to find new cover as a stray round pinged near my head.

_'It sounded like Ruby's voice. If she's hurt...'_

I grimaced, trying to fight the nagging pit in my stomach. My hand drifted towards one of the pouches on my belt, finger tracing the tempered glass vial of Dust...

_'It's a risk, but I don't have any better options, now do I?' _I pulled the vial from the pouch, examining the contents with a slightly hesitant expression.

"What's that?" Sun peered closer, eyes widening nervously. "Dust?"

"A last resort. You might want to stand back a bit. You don't want to be near me if this goes badly!"

He nodded, moving away before bracing against the side of his own container.

"Come out and play, Trapper! You too, traitor! Maybe we'll consider making it fast!" one of the Faunus called out derisively, his fellows laughing as they waited for us to try and make a move.

_'Oh, so he want's to play, does he? Well, it would be rude not to, I suppose."_

I frowned, taking off my glove and holding out my right arm, crushing the vial of dust in my bare palm. Wincing as the glass shards cut into my palm and the vaporous Dust held within seeped into the wounds, I leaned my head back taking a deep calming breath, finding my focus.

_'Okay... Now for the hard part.'_

Without warning, my arm began to burn, as if on fire, pain driving me to my knees with a pained grunt as I flared my Aura to the limit, arcs of electricity running up and down my arm. _'Faster! Damn that stings!'_

Soon enough, blue circles of light began to show beneath my skin, as the Dust flowing in my blood resonated with the supplies held by my limiters. Runic lines similar to those Weiss used began to trace their way from my palm, circling around the length of my forearm, and up to my elbow, crackling with contained barely energy.

"What the hell's going on!?" one of the White Fang cried out as electricity began to spark in the air around us. Even Sun let out a cry of surprise as one of the jolts shocked him, staring at me with a mix of awe and fear.

I flexed my arm, glancing at my palm to see every trace of the cuts healed, as dusted glass poured between my fingertips. The glowing tattoo shimmered in the night air, as if alive. The feeling... I could barely find words to describe it as I grinned in ecstasy. I could see why people sometimes referred to Dust as "Nature's Wrath." I felt as if I had the force of a thunderstorm raging in the palm of my hand from just that one vial.

"Forget it, just rush them!" a commanding voice rang out from what must've been this group's leader, spurring the troops into a screaming charge, blades raised. "_Charge!_"

"Big mistake, assholes!" I laughed wildly, stepping out from cover, arms raised with my left bracing the right, focusing my Semblance.

In an instant, the half dozen or so grunts were blasted aside as a lighting bolt burst from my open palm in a flash of blinding light.

_'Oh shit, that feels good... I... No!"_

I forced myself to calm down, glancing at the sprawled forms, thankful to still see movement from them.

"Almost lost myself there..." I muttered, shaking my head as I raised my arm to the sky, pointing it at the pair of Bullheads, whose pilots were just now getting over the shock of what just happened, as they started firing desperately. Keeping my cool even as I felt a blazing hot round graze past my cheek, I sent a pulse of directed energy, shorting the electronics on the ships, and bringing them crashing to the ground in a useless heap.

_'Can't believe that actually worked...'_

I chuckled happily before falling to my knees, marks fading away to motes of light, my body suddenly feeling as if I had run two marathons with cinder blocks attached to my feet. My right arm was almost completely numb.

"I can't... I don't... That was _awesome!_" Sun ran up to me, lost for words and a wide smile on his face as the White Fang pilots ran screaming from their ships. "How'd you do that!?"

"Trick my mentor from the Trappers taught me..." I explained, panting as I clutched at my arm, feeling steadily beginning to return to my arm. "Uses Dust to enhance Aura-based reactions by untold margins... Perfect for a Semblance like mine. Problem is, though..." I grimaced as pain wracked my body, my skin breaking out into a cold sweat. "Argh... The technique burns through your Aura faster than your body and soul can produce it, meaning it doesn't last very long if I don't prepare. The backlash is... _Gah!_ Fuck it, you get the idea!" I swore angrily as I tried to get to my feet, almost tearing up as my muscles spasmed in protest.

Sun shot me a concerned look. "You sure you should be moving?"

"I'll rest later... We need to help the others," I said determinedly, shooting Sun a glare that broached no argument, as I focused on anything but the throbbing pain in my arm.

"Are all students at Beacon _this_ stubborn?" the Faunus said in disbelief, as he reformed his staff, passing it to me as a walking stick. "Or are you guys just this crazy, usually?"

"This is _nothing._ Remind me to tell you about the time we killed a Chimera," I smirked as I accepted the staff gratefully, enjoying the incredulous look on his face maybe a bit too much. "Now let's go!"

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

The first thing I noticed as the world slowly reformed around me was the pain. A dull ache in my chest and shoulder that burned incessantly. Then came the sound of crying. A girl, I think. I turned my head slowly, catching sight of a clearly distressed Ruby, face in her hands. There was another girl, too. The one that had been with her before.

"Red?..."

The girl gasped, looking up quickly as she wiped her eyes quickly with the sleeve of her dress. "Ben! Thank Dust, you're alright! I thought we lost you!" she whimpered, gazing down at me, silver eyes still shimmering, a guilty look crossing her face. "Why did do that? Why did you take the shot for me, especially with your Aura already weakened?"

"I don't know, myself... Self-sacrifice ain't really my thing..." I grumbled, trying to move weakly. "Psycho's rubbin' off on me, I swear."

Was that it? Something was definitely different with me from how I was before Beacon. Red was cute and all, if a little too young for my tastes. And as much as I liked the mechanically-inclined team leader, it wasn't like I was in love with her.

_'But I'd take a bullet for her?... Ah, hell... I **am** going soft.'_

"Don't move! Your arm..." she said as I tried to get up again, eyes traveling to my right side.

I brought the arm, or what was left of it, up shakily, gasping as a shot of pain roared through my shoulder. The limb was a right mess. Everything from the hand to the bicep had been blown apart. Wiring and burnt bandages had melted into the machinery in a jumbled, useless mix of scrap, and dimly sparking electronics. '

_'Damn... That brings back memories.' _At least this time the arm was mechanical. Didn't hurt nearly as bad as it did then, I suppose.

"Ruby is right, sir..." the orange haired girl spoke up, green eyes fixed on my arm. "Your mechanical appendage managed to take the worst of the blast. However, you still received second degree burns on your chest and legs, as well as a dislocated shoulder that I treated while you were unconscious..."

_'Wow, her bedside care needs work, for sure...'_

"I recommend that you wait until your Aura has sufficiently stabilized your injuries, as well as two to three days worth of rest," she finished, smiling disconcertingly.

"Umm, sure... Thanks," I mumbled awkwardly, before a loud crash drew my attention. "_Reika!_" I sat up, crying out as my injuries throbbed painfully.

The girl placed her hand on my chest, bringing me down gently, but firmly, as she shook her head. "Your friend is in trouble. She's fighting well, but with her injuries, I calculate that she won't last much longer against those numbers. I will assist her, so stay still and heal."

I made to argue but a glimpse, something behind her eye moved, like a camera focusing. "Who... What are you?" I gaped, Ruby staring at me confused, as the strange girl stood up, eyes fixed on my arm.

"My name's Penny, and I'm _combat ready!_" the girl, Penny, said confidently, nodding to Ruby, before taking a running leap off of the rooftop.

From the sounds that came after, as well as Ruby's gaping expression, I figured that things had turned in our favor. I even caught a glimpse of Torchdick hanging out of a Bullhead, suit disheveled, hair in complete disarray, as the airship sped off with not even one measly container of Dust. I must've blacked out then, but the last thing I remembered seeing was Reika running towards me, tears in her eyes and a smile on her bare face.

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"_Move it!_" I roared, practically throwing off the officers who tried to hold me back as I stormed past the police blockade. A similarly fuming Yang stalked next to me, hair practically on fire.

After glancing around for a few seconds, she grabbed the nearest cop, Sorola, or so it said on his badge, staring him down with the glare she usually reserved for someone who had harmed her hair. "The one's who fought! Where are they?"

I stood behind her, sniffing at the air. The scent of Dust and smoke was too great to catch my team's scent, however.

"Miss, I can't release that information. I'm sorry, but you'll need to talk to my supervisor," the bespectacled man spoke up, skin paling as the brawler lifted him up by the scruff of his uniform, eyes glowing red while I began to growl, deep and menacing. "_Ah-umm!_" He looked further into the yard, cocking his head to the right. "Medical tent! They're treating your friends now, I swear! Please don't hurt me!"

"Are you talking shit with me, Sorola?" Yang asked, voice filled with bloodlust. "Because if you are..."

"No! I'm not talking shit; _I don't talk shit!_" he whimpered as Yang set him down, patting out the wrinkles in his clothes.

"Thanks for the help. I appreciate it," the blonde smiled as she broke out into a run, me following behind her as the rest of the officers stepped out of our way.

_'And who ever said cops weren't smart?'_

"Hey, Miss. Sorry to ask this, but you wouldn't happen to have a few painkillers, would ya?" Ben's voice rang out through all of the scattered commotion, as we neared a large open area lined with beds. "I'd really like somethin' to take the edge off, you know?"

What must've been White Fang soldiers laid handcuffed to the metal cot frame. They were detained, but still receiving treatment for any serious injuries. In one corner, however, Ben sat barely clothed, his metal arm mostly torn and missing, while he was chatting away with one of the nurses. His usual cocky grin was on his face, as bandages covered his bare chest and shoulder, along with Murasaki. Her clothes were practically in tatters, with a splint on her side as she close to Carson, at least as far as she could without actually touching him.

I noticed the others sitting close by, as well. Ambrose and Belladonna were talking with the Schnee girl, along with some monkey kid I hadn't seen before. The first two sported small injuries, with Ambrose also seeming a bit on the shaky side. Rose, on the other hand, seemed perfectly alright, though she seemed to be looking for something, a concerned look on her face.

"Has anyone seen Penny? She just disappeared, and no one's... Yang!"

They all looked up, Ben's smile faltering as he noticed me, shooing the confused nurse off quickly, while Rose ran to her sister, arms flapping wildly as she spoke rapid fire. "Yang, I can't believe you missed it! There were guys everywhere, and Penny was like _swish, swish, stab!_ And then there was this _HUGE_ green laser thing that was like _WHOOSH!_ And then Joel...!"

Xiao Long silenced her, patting her head affectionately. "You fill me all the crazy details later, Sis. I'm just glad you're safe..." She gazed up at the rest of them, a warm smile on her face. "All of you."

Kitty girl and Ambrose shared a look, my team leader cocking his head towards the blonde.

"Yang, I-I'm so, _so_ sorr..." She was cut off as the brawler clutched her arm, dragging her back towards Ambrose, before grabbing them both in a bear hug, both wincing visibly at the force. "Yang?"

"There's no need to apologize, Blake. Faunus or Human, you're my partner. And I wouldn't have it any other way... And Joel?..." She glanced up at the now red-faced Huntsman-in-training. "I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time, earlier. It was petty, stupid, and..."

"N-no, no. I-it's fine. I understand..." the Huntsman stammered out awkwardly. I almost laughed as Ben shot him a thumbs up.

"So... Are we all good?" Yang asked nervously taking a step back, glancing from Blake to Weiss with a concerned expression on her face. "Because if you two..."

"We've... talked..." the Schnee heiress said, looking towards the Faunus with a smile that was quickly returned. "And I think that as long as Blake truly has cut ties with the White Fang, and that the next time something this big comes up... she come to us, her teammates, and not some..." She caught herself, giving the monkey boy a dirty look, before turning back to Blake.

_'Aww, Schnee's actually making an effort...' _I thought in amazement at the scene before me.

"Someone else..." she continued, "then I'll have no problems fighting alongside her. Agreed?" she finished, staring at Blake expectantly, as she held out a hand towards her.

The ninja seemed to hesitate for a moment, glancing from the hand to her teammates, before grinning, clasping the heiress' hand with her own. "Of course."

"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" the red headed girl cried out, arms raised, running to join her team. Ambrose, Murasaki, and the monkey gave them a round of applause.

I, on the other hand, moved next to Carson, who at least had the decency to look sheepishly away.

"You run off and disappear right into thin air after we have a talk like that, run off to Vale, leave false trails to throw us off...!"

"Psycho told you about that, did he?" the sniper asked, scratching at his cheek. "If it's any consolation, the Witch's going to have my ass for losin' another Scroll." He gave me a roguish grin, that faded within seconds, replaced instead by guilty frown. "Look, I'm sorry. It was a dick move to run off like that."

"Yes it was. Please, by all means continue," I urged him on.

"I don't suppose me gettin' my arm blown off... again... is enough for ya, is it?" he groaned, glancing at me hopefully. "I promise not to do it again."

"Bullshit."

"Oh, come on, Max, not you too! Psycho already wants me dead, and Reika isn't helpin', either! _Traitor!_"

He noted his partner, the girl receiving a pat on the back from Yang, looking happier than I'd seen her in, well... ever. Looking at him now, even Ben himself seemed different. More genuine, and less forced, his eyes glowing just a bit brighter.

"Hey, what's up?" I snapped back to reality, the spiky haired Huntsman gazing at me looking slightly unnerved.

_'Oh shit! Please tell me I wasn't staring!'_

My face flushed crimson, as I slapped my teammate on the shoulder, eliciting a surprised outcry. "_OW!_ The hell, Argus!?"

"_IDIOT!_" I shouted loudly, more at myself than him, storming off before anyone could say another word.

* * *

**_-Roman Torchwick-_**

"_Useless!_" I cried out angrily, slamming both fists down on the metal table, rattling the small meager container of Dust crystals, the best of what we'd managed to swipe, as pitiful as it sounded, sweeping them all to the floor with a snarl before, sighing wearily.

Neo gave me an "I told you so" look, shrugging as she crossed one leg over the other, tapping her umbrella against the concrete floor.

_'Great! **More** people that don't want to talk... As if the crazy masked girl hadn't been enough!'_

"Yes! Okay, I should've brought you along with those pathetic excuses for thugs. You happy!?... Rrrgh, stupid brats... Mucked things up beyond belief!... When she hears about this...!"

"How very disappointing, Roman," a dulcey, terrifyingly familiar voice drifted from the direction of the door, turning my blood to ice.

_'Ah, crap... Just my luck.' _Must've brought the kids along too, judging from the multiple pair of footsteps approaching. When it rains it pours... Great. '_Lost my favorite hat and a good suit for this...'_

I turned around quickly, putting on my winning smile as the most beautiful, and fear-inspiring woman I'd ever met strode into the warehouse, along with her favorite two cronies. Neo shot me a nervous look, but I held up a hand to calm her, passing the motion off as a calculated flourish, giving the woman a deep bow, well aware of how ridiculous it looked in my current state, seeing as my clothes were in absolute tatters.

"Whoa! Hehe... I wasn't expecting to see you guys, so soon..." I said cheerily, noticing her eyes traveling over the scattered crystals with a disapproving air.

"We were expecting... more from you," she said, voice level.

Yep, she was pissed. The whole operation had gone south. Dozens of White Fang were out of commission, along with multiple aircraft.

_'And we wound up with maybe one briefcase for our trouble. Those freaks are gonna want blood. **My** blood. Great, more to worry about.'_

"Aww, what happened, Torchy?" Mercury crossed his arms with a mocking smirk. "School get out early? Big, bad Beacon too much for you? Or is age finally catching up with you, old man?"

"Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang," I said defensively, glaring at the gray-haired little punk "Not to mention that I ended up getting a visit from the guy who I was told _wasn't_ going to interfere! Y'know, the one _you two_ were supposed to be watching?... Ring any bells?... It was the _Trapper!_"

I noticed Emerald shoot her partner a strange look as she placed a hand over her pocket. Curious...

"So, he turned out to be a problem, after all..." the woman said, sounding annoyed, before shooting a sharp glare at her associates. "Strange how he managed to just stumble across Roman's operation like that. Very strange, indeed..."

"Look, if he tries anything again, him or his team, we'll take them out. Hell, we can go right now, even," Mercury declared confidently, nodding his head.

Neo giggled to herself, an amused smile on her face. The boy's face turned red as he glared daggers at her.

"Oh really?" I said, once again thankful that I had hired the diminutive bodyguard. "I don't even think you could handle a fight with one of those kids. But by all means try. Heh, I'd love to see you get a little off the top." I ran a finger over my neck, grinning broadly.

"Why you old...!" The boy stepped towards me red-faced, but was stopped as the queen stepped between us, placing one hand on the boy's chest while the other caressed my cheek, my skin prickling as if it were near an open flame.

"The Trapper, his team, and the rest of Beacon will be of no consequence to our plans. They will fall given time."

The kickboxer bristled, but backed down as her eyes flashed dangerously.

"As for you Roman, all we ask is... a little cooperation." The grin she gave me chilled me to the bone despite the heat, sending a cold shiver down my spine.

'_Hell, I almost feel sorry for those kids... **Almost.**'_

\- END

**A/N: Hey everyone, I know I said this might take awhile but the thing just seemed to write itself considering how long this sucker is, that and I didn't like the thought of just leaving it off like I'd intended. This chapter marks the end of season one and just like LMNH I intend to have a few OC moments between this and season two coming up. I haven't said this in a while hope but I'd appreciate any comments you might have, your guy's input makes the story better. Thanks for all the support and I hope to be back soon. - Mojo**

**P.S: Joel does not get to do that Dust move too often, he is definitely going to be hurting for those few seconds of power he had I assure you. I got inspired after showing a friend the World of RWBY Dust video and wanted to do something with it.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

BOUNDARIES

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

Everything seemed to be going well. Classes were finishing up for break, all my homework was finished, and my team's morale and teamwork had been better than ever. Life just seemed to be looking up.

But something still bothered me as I continued to play with the peas in my lunch. Ever since the fight at the docks a few weeks ago, I couldn't keep my mind off of the White Fang's involvement in it. Sure, they had usually stolen Dust shipments before, but they were working with Humans this time. And this particular Human was a scumbag by the name of Roman Torchwick. Wasn't exactly a friend to the Faunus cause. And yet, they were following his orders, if begrudgingly, but without hesitation nonetheless. It was odd, unprecedented even... Why did it come to this?

It made me wonder if the White Fang had been greatly weakened. Perhaps the Red Hand or some other similar group had made significant progress against them? I doubted it, though. There hadn't been any news concerning the Hand lately, even on the private channels I had available... which bothered me more than I cared to admit, even to myself.

Shaking my head with a sigh, I focused back on my food. It did me no good to think about this stuff and stress myself out. Besides, there was nothing I could do about it at the moment. And if the White Fang was getting desperate, it meant that they were losing. With that thought in mind, I reached for another spoonful of mashed potatoes...

"Hey, Joel?... You like Yang, don't you?"

I froze suddenly, fork centimeters from my face while my eyes were fixed on the Rabbit Faunus sitting next to me, who was, at the moment, humming cheerfully as she dug into a slice of carrot cake "Huh?... Umm... Y-yeah. I like her just fine, why?"

"No, no. I mean _really_ like her. As in, well..." Her face reddened slightly, ears perking up a bit as she glanced my way. "You know..."

My eyes were squinted as I looked at her, but as soon as the meaning of her words registered in my skull, my cheeks became even redder than hers. I looked away slowly, trying to pass the move off casually as glancing at my own plate.

"I don't know what you're...?"

"Oh, give it up, Joel," a familiar voice cut me off. We both looked around as Blake sat down on my other side, effectively trapping me. "You aren't nearly as great a liar as you think you are."

While I appreciated Blake's new somewhat open personality since the docks, it seemed to have gone against me in this particular situation. I glanced at Velvet, and saw that the other Faunus girl was sporting a guilty look.

_'Oh, so they planned this... Fun.'_

My grip tightened on the fork, plastic bending slightly "I'm telling you both, I'm not...!" I lowered my voice, as a few heads turned to stare back at me. "I'm not... S-she's just a good friend of mine!"

"Really, it's not as if you two have been trying very hard to hide it these last few weeks. Or at least she hasn't..." Blake steamrolled on. "Which leads me to my next question, and the reason for why I'm sitting here now. What did you do?" I felt a chill run down my spine as turned to face me, smile still clear on her face, but a touch of menace in her eyes. "She's been moping ever since she spoke to you yesterday. She's not talking to anyone."

"Well..." I started off, running a hand through my hair awkwardly. I noticed Velvet was showing clear interest as well. "Yang's told you that she and Ruby are gonna be spend a few days back on Patch Island with their dad while school's out, right?" Blake nodded, fingers dancing over the surface of the table, which also happened to be suspiciously near her knife. Real subtle, Belladonna. "Well... She wanted to see if I could to stop by... Over the break, I mean."

"And...?" Blake urged me on, eyes narrowing.

"_AND_ I turned her down," I said simply, sighing as I twirled my fork between my fingers lazily.

"But why?" Velvet started to ask, but paused as I gestured to the collar encircling my neck with the fork. "Oh... Right."

"Yeah... It doesn't really matter what I want. Legally, I'm still a prisoner, and can't go any farther than Vale without permission from one of the Professors, or the Headmaster."

Best case scenario would involve me being severely punished, and likely sent back to prison for a time, if not permanently. Worst case was that Ozpin had lied, and there really was a damn bomb around my neck set to blow my head clean off. Ultimately, neither option seemed very favorable.

"To be honest, I'm lucky I'm still able to go that far, considering how livid Goodwitch was over the fact I managed to sneak a knife and a full vial of Dust past her without her consent last time at the docks..."

The lecture that had followed after she'd found out about that little tidbit still made me cringe.

"Maybe you can talk to the Headmaster?" Blake pointed out, "I'm sure he can be convinced to allow..."

I shook my head sadly. "Ozpin has a lot of power; the restrictions I do have are only this lenient because of his influence. However, at the end of the day, it's still the Kingdoms' governments that are in charge of me. And I doubt they'd be okay with me just wandering around freely." I moved what food I had left around my plate aimlessly. "I can't say I like him too much, but the Professor's already stuck his neck out for me enough. I won't be the one to cut it off by asking favors."

The two girls looked at each other, Velvet looking at her fellow Faunus nervously, while Blake had an air of determination surrounding her.

"That's still no excuse not to spend time with her while you can, and not giving it a shot. You must've realized how she feels about you?" the ebony haired Faunus said, grabbing my shoulder tightly, turning me around to face her. "Just because you're a prisoner...!"

I swept her hand off, starting to really get annoyed now. "Actually, Blake, that's _exactly_ why! I'm a _prisoner_!" I growled angrily, keeping my voice low so I didn't scare the whole cafeteria yet making sure to stress the word.

All she did was sit there and glare back defiantly, waiting for me to explain myself.

I sighed, kneading my forehead trying to figure out how best to word this. "Look, I know how she feels about me, alright? Contrary to what my partner says, I'm not an idiot. There's just no point in pursuing a relationship with her. At least not the kind that she wants, anyway." Yang liked to play around, and I could've handled that at least. But if she wanted something more serious, like she'd been implying... "It just... It just wouldn't work out."

"Why!? Because of the whole Trapper thing!?" Blake gaped at me, not even bothering to keep her voice down, drawing in a few heads. "You know she doesn't care about that!"

"Yes, and I _love_ that about her, damn it"! I groaned, running a hand through my hair in exasperation. "She makes me feel... It's as if none of that stuff matters. When I'm around her, I feel like a decent person, again..." I sighed to myself, before staring back at the Cat Faunus' amber slits. "You want to know the truth? I'm _crazy_ about her. She's smart, strong, and more confident than anyone else I know. That's not even mentioning how compassionate and caring she is, almost to a fault!... Even to someone like me..."

I paused, as all of the good feelings I felt about spending time with her the past few weeks ran through my head. There were times I sparred with her, doing my best to teach what I remembered of Dad's police holds. Then the celebration after Ben had recovered from the docks, all of us - AMBR, RWBY, and JNPR - just hanging around having a good time. The best part was Ben's face when Ruby had shown him the plans for a new arm. Even moments as simple as the time where I'd told her about how was I born with brown hair, even managing to drudge up an old picture with a bit of effort. Everyone else knew now, of course, but she had been the first I had told. From an outside perspective, it seemed really insignificant to someone else. But to me? It was somehow special, and it meant something, sharing a piece of what things were like before the Trappers.

_'Still she said she preferred the change, though. Apparently, it makes me stand out more.'_

Taking in a deep breath, I pushed those feelings down for what I knew I had to do. "...But she doesn't seem to realize what _actually_ being with me means. A lot of people resent the Hand for what its influence has caused. It's already bad enough for those close to me."

My eyes wandered over to one of the nearby tables. The Faunus students sitting there shot dirty looks towards me, as well as towards Velvet. She said she didn't mind, and that she'd never really interacted with many other Faunus to begin with. But she couldn't fool me. I could tell that it still got to her. Hell, it still got to me, somewhat.

"If people found out we were a couple, she'd practically be a pariah, and certainly a target. I _won't_ let her do that to herself. Besides... Yang deserves better. She needs someone who can be with her on her adventures, not someone stuck in a damn cage. To be there for her when she needs them most, rather than acting as a glorified hound for some official, or bureaucrat... Maybe someone who doesn't go to bed every night dreaming about every mistake he's ever made on constant repeat..."

"Joel..." Blake muttered, momentarily stunned.

What happened next, however, was something I certainly hadn't expected. Velvet, who had been mostly silent for this whole conversation, suddenly smacked me across the back of the head, with a hard enough force for it to bruise. I flinched, looking back at the huffing Faunus in disbelief.

"Velvet!?" I gaped, rubbing my aching skull, shocked at the normally timid girl.

"Joel... I get it; you want to protect her..." she began, speaking slowly as she stressed each word. "But Yang cares about _YOU!_ Not someone else!" She jabbed me hard in the chest, with enough force to push me back into Blake. "Are you perfect? No, of course not! But you should definitely be making the effort, instead of sitting here regretting _your_feelings, while ignoring _hers!_"

"But I..."

"_No excuses!_" she growled, moving back to her cake. "You're a fighter, Joel. So what if things won't be easy? _Fight for her!_" she finished boldly, before sitting back down in her seat. She cleared her throat with a cough, before giving me a small smile. "Sorry, but that's just what I think," she said in an almost apologetic tone, face flushed.

I stared at her whilst rubbing the sore spot at the back of my head. I tried to think of some retort, some reason as to why she wasn't right... and I came up blank.

"Damn it..." I sighed, pulling the Faunus into a one-armed hug, making the rabbit girl squeak in surprise. "When'd you become such a romantic? I expect that sort of thing from Blake, considering the sort of stuff she reads."

I glanced back at the other Faunus beside me, who was currently blushing red at this point. The ninja had made the dire mistake of leaving one of her books out, where a certain blonde brawler could find it. The end result hadn't been pretty, but it had been hilarious.

_'Look at me. I'm moping... When did I become such a wimp?'_

"Ruby wants to go out to Vale for the day, and she said it was more than okay for AMBR and JNPR to come along. The more the merrier,' she said," Blake divulged, shooting me a stern look. "We're not forcing you to do anything, especially if you feel this strongly about the issue. All I ask is that you at least talk to Yang and sort this out. Okay?"

I nodded to her, earning a warm smile from Blake as I cleared my plate. I thanked Velvet, before placing my earbuds in my ears, drifting along to the music as I made my way towards the training room to blow off some steam, and clear my head.

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

I held my breath for as long as I could, exhaling only once I was sure the white-haired Huntsman-in-training had left the hall, head spinning. I tore the long green-haired wig and pins off, letting my precious locks breathe after almost an hour of stifling captivity.

"Oh God..." I didn't think he'd recognized me. Ben's disguise seemed to have done the trick. Why that rogue was keeping a wig like that around was a question for another less serious time.

"You alright?" my partner asked, a note of concern in her voice as she placed a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "I know that was rather... harsh."

Harsh was an understatement. I didn't know whether to feel giddy or mortified. On one hand, I now knew that Joel felt the same way about me as I did for him.

_'Strong and confident? If only you knew...'_

On the other hand, Joel himself seemed conflicted. It had taken all of my willpower to not break my cover as he explained his reasons. Knowing that he did it to protect me made it even worse.

_'Dumb, stupid, idiotic, selfless, amazing...!'_

I groaned, slumping forward in my seat. "I don't know what to do Blake..." I raised my head to look at her. "I just don't know..."

"At least you know, now." Blake leaned back against the table with a sigh. "Reliving your mistakes every night... It must be... I can't even imagine." She shook her head as if to clear it, glancing at Velvet. "Thanks for your help, by the way. You made a difference, I think."

"Not a problem..." The Rabbit Faunus blushed scarlet, waving off the thanks. "Joel's been a good friend. I just wanted to pay him back, somewhat."

"Thank you," I nodded to the other girl as she finished her cake and bounced off, humming to herself. I watched her for a few seconds, before noticing that my partner was now sitting next to me watching closely. "How is it that I can literally take on an Ursa with my bare hands, but talking to a guy I like is making me freeze up?"

"You've been in relationships before, right?"

"Well, yeah, of course I have. But those have always been... Well, this is different. Those were easy." I stammered out weakly, drawing figure eights on the table with my finger. "Like... I don't want this to be just another fling, you know?"

"I want to help you, Yang..." Blake gave me a pat on the back. "But like I said, I won't force him to do anything."

"I wouldn't ask you to." I gave the cat girl a tight hug. "You're the best, Blake. You know that?"

"Yeah, yeah." Blake patted my head awkwardly. "Calm down, Xiao Long."

We looked at each other for a few seconds, before we both burst out laughing, drawing a few startled glares from the surrounding students trying to finish their meals in peace.

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"...And then there's Wukong. I told you about him last week, remember? Monkey Faunus out of Vacuo, but studying back at home? The one who thinks he might have a shot with Belladonna... Not my place to judge, but I'm not sure he's her type!" I laughed, leaning my chair back on two legs, propping my feet up on the bed's railing. "Anyway, he comes to me, trying to be all suave and shit. Hehe, got his ass lifted into the nearest dumpster! Had to smell him the whole way back to Beacon, but it was worth it!"

Only silence replied...

Feeling the laughter die in my throat, I focused on the bed's occupant. A slender girl with long dark hair that fell in waves to her shoulders laid there motionless, eyes closed tight as if asleep. The only signs of life were a faint fog of breath forming beneath her oxygen mask.

_'Feels like a hot knife to the gut...'_ I thought, fist clenched.

"Miss Argus?" an accented voice called out. I glanced towards the door, as a doctor came striding in, clipboard in hand. "Excuse me, but I need to run some tests on Miss Bordeaux's vitals. Do you mind?" I gritted my teeth angrily to the doctor, Doctor Gray Free, according to his badge. He hesitated slightly, but stood his ground. "It'll only be a minute. You're welcome to stay."

"I'm fine, thanks..." I took one last look at Sonia before getting to my feet and stepping out of the room, hearing the doctor let out a sigh of relief as the door slid shut behind me.

My ears were instantly assaulted by a hailstorm of activity. Beeps from a dozen different monitors and machines, the random conversation between off-duty staff, a pair of crying babies after their shots... I plopped down on one of the empty aisle benches, hands clenched over my ears, both sets.

_'I hate this place...'_

Hospitals in Vale were so enclosed and crowded; no peace at all. Mistral at least believed in comfortable spaces, damn it! Maybe a painting to give the room some aesthetic? Anything but the sterile feeling the place exuded. _'Ten minutes and a spray can... **So** tempting...'_

"Mommy, look at her ears!" I shot a mean scowl towards the kid gawking at my ears, a flash of teeth more then enough to send him scurrying back to his mother's skirts.

"Wild animal... What's someone like that doing here?" I tucked my knees up to my chin, trying to block out the whispers. "Stay away, dear. She's probably diseased."

_"Come to my school. Train to be a Huntress, and use your unique gift for the sake of those that can't defend themselves."_ Those were the words Ozpin had said to me in the midst of admiring one of my pieces, sitting comfortably in the state room while my aunt made coffee in the kitchen.

That was maybe three weeks since Sonia's "accident." Three weeks since I'd thrown away my application for Haven, and told other recruiters to collectively fuck off. Ozpin had promised me he could teach me how to handle this cursed power, so that no one else like Sonia ever be hurt by it again, and that I could channel my urges safely. It didn't hurt that he could also offer Vale's best medical professionals to help with the comatose Huntress-in-training.

_'He could've mentioned that these were the people I had to defend...'_

I sat up as the door finally opened. The doctor exited it with a tired look on his face as he stared at his board. "You're family, correct? Sister?"

"Cousin."

He nodded, scribbling a few things down. I liked Free. Unlike some of the other doctors, he didn't stare at the ears unless I drew attention to it. "She looks stable, and there are definitely signs of improvement." He grinned widely. "The new Aura treatments seem to be taking effect."

"So she might wake up soon?" I said hopefully, faltering as the doctor's hopeful grin dimmed.

"We're... still unsure. Based on how things have been, she could wake up a few minutes from now..."

"...Or never," I finished for him, looking over his shoulder at my cousin, and doing my best not to break down in the middle of all these people. "That's what you were going to say... Right?"

"Y... Yes... Much of what we know about the mind and how it really functions is still relatively recent knowledge," he mumbled, shifting slightly, gesturing into the room sadly. "Her brain activity does always higher than usual when you visit, though. Maybe you want to have a go at talking with her again?" he shrugged unable to give much more to assuage me. That was another point I liked: he didn't beat around the bush as much.

I wiped at my eyes, thanking the doctor again before moving to take my old seat beside her, holding the smaller girl's hand. "Hey... It's me again. Sorry you had to put up with that guy. He's a dork, but he's probably the nicest guy here..."

I smiled, trying to ignore the warm wetness falling down my cheeks. "You know, he said you might wake up soon... if we're lucky anyway. Heh, if only I were Carson... One of my teammates? I used to complain constantly about him..." I wiped my cheeks, glancing out the small window. "You know, he's a lot like you. Never knows when to shut up, always getting on my nerves..." A sob wracked my throat. "Not to mention you both know how to make me laugh... Having these stupid moments that just make me want to... I'm sorry."

I brought a hand to my mouth, tears coming full force now. "I'm sorry, Sonia... _I'm so sorry!_"

Free closed the door quickly as a few of the smaller objects in the room began to float, leaving me alone in blissful silence.

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in the Chapter-**

Gray Free - Robin Atkin Downes

**A/N: Hey all, bit of a short chapter for me, been a bit hectic this month. I did get to work on a new short story _Sound of Our Hearts, _I got inspired after AXL999 and a few others messaged me. It's a Joel/Velvet fix in AMBR's world from Velvet's POV. Seemed cute and I thought I'd give it a shot. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope to have another up soon, thanks for all your support**


	18. Chapter 18

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**A/N: Hey all, I tried writing in the third person at least for the first part of this chapter, wanted to try it out. Either it's okay and I might do it again or you all realize why I like P.O.V which in my mind is a bit easier. I wanted a sort of flashback scene from before Joel was at Beacon (Not going to lie I took the setting from the Hitman Trailer) The guy's definitely mellowed out since then. Enjoy.**

TRAPPERS

**(District Thema, Mantle Region, West of Atlas)**

Police chief Ash Garrett was not a happy man. He'd woken up in the middle of the night to the incessant ringing of his Scroll, grumbling as his wife stirred beside him.

"Dear... I thought you said were on leave?" she groaned irritably, pulling a pillow over her head.

"I am... at least I'm supposed to be," he replied, rubbing his eyes as he brought the device to his ear. It had taken years of police discipline to stop himself from chewing out the nervous dispatcher on the other end, especially when the man told him that he'd have to come in personally. "Just explain the damn situation!"

_"I can't, sir! Commissioner's orders. He wants this as private as possible, for the moment. I don't even know all the specifics myself, but half the station's buzzing,"_ the voice on the other end said nervously. _"Whatever it is sir, it's big. **Really** big."_

Garrett sighed, apologizing to his wife as he pulled on his uniform quickly. Half an hour later, he burst into bustling station, brushing snow off his coat while looking thoroughly annoyed.

"Sir!" Garrett turned, as one of his newer secretaries ran up to him, file clutched to her chest as she adjusted her short orange hair. "We're sorry to call you in like this on such short...!"

"Patty, cut the apologies, and tell me what's going on!" Ash cut her off, glancing around the hall as officers whispered nervously to each other. "Well? What's wrong with all of you!?"

Pearl flinched slightly, hesitantly holding out the file in her hands. "Here, sir. It's everything we have so far."

The chief frowned as he took the file, staring at the name embossed on the front.

"Joel... Ambrose," he sounded out the name, shaking his head in confusion. "I'm not familiar with the name."

He thought he might've heard the last name somewhere before, but he couldn't tell where. His eyes widened, however, as he opened the file and read on, almost dropping the thing all together.

"Is this accurate; confirmed? You know we've had impostors and copycats, before."

"We aren't sure, but the commissioner seems think so," the mousy young woman nodded, gesturing for her boss to follow. "The interrogation's still going on. Slade's with him now."

_'That's disheartening...'_ Ash thought, striding towards the observation rooms.

Detective Slade's fiancee was a Faunus, which meant that this almost certainly wouldn't end well. He stepped into the darkened room, the only light coming through a large window. A portly, balding man was playing with his hands, practically all nerves, eyes fixed on what was happening through the mirror. One individual sat across from the other, the former flanked by a pair of guards armed with Dust powered rifles.

_'Didn't want to risk androids, I see.'_ He liked to think it was because Atlas preferred the Human element. Still, the more rational part told him however it was to avoid the costs of potential damage. Droids weren't cheap.

"Garrett!" The man turned around quickly, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead. "Thank you for..."

"Is it true?" Ash asked, staring through the mirror at the tall, surprisingly young man sitting calmly in the room, hands cuffed together on the table. He almost looked bored, and sported a head of shockingly white hair that couldn't have been truly natural, even for a Schnee throwback. "Am I looking at an actual _Trapper,_ right now?"

He noted the dark form-fitting flak armor the boy wore over thick fatigues. Everything but his head and fingers were covered. Signs of recent wear and tear were easily apparent, with deep stains dotting the material in an obvious splatter pattern.

"He's the real deal," the commissioner confirmed, gesturing to the table in front of him where a mask lay. A bright red handprint marred its surface, accompanied by flecks of darker coloring that appeared to be blood. "I'd stake my career on it... Probably am, actually. But he has information on multiple crime scenes in this region and beyond. A lot of them haven't even been released to the public, yet."

The boy in the other room was so young, Ash couldn't believe it. "A real life Trapper in the flesh... My son would be right around that age..." he whispered under his breath, before glancing back at his superior. "And you thought _Slade_ was a good man to send in with him? You do realize that, in this situation, the man's compromised?"

"Detective Slade was the only one that didn't look ready to piss themselves when I asked," the other man replied, shaking his head. "Not ideal, but under the circumstances, well..." He trailed off, staring at the mask.

"How did we find him?"

Patty stepped forward, eyes fixed on the the suspect, with a look that was almost sad. "We didn't, sir. He just walked into the station covered in blood, mask in hand, saying he was with the Red Hand. We thought he was just another kid trying to pull something nasty, at least until he started rattling off cases that hadn't been released yet. That, and the weapons he had on him."

Next to the mask lay a blue and silver tube, along with a of small box-like dispenser. A similar object sat in front of Slade on the table.

"And here I thought Trappers made it a point not to be taken alive if they failed... So why the hell is one just walking up to our doorstep?"

"He might just be a defector. He had demands." The secretary opened up her Scroll. "Cooperation in revealing the location of multiple Red Hand sites of interest, as well as information pertinent to a series of open cases."

"And what does he want?"

"In exchange for his 'help,' we're to commence a raid on a particular Red Hand outpost as quickly as possible, during which we will capture and detain a data analyst by the name of Natalie Corbell unharmed. We are then to release Miss Corbell off the record, with a full pardon, no questions asked." She looked back at him with a confused expression. Must be strange. The young woman could only have been maybe a few years older than the criminal in question, at best. "He just wants to protect his friend."

"Well, it's not as if we need to comply. We'll persuade him to divulge what he knows, then lock him up. No need to negotiate with an admitted killer," the commissioner said, voice finally taking on a note of confidence as he clapped Ash on the shoulder. "Congratulations, Chief Garrett. Your department has just become the first to apprehend a Trapper alive."

Garrett rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "'Apprehend.' Right... But it's strange. He's not trying to protect himself... Switch the mic on," he said, noticing the suspects mouth in motion.

The secretary nodded, flipping a small switch on the wall, a new voice filling the room.

_"...long is it going to take to confirm what I want?"_ the teen said, wincing as Slade depressed a button on the box. A small metallic rectangle popped out. _"Careful with tha...!"_

Too late, Slade had already picked it up, pressing a small button on the side. He was swearing in pain a second later, as the object shifted into a long, thin knife, the blade slicing his fingers lightly.

_"Shit!"_ He waved his hand, sending flecks of blood across the table. The guards raised their weapons, training them on the Trapper. _"What the...!?"_

_"Tried to tell you."_ The boy shook his head leaning back in the chair sounding almost bored, a look of innocent surprise on his face. The detective growled, signaling the others to lower their weapons as he covered his hand with a handkerchief. _"If it's any consolation, it took me a while to get the hang of it, too. Cut doesn't look that deep,"_ he grinned, flashing his own fingers, that Ash noticed were covered in pale white marks, barely visible against his skin. _"These, I'm actually proud of."_

_"You're sounding quite confident, aren't you?"_ Slade asked through gritted teeth. _"You don't seem to understand the situation you're in, Trapper scum!"_

Garrett narrowed his eyes. He'd been right, Slade had been a bad choice for this.

"Slade, calm down," he ordered, a small receiver in the detective's ear picking up the words. The young man seemed to ignore him, however.

The suspect raised his hands, shrugging wearily as his smile faded quickly. _"Look, I've been sitting here for hours and I've had a long night. So can you cut the fear tactics?"_ He placed his hands on the table._ "Let me talk to someone in charge. Preferably one of the people watching us right now, who can actually do something for me."_ He cocked his head towards the mirror. _"**Please?**"_ he added as an aside to the red-faced man. who currently had a vein pulsing above one eye.

Pearl giggled, blanching under the look Ash gave her after. "It's just hard to believe he's a criminal. He acts like my little brother when he gets caught doing something he shouldn't," she confessed apologetically. "Though something about him feels... sad."

"Arrogant little..." the commissioner muttered angrily. "What does he think this is?"

Garrett ignored him, eyes fixed on Ambrose as an unsettling feeling swelled in the pit of his stomach.

Slade wasn't taking the boy's attitude any better than his superior._ "You're talking to **me,** scum! And the way I see it, you're the one in cuffs in_ MY_ interrogation room, so you'll be waiting for as long as **I **say you're waiting!"_ He grinned, slamming his good hand down on the metal table with a loud clang. _"What do you have to say to **that?**"_The pair of guards gave each other smug looks.

Ambrose's shoulders slumped slightly, letting out a sad sigh. For a second his face twisted, a deep pain clear as day. _"...Shit."_

Slade smiled widely at the mirror, giving those in the other room a thumbs up. The next few seconds seemed to pass in slow motion, as a bright blue glow seemed to emanate from the criminal as he brought his foot up to the edge of the table, pushing off of it with heavy kick and a grunt of effort. The force of the blow sent the steel table thudding into Slade's chest, carrying him all the way to the wall where he slumped down on the cold metal surface, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

But Ambrose wasn't done yet...

While the guards were staring at Slade, confused as to what had just happened, the boy had used the force of the kick to push the chair back, rolling off onto the floor directly to feet of the closest guard. Before the guard even understood what was happening, the tall boy was already back on his feet, and had lashed him across the helmeted face with both manacled fists. Twisting inside the stunned officer's guard, Joel raised the assault rifle, still in the guard's hands and forced him to fire directly into his partner's legs, sending him sprawling across the floor screaming. The one still on his feet only had time to stare in disbelief at the man on the floor, before the Trapper knocked him out with the butt of his own rifle.

Glancing around the room, Joel tossed the weapon aside with a clatter, Aura flashing again as he pulled his arms apart and snapped the handcuffs chain easily. He then scratched at his back with a sigh of relief, as if doing what he just did actually gave him some satisfaction. Everyone in the other room just stared, unable to believe what had just occurred, the whole exchange having lasted maybe a few seconds at most. Ash's hand went to the gun hanging at his waist, but paused as the Trapper spoke up, kicking the wounded officer's weapon away as he tried to reach for it.

_"To those of you that just watched this happen, let's just go over some things, shall we? Straighten things out,"_ Joel declared loudly over the other officer's screams of pain, massaging his wrists as he kicked the table away from Slade, watching dispassionately as the detective slumped to the floor to join the others. _"For the record, you didn't capture me. I walked into this building of my own free will, ready to cooperate. And unless my demands are met, I will leave of my own free will, and go to the next closest police station. You and your people are welcome to try and stop me."_ He crossed his arms and cocked his head, waiting patiently. The lights inside the room began to flicker indiscriminately, static flowing through the speakers as the faint bluish glow reappeared.

"Well..." The police chief glanced at his secretary, a hand over her mortified face as she looked at the fallen Slade. "Not so unbelievable now, is it?"

* * *

**(Present Day - City of Vale, Kingdom of Vale, Sanas)**

**-_Benjamin_ Carson-**

"Ben! Ben! Over here!"

A red blur zoomed past me as Ruby, pressed her face against a glass display of antique Dust rounds. The proprietor shot her a strange look, pointing to a warning sign above. Nodding, I pulled the energetic teenager back a bit by the cloak.

"Aww, but that's a 25mm explosive Dust shell! That thing could take the head off a Taijitsu easy!" Her face was glowing, eyes fixed on the collection of weapons and technology hanging off the walls. "I'm in heaven..."

"Y'know, Red, when you said you wanted to go shoppin', I thought you might mean a few clothing stores. Heck, maybe even a bakery!..." I laughed, struggling to hold the girl back as she caught a glimpse of some sort of halberd/LMG combo hanging above the counter, her eyes the size of dinner plates. "Guess I should've known better..."

"I don't... Wait... _Bakery!?_ Can we get cookies!? Please, please, please, please, _pleeeaaassseee!?_" She was suddenly in front of me, clutching at the folds of my poncho tightly, silver eyes shimmering.

I nodded, smiling as I gave her a gentle pat on the head. _'Damn, that looks just not fair.'_

The younger girl cheered silently, before glancing around at the room. "That's awesome! We can go in a bit, but first I need to find a few things for your arm."

Her eyes fell on the empty space I kept covered by the cloak, hardening into a determined glare.

Here we go again. "Still on about that, huh? You know you don't..." I tried to speak up, but she shushed me, staring intently at a collection of spare gears and screws. "Red, it was my choice to take that hit..."

"It's my fault you broke your arm in the first place, so I'm gonna fix it, and make it even better than it was! You'll see," she said, giving me a warm smile, before turning back to the pile. "Maybe a shotgun in the wrist? No, the recoil would interfere with the Dust receivers and affect mobility... Maybe a knife, instead?"

I felt a grin spreading across my face as I watched the girl work. She was usually so reserved. Now, I just had to make sure of what exactly she had planned for that arm. That shotgun talk was more than a little unsettling.

_'Nice to know everyone's got a comfort zone, though.'_

We stayed at the workshop for another half hour, the redhead talking over design ideas with the staff, while I played with the guns on the indoor range, proving I was still a better shot, even with one arm, than most of the other rough looking customers.

Ego sufficiently sated, we left the shop grinning as we made our way to the closest bakery. The Huntress' mouth was watering as she took in the sight of so many sweets. I was pretty sure she almost kissed me when I said she could get as much as she wanted. Thankfully, the Kingdoms' governments hadn't frozen all of the old assets, so I had more than enough Lien to satisfy my new disguise hobby, and keep Red's sugar addiction well fed... Not that Psycho needed to know that...

"So, any good?" I asked her, receiving a rapid fire nod as the girl shoveled in sweet after sweet. A few of the other guests looked at her in complete astonishment. "You know, we needed this. A day off... Not sure if stickin' Ninjette, Ice Queen, and Reika together was a good idea, though."

The girls had gone off on their own together, and I had urged Reika to go with them. She seemed to like Ninjette, at least, and I thought a little girl time would do her some good, whatever that entailed anyway.

"Mmph... They'll be fhine!" Ruby said through a mouthful of cookie, voice muffled. "Blahke and Wheiss are frhiends nhow, and I'mh sure they'll thake cahre oph her." she swallowed when I gestured to my mouth. Blondie had been insistent, after all. Red needed to lose that particular habit.

"I hope so..." I glanced out the window at the busy street once I was sure the girl wouldn't choke, marveling at just how different the city was from life in the Badlands. "How 'bout Blondie and Psycho?"

"What about them?" she asked as she finally stopped shoving sweets into her mouth.

Right. Ruby wasn't in on the plan. Blake had been worried what might happen if we'd told her what we were doing.

"Well... I was just wonderin' what you thought about those two together... Alone..." I said carefully, thinking I'd at least try to at least broach the subject. If Psycho and Blondie did get together, Red would be involved regardless. "You like Psycho, right? Joel, I mean?"

The hooded girl looked at me strangely, before nodding slowly. "Yeah, of course I do! He's really nice, and has been helping out a bunch with getting used to this whole leader thing. Not to mention with what happened with Blake." Okay, nice start... "He's been almost like a big brother to me since I met him: covering for me with Yang and Weiss, tutoring me. That sort of stuff."

"Alright, good. And whaddya think about him hangin' out with your sister, especially considerin' the whole Red Hand thing?" I continued on, ordering another two rounds of everything. _'The hell does she put it!?'_

"Yang seems to trust him, so I do too." she said matter-of-factly. "I'm not afraid of him, but I can see why some people are, I suppose."

"And what would you say to them... y'know... gettin' together?"

"Aren't they already together? They went to the music store," she asked, raising an eyebrow. It took all my willpower not to face palm at that very moment.

"I mean _together_ together... Like hugs, and kisses. The occasional..." I let my voice die as I noticed Red's expression falter. "Or maybe not!" I amended quickly, raising my hand up to wave off the assertion. "But hey, you have to admit they'd be cute as a couple, right? I can even come up with ship names to tease 'em with!"

_'Heat Lightning?... No, doesn't roll off the tongue. Wildfire?... Could work...'_

My thoughts were interrupted by her, as she let out a short "oh," finally understanding what I was getting at. Looking down at the sweets blankly, she spoke. "If they're happy together, I wouldn't mind. I just hope that he realizes what that means though..."

A chill wind blew through the shop at the girl's words, a shiver working its way down my spine.

"Uh... Red?"

"If he hurts my sister, I. WILL. _MAKE_. _HIM_. **_SUFFER!_**"

_'...Psycho... For my sake and yours... **DON'T SCREW THIS UP!**'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Hey, you alright?" Yang asked as I paused along the sidewalk in the middle of the square, barely suppressing a shiver as I rubbed at my neck just below the collar.

"Yeah... Just a weird feeling."

I looked around nervously. '_Felt like I had a blade at my throat, for a second there...'_

Dismissing it as just nerves, I glanced back at the blonde, a concerned look still clear as day on her face. "So... Anywhere else you want to check out?"

Yang shook her head, rubbing at her arm absently. "Not really... I thought we'd just hang out for a bit, if that's alright?" she gestured to a nearby bench.

I agreed wholeheartedly, sighing as I got off my feet for the first time in hours, the aftermath of my "stress relief" still stinging. Always felt good to work myself through the paces, now that my muscles were recovering. _'Might've gone a bit overboard, though.'_

"I can't believe you managed to get a mix of Achieve Men's new album! It wasn't even on the shelves, yet!" she gushed, taking out the CD, handling it as if it were fragile as glass.

_'Actually, this **is** Yang we're talking about...'_

"The clerk gave me a special discount." The expression on her face fell sharply, replaced by a suspicious glare.

"How did you manage that?" She stared down at the album in her hand, looking at it as if it had lost its purity. Gavin's face grinned back at her smugly as he raised his bass, ready to smash it.

"It did take a bit of 'convincing,' but I managed it."

"You didn't...!?" she gaped at me in disbelief, looking between me and the music, eyes wide. "I don't know how I feel about... You didn't..."

"Maybe."

"_JOEL!_" Her eyes flashed red, as I felt a disturbingly sudden rise in temperature, almost as if I were sitting next to an open flame. The fringes of her hair even seemed to threaten to ignite.

Sensing danger, I backed away on the bench, raising my arms innocently. "_Kidding!_ I was just kidding! I fixed her Scroll for her, that's all." I'd gotten pretty good at it, considering Max and Ben seemed to break or misplace theirs on a regular basis. I saw my chance and took it. "Anyway, I asked her about the album, and she offered to give me one of the copies they had in the back free of charge."

She sighed in relief, hugging the CD tight to her chest.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to freak out like that," she said after a while, looking up at me guiltily, a blush creeping across her face. "It's just..."

"Nah, my fault. Shouldn't have made a joke like that," I replied, scratching at the back of my head awkwardly. "She did want a picture of me for the road, though. Got a bit handsy."

She spun around to look at me, eyes wide, but broke into a fit of laughter at the smirk on my face. "You're an ass, you know that?" she choked out, face red, a radiant smile on her face.

"Me, an ass? Yang Xiao Long, surely you jest." I winced as she gave me a light shot to the ribs, light from her meaning it hit me hard enough to force the air from my lungs completely. "Thanks, Yang... I needed this."

"Thank Ruby. She's been looking for the opportunity to pay you guys back for helping with Blake and Torchwick, especially considering Poncho's arm."

"You know he doesn't blame her for that, right?"

"I know. But Ruby's always worrying about stuff like that. She's convinced that she screwed up somehow and got him hurt, so she's going to be the one to fix it and make it better. It's just how she is." She pulled her legs up, resting her chin on her knees, golden locks framing her face. "Her people skills have never been that great. Way too shy. But this is something she can work on in her own way, and do it well."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she wants to help Ben out, though can you do me a favor, and ask her to stop waking us up at the crack of dawn whenever she has a new idea she wants to run by him? Max's been a bit more on edge than usual lately, and I don't want to risk Ruby getting caught in the middle of it."

Took an hour to put the room back together after the last time.

"Will do," the blonde promised as gave me a thumb- up.

She had borrowed my headphones so she could listen to her new music, and was doing her best to sing along to the lyrics, or just bob her head happily. I was content just to watch her. The sun beaming down, reflecting off her hair in waves of spun gold.

_'Beautiful_...'

I realized suddenly that I was happy, completely at ease with where I was in that moment. If someone had told me few months ago that I'd be sitting in Vale joking around and admiring someone like Yang, while also being the leader of my own team at Beacon... I'd probably have broken their legs for the notion alone. Not exactly much of a talker back then...

_'I haven't felt this way since Bastion... Having someone I could be like this with...'_

"So... Are you feeling better?" she asked suddenly, looking at my arm as she removed the headphones.

I knew what she meant and nodded, giving her a reassuring smile as I held my arm up for her to examine, flexing the lean muscle. "Way better. See?" It was true for the most part. My body had almost completely recovered from my self-inflicted Dust exposure a few weeks earlier.

_'The spasms and cold sweats are gone at least... Mostly.'_

I tried flaring my Aura in an attempt to activate my Semblance, screwing my face up in an effort to create even a tiny spark, before giving up with a light chuckle, hand dropping to my knee as I forced down a grunt. My implants were tingling uncomfortably, warming just beneath the skin, like being to close to a hot stove except deeper... It was difficult to describe.

"Still need a bit more time before I go hand-to-hand with an Ursa again, though." Contact with the rampant Dust coursing through my system had supercharged my limiters, making any use of my _Conduction_ nearly impossible for weeks at a time, while they gradually burned off the extra power. Not to mention the withdrawal effects that made it clear why most Dust users had preferred using it in clothing. _'Wish that witch had been more specific on the bleed off... __If I tried hard enough, I might just be able to make someone's hair stand on end for a few seconds.'_

"How do you do that?" the brawler wondered aloud, watching as a group of kids ran past us, playing loudly. "You're so good at hiding or laughing off things that bother you. Ben was at least moping about his arm while Ruby wasn't around. You though... I could break yours, and you'd pass if off as nothing serious. Would it kill you to let me know how you're really doing, once in awhile?"

I opened my mouth to retort, but closed it. I leaned forward, elbows resting on my knees. "Living out in the Frontier, especially in Bastion, most people make a habit of suppressing emotion. Tends to keep the Grimm away. As for the pain, it's something I picked up from the Trappers. They're not really a group you show weakness to, and last long afterwards," I replied bitterly. I frowned as one kid pushed his way past another, laughing as he sent him tumbling to the ground.

"Why? Weren't you guys all on the same side?"

I actually laughed at that, stopping once I realized I was only confusing her more. "Same side, maybe. Didn't mean we got along. We all had reason to hate the White Fang, sure. Our superiors knew this, and used it as motivation. Those who performed well were able to go on more dangerous raids, with a greater number of targets." The kid that was pushed down managed to get back to his feet, an angry scowl on his face as he ran at the bully. "...Twisted reward system, huh? We Trappers get to vent our grudge, while the higher ups know they sent the best possible killer for the job..."

"You make the Trappers sound like such a fun bunch..." Yang growled angrily. "But you don't need to pretend, Joel. Bottling this stuff up? It's not healthy." Her hand found mine, squeezing tightly. "I was there when you came back from those things, remember?" How could I possibly forget? The specter's accusations were whispering in my ear, while the Huntress' voice was the only thing keeping me grounded. "At Beacon, things are different."

"Are they?... Everyday, I have to stand firm against people like Kaplan, Cardin, and everyone else with a vendetta just to be accepted here. And even that's not enough sometimes!" I said through gritted teeth.

"And I suppose sharing the burden is too much? Or is wanting to take on everything alone just another 'Trapper thing?'" she muttered, eye twitching as her grip on my hand tightened.

"Nope... That one's all me." I pointed to my chest. "Thought I made that clear back in the cafeteria, earlier?"

"Yeah, when you were stupidly... Wait, _huh!?_" She paused, clapping a hand over her mouth, looking panicked. "What are you... _How!?_"

"I didn't for sure until now..." I felt a faint grin tugging at my lip. "Don't get me wrong, it was a good disguise. Though green's definitely not your color. Ben's influence, I suppose. This hobby of his is starting to really get out of hand," I sighed, tapping my nose. "It's nowhere near as good as Max's, but I still managed to pick up the scent your shampoo. Trained senses, remember? One of the few useful things I got out of my time with the Hand." A pain in the ass, too, at times.

"But that stuff you said! Why would you...?" she stammered out, face the same shade as Ruby's cloak. "If you knew I was there the whole time...!"

"Because you needed to hear it," I finished for her, looking her in the eyes. "Yang, I meant what I said. I _do_ care about you. Quite a bit, actually. But being with me would only cause you more harm than good... Especially for your future reputation as a Huntress. Besides..." I took my hand from hers, looking down at my hands. "I barely even understand what you see in a scarred...!"

A stunning burst of pain cut me off, as the now red-eyed Huntress slapped me fully across the face, sound ringing through the park. I brought a hand up, rubbing at the edge of my face tenderly as she stood in front of me, shaking with each breath. Bystanders were quickly starting to move away, considering the Huntress-in-training's hair was practically crackling at this point.

"You don't know why I feel the way I do about you! Hell, I barely do, Joel!" she laughed, spreading her arms wide open. "You're stubborn as a charging Grimm, sarcastic, and can be a complete ass at times..." Her arms dropped to her sides. "...But at the same time, you're also willing to lay your life down for your friends in a heartbeat, and brave enough to take a stand when you see something you believe is wrong." She finished in a much lower voice, blazing red shifting back to lilac, meeting blue as tears slid down her face.

The effect on the usually upbeat brawler was just.. .wrong.

"I don't know what you were like before. But the you right now... I admire him. He makes this warm feeling rise up in my chest when he's close." She put a hand to her chest. "I enjoy being around him, and I know he enjoys being around me. That he sees more then just a pretty face and big 'assets.'"

_"Fight for her."_ That's what Velvet had said. I was a fighter, and so was the woman in front of me. _'_

_'And here I am making excuses...'_ I thought weakly, feeling my resolve crumble as I wiped a tear from her cheek tenderly before I even knew what I was doing. Her eyes widened at the move.

"You should know... I've been in relationships before. Even during my time with the Hand."

Yang looked back at me, sniffing slightly as she cracked a small smile. "So what? You wouldn't be the first guy I've dated, either. You thought I'd be pissed to know you kissed other girls?"

I shook my head, standing up in front of her, face serious. "Look. What I'm trying to say is that this sort of thing... being close to someone... It's hard for me. It's not just my personality at times, but there's always something."

_'Hell, my Semblance is practically designed to keep others away from me...'_

"Just look at the mess I'm in with my brother, for starters. And I can't say those others ended very well, either. I... I don't want to end up hurting you. Not after you've done so much for me already, which is way more than I had any right to deserve... I'll never be able to pay you back for it."

I cupped her face with my hand. "Are you _sure_ you want to do this?... I'll understand if you want to back out..."

I was terrified, heart pounding in my chest.

"What do you think, dummy?" she laughed, taking my hand again, eyes closed as she drew closer on her tip toes.

I wrapped my other arm around her waist, moving my face towards hers, her lips parting slightly. I could feel her breath brushing my skin.

_'I won't screw this up. Not again...'_ I thought firmly, heart racing, hairs on the back of my neck standing on end...

**"_HEY, AMBROSE!_"** a loud booming voice carried across the park, ruining the moment as we both looked around. Yang looked confused, as alarm shooting don my spine.

A loud whistling noise grew ever louder, one I realized was all too familiar. Panicking, I finally tracked the source, catching sight of maybe a half dozen cylindrical objects flying towards us, red billowing smoke trailing in their wake, as they screamed through the air above us.

Without conscious thought, three years of ingrained instinct took over as I grabbed hold of a still startled Yang. Tapping into my Aura, I leapt to the side just in time as the shells impacted where we had stood. The resulting explosions blasted us away even further in a storm of fire and debris, while I did my best to shield Yang from any shrapnel.

I laid there crouched over the stunned blonde, ears still ringing as I took in the scene behind me. The bench where we'd been seated less than a minute before had been almost completely wiped out, now a hunk of twisted metal lag sitting in small smoking crater, which was just one of many now dotting the square. Screams filled the air, as sound slowly returned, the ringing in my hears finally subsiding. The smell of smoke and Dust powder permeated the area, as civilians ran in every direction except one.

_'No... **Please,** no!...'_ my mind screamed desperately as I caught sight of exactly what it was they were running from.

An olive-skinned figure, about as tall and bulky as Cardin, strode towards us through the smoke, wearing sleeveless, dark-colored armor, accented by what seemed to be a bulky silver arm guard on his right arm. A smoking grenade launcher was perched on his left shoulder. What stood out most of all, however, was the face mask the figure wore. Framed by shoulder-length, unkempt brown hair, a red handprint decorated the matte black surface.

**"You didn't really think we'd let you go so easily, did you!?"** the Trapper spoke in a distorted growl as he leveled the launcher at us single handed, cocking his head in apparent amusement. **"Because you have _no idea_ the kind of trouble you're in!"**

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Ash Garrett - Richard Epcar  
Patty Pearl - Kate Higgins  
Commisioner - Rob Mungle  
Detective Slade - Justin Cook

**_A/N: What? You actually thought I wouldn't pull something like this? Guy deserves it this last P.O.V was a bit of a struggle to write and was what took up most of the time it took to write this chapter. I hope it turned out at least part way decent and if not I swear to make it up to you all with a crazy fight scene next chapter, TRAPPER vs. TRAPPER_**

**_(In my mind most Trapper masks are similar to the sith masks from the SWTOR trailers though they can vary)_**


	19. Chapter 19

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

FIGHT ON

**_-Professor Ozpin-_**

**(LOCATION CLASSIFIED - Several Months Ago)**

"Young man, is all of this truly necessary?" I asked with only a touch of annoyance as the guard patted me down uncomfortably. "I was under the impression that the prisoner was properly detained?"

"Apologies, Professor. Just standard procedure," the younger man replied, flashing a thumbs-up to his superior in the other room. "Though it's for the best. I take it you didn't hear about the last person who tried to interrogate him?" He motioned towards a set of sliding steel double doors, as the hiss and rapid fire click of releasing locks rang through the hallway. "Messed the guy up _good._ The General wants no screw-ups with this."

I shook my head with a heavy sigh. '_James always did believe in applying more force than not enough, with little thought to the sort of pressure such actions create.'_

Trying to keep a positive impression of my colleague in mind, I adjusted my spectacles, giving the young Atlesian a friendly smile. "Well then, lucky for me this isn't an interrogation. I'm merely presenting an offer."

"An offer? What would someone like you..." The man shook his helmeted head in disbelief. "Whatever you say, Professor. Just... watch yourself. He's been tame, lately, but..." The guard looked towards the now brightly lit room. The only furnishings were two bolted down chairs, and a similarly set up table. "He's still a nutter, in my opinion. Just sits in his cell all day, staring at the wall, and exercising. Some of the others have even mentioned that he... _talks to himself._ Not to anyone they can see, anyway."

Well, that was certainly encouraging to hear.

"I appreciate your concern, but I can assure you that I can handle myself just fine." I strode into the room, taking a seat at the table, slightly surprised to see that both it, as well as the seats, were made of hardened plastic, rather than steel as I had originally thought.

_'Really...?' _I thought to myself, wondering suddenly if all of this had been a terrible mistake after all. James himself had said the whole idea was ludicrous. _'Though that was likely due in part to the fact that he failed to convince the boy himself,' _my mind added with no small amount of amusement and exasperation in equal measure.

A flashing red light drew my attention before I could mull on the matter further. Doors slid apart to allow a boy even younger than the guard in. He had white hair, and his face was unkempt, his hands and feet bound with oddly colored Dust-embedded cuffs, likely to restrict or limit access to his Aura, along with a pair of thick gloves.

_'So this is the infamous Trapper that surrendered himself, eh?' _I thought to myself, as I noticed the guards grip their weapons just a bit more tightly, fingers twitching towards the trigger. I hadn't had the chance to meet Joel Ambrose personally, though I had been present for his trial by the World Council. _'Considering the reputation that comes with people like him, it's obvious why the guards are as riled as they are...'_

Even bound as he was, his face downtrodden, the way he moved spoke volumes of what he took from his training, though he was making a fine attempt at hiding it which, ironically, gave the opposite effect to those with a keen eye like mine. His body moved with just a hint more coordination than was considered normal, eyes scanning the room swiftly, as if by habit, subtly reacting to each sound in the room no matter how minor. Sensory training, perhaps?

_'Though I suspect this fear stems more from personal than observational experience_. _This is an individual taught how to survive... And brutally, I'd imagine._'

"Sit down!" A guard came from behind him, raising his rifle. He was ready to strike, even as the prisoner nodded quickly, muttering something venomous under his breath as he sat down.

"Asshole..."

I gave the offending guard a stern expression. "Leave us."

"Sir?" The guards glanced at each other, fidgeting uncomfortably. "W-we aren't supposed to..!"

I tapped my finger on the table loudly, cutting him off briskly. "_Leave_," I repeated a second time.

They didn't need a third; the guards gave the prisoner one last parting look before filing out of the room quickly. _'A shame. But I can't have bias in a situation like this.'_

"...Impressive show," the young man seated across from me spoke up, looking over his shoulder as the door closed behind him. "You sure do know how to make an entrance, ordering guards around in their own prison." His voice was even, a bare hint of the rigid accent common in his home city of Bastion, and its sister settlements, just barely discernible, but he consciously went well of of his way to mask it further. _'A split from his past, then? The reports indicated he left on bad terms...'_

"It comes with years of experience..." I answered, bringing my hands together as I leaned forward on the desk. "I would prefer our conversation be... civil, if nothing else."

Ambrose seemed surprised at that, but hid it well enough behind a veneer of calm. He leaned back in his chair as far as it would let him. "That's good... Thought for a while that nobody knew what manners were anymore, least here, anyway. Not gonna to say that my training wasn't worse, but this sure isn't much better."

"I take it you know why I'm here, then?" I asked, pulling a file up on my Scroll. I had to admit, I was a bit discouraged to see the boy shaking his head. "Joel Ambrose. Age 15 when you disappeared. Prior to this, you trained for almost two years within Bastion's Aegis Academy," I read aloud, nodded approvingly as I brought up the next page. Glynda had been thorough in organizing her findings, as always, highlighting what she believed most pressing. "Scored high marks in a majority of your classes, especially in drills relating to close quarters combat..."

"I had problems focusing in Dust Sciences. Teacher tended to drone on a bit," Joel supplied, glancing between the Scroll and myself warily. "I liked the physical activities they put us through, though. Kept me healthy."

"A pack of Beowolves single-handed at fifteen is quite an achievement," I remarked, eager to make a good first impression. I was not lying, however. Even a single Beowolf could prove a challenge to a young warrior, especially those larger variants present in the Frontier. For him to have slayed a whole pack...

_'Such a waste that he never went further. His potential was **astounding.** Of course, that's why I'm here...'_

"Eldest son of Thomas and Patrice Ambrose, grandson to Kenneth Ambrose, and brother to Jacob Ambrose." I glanced up, noticing the young criminal's face had hardened into a scowl. "A police lieutenant, two well regarded Huntsmen, and one of the brightest young minds our world has seen in generations."

"I know, right?" He chuckled under his breath bitterly. "Surprising how with that sort of upbringing, I still ended up in here, isn't it? Practically some sort of pedigree, the way you make it sound."

_'An underlying current of jealousy... A need to prove himself, perhaps?' _A dangerous trait, though an easy source for motivation, if applied correctly.

"I know your grandfather quite well. Though, I must admit, I haven't really spoken to him in quite some time." I carried on, trying to put the boy's comment aside. "He's a good man. I also knew of your mother. Not personally, mind you, but if the stories about her career are true..."

"They _are_," he interjected. "You say you didn't know her, but I did. I don't appreciate you bringing her reputation into question."

I raised my hands in a gesture of goodwill. "I assure you, I wasn't questioning her status as a hero of Remnant. I apologize if I was giving you that impression."

"Also, you're lying about my grandfather. I saw you at the trial. You were sitting next to him the whole time."

_'Excellent observational acumen. Memory retention?'_

I pursed my lips in slight apprehension. "While that is true... he didn't really say anything in particular. He was silent through the entire trial."

Scowling, Joel looked away from me. Though his eyes were directed at the wall, I could see something flicker in them briefly, and knew immediately what they were. A sliver of disappointment, as well as shame. This wasn't starting off as I had hoped at all.

Ambrose then straightened up in his seat fully, before looking at me almost straight in the eyes. A rare thing, considering my height even when seated. "Look... You didn't come here to discuss my family. You've proven well enough that you know about me," he growled. I could almost hear the sound of his fists clenching behind his back. "So let me try playing this game now. You're... Professor Ozpin, right? Headmaster of Beacon, and a bonafide hero of Remnant. Not the kind of person who visits vicious killers and criminals on a whim, I imagine."

He then leaned forward slightly, baring his teeth a bit as well. "You know what that tells me? It tells me you want something. So I'm gonna save you the trouble of wasting any more of our time, and give you the same answer I gave Ironwood... _No_. I already told him that I'm _not_ hunting the White Fang again. Not for him, not for his stupid military, and_certainly_ not just because some_ old man_, who also happens to knows my grandfather, comes and asks me nicely!" He then leaned back to his original position. "So I'm sorry that you wasted your time today, sir. Door's right there. Don't let it hit you on the way out..."

_'Well... I can see now why James was put off by him.' _I was also going to have to have a very long chat with the World Council about their ideas concerning this boy. _'Turning him into a disposable soldier to clean up their mess... Typical politics. Though, I suppose I'm not much better in that regard, seeing as my offer is mostly similar. Still, his abilities could be used against Mankind's greatest enemy.'_

"...It's rather rude to decline an offer without hearing it... Wouldn't you agree? Besides..." I closed down my Scroll, taking off my spectacles as I rubbed at my eyes. "I wish for you to utilize your skills in a different way."

"Yeah? And what sort of skills does a rogue Trapper have to offer someone like you? Vale must be more messed up than I thought, if the Headmaster of Beacon needs a personal assassin at his beck and call."

"You are correct. I don't require a Trapper. I require a _Huntsman._ One that, with time, will go on to defend civilization from beasts that have pushed us time and time again to the brink of ruin."

I gave him a few seconds to process my words, before realization dawned on his face.

"Wh... Wait... Y-you... You want me to be a _Huntsman!?_" he gaped at me. I could just imagine the reaction that bombshell was setting off in the room adjacent to us, where the warden, and no doubt more than a few guards, stood watching the proceedings. "Are you...? Are you fucking serious?... Man. You really _are_ as crazy as people say... You do realize I dropped out of Aegis, right? I haven't fought a Grimm on purpose in years!"

"Many retired Huntsman say the same when forced back into action. Most equate it afterwards to 'riding a bike.' One can get rusty, but our academies, especially one such as Aegis, make sure that its students _never_ forget what they learn there." I grinned, realizing that I had to spin this further. The hard part was out of the way, at least. "Besides, it's not as if you've been idle for three years. My sources have told me that Trappers are trained by former Huntsmen, a claim that even your own testimony supports. In fact, I daresay that your experience puts you well and above most of the applicants we see at Beacon in their first, or even second years."

The former Trapper scoffed at my words, looking away again as he shook his head in disbelief. We both then sat there silently for a good few minutes. My eyes were on him the whole time, even when I took a few sips of my coffee. At first, he thought it was ridiculous. It was evident in his eyes. But as time passed, he actually thought about the idea. His eyebrows dipped in thought as he seemed to mull it over. In the end, he sighed deeply, before looking at me again.

"Okay... Let's pretend this _isn't_ completely insane. You'd have a convicted criminal reside in the halls of one of the most prominent Huntsman Academies in Remnant? Just walking around freely, taking some classes?... What's to stop me from running when your backs are turned?"

"Aside from a variety of methods, that I will refrain from discussing here... I would personally like to believe that a boy willing to leave an organization like the Red Hand, especially one who willingly submits to his captors, is one looking to make amends."

"I came here to make amends, alright. By paying with my freedom and my cooperation," he said slowly, looking around at the blank walls. "And personally? I deserve this place. Lets me think."

"And now, I offer you the chance to take a more active role in your penance. Talent like yours wasn't meant to waste away in a prison, anymore than it was to serve the Red Hand. I will tell you this now, though, it won't be easy. The path will be hard, deadly even. But it would allow you the chance to serve the world, and _redeem_ yourself. In your eyes, if nothing else."

I had him. I could see it in his eyes. Before, despite his interest, there was still doubt. It was still there, but something else glinted in his eyes. A fleeting glimmer of hope.

"Me... Redeemed?... Is that even possible?..."

"Mr. Ambrose, there have been many people who have been kept imprisoned for the almost entirety of their lives. Many have been given a second chance at life."

The boy scoffed. "Yeah. And then they decide to go back to doing the same crap that got them in in the first place."

"Unfortunately, there are those who squander those opportunities, and 'lie in the beds they made,' as it were," I conceded, my eyes on my reflection in the surface of my coffee. "But then there are those who don't squander their second chances. Those people usually end up helping others, and in the process, make themselves better people then they were before." I then looked directly into the eyes of the boy. Reading his expression, gauging everything I could in those few seconds as I let the importance of this decision sink in. "Don't you want that chance, Joel?... A chance to try again?"

"...I... I-I don't know... I'll need time to consider it..." he stammered awkwardly. "B-but let's say I said yes. The problem's not just what other people will think. If the Red Hand finds out where I am... well... I didn't leave on the best of terms, as I'm sure you're aware."

Over a dozen bodies left to bleed in the snow. No, I don't doubt it.

"If that day comes..."

"_When_ it comes," he cut me off, blue eyes fixed on me again with a grimace.

"...We will be ready. Beacon is stronger than many might think." I got to my feet, holding out a hand towards the boy. "It was a pleasure, Mr. Ambrose. I hope to see you this upcoming year."

The young Huntsman stared at me in surprise, before shrugging his shoulders as he brought his right hand from behind his back to clasp mine with a firm shake, cuffs hanging off his wrist loosely. _'Impressive, if a bit cheeky.'_

"We'll see, Professor. We'll see..." he said soberly, as alarm claxons started blaring, guards rushing in through both doors, "But don't say I didn't warn you..."

* * *

**(Central Vale - Present Day)**

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"_I told him! I goddamn **told** him!"_

Trapper. A word now synonymous with death, shame, fear for some, strength, and a symbol of Human dominance for others. The true fist behind Humanity's war against the White Fang, drawn from the vengeful of their greatest protectors. Shaped for their deadly purpose through hellish conditioning and trials.

Unlike the numerous other troops fielded by the Red Hand, Trappers were considered unique not just for their astonishing effectiveness in combat, but their unshakable fervor and zeal for their mission. It even went to the point of being feared amongst their own comrades for the sheer brutality of their actions. The masks they wore were marked by the blood of their first kill through a ritualistic ceremony.

_'The last bit's superstitious bullshit the grunts came up with, though it doesn't make facing one down any easier...' _I thought to myself as I gritted my teeth, keeping my eyes fixed on the large figure gazing back at us casually from behind that all-too familiar mask, especially as he leveled his large weapon. _'And here I am without my gear, or a Semblance... Fun.'_

**_"_You know, when I took this job, I expected you on your guard, sharpening those little toothpicks of yours for a real fight!"** the masked man called out derisively, mask distorting his already deep voice into one of nightmares as he gestured towards me. **"Instead, I find you playing Huntsman up at Beacon, sticking it to this babe."**His eyes settled on Yang, who was just now getting to her feet, hair mussed and eyes blazing red. **"Aw, man! Briar's gonna be so goddamn _pissed_ when she finds out. How the hell do you keep landing 'em, anyway? First Corbell, then..."**

"Joel..." the blonde spoke up slowly as the terrorist rambled on, blowing a loose strand of hair from her face as she looked towards me casually. "I'm guessing this guy's a...?"

"Trapper. Yeah, looks like it," I affirmed, glancing around at the surrounding area. I was thankful that most of the civilians appeared to be running away, rather than gawking at the spectacle.

_'Less collateral that way. One good thing at a time, I suppose.' _Still didn't solve my weapon issue. But it was something, at least.

**"_Hey!_ That's rude, Ambrose! At least properly introduce me to your pretty friend there!"** he cried out indignantly, before giving Yang an elaborate bow. **"Tch! Guess I'll have to do the honors... Alexander Capaneus, but just Alex to the ladies. Heir to the distinguished Capaneus line of Mistral... Or at least I _was,_ until the Fang took offense to my father's views."** He straightened up, shrugging his shoulders casually as if discussing the weather. **"Turns out supporting the Schnee Dust Company's expansion was a bit of an unpopular opinion with them. Nowadays, I get to spend my time sticking it to the dirty animals for shits and giggles, as well as dealing with the occasional traitor or two. Though I gotta say, Joel, you're my first Trapper! Usually it's just low-level dregs who get cold feet after their first assignment..."**

"I got tired of being a glorified monster for the higher-ups!" I called back, fists clenched tightly.

_'Son of a bitch attacks me!? Attacks Yang, just when we...'_ I felt my implants burning incessantly, as they held back the raw energy my anger was letting off.

"Likes to hear himself talk, doesn't he? Guessing he's not a friend then, huh?" Yang asked, pushing her way past me, as _Ember Celica_ unfolded around her fists. She smashed the gauntlets together with a metallic clang, smirking as she saw me shake my head. "Good! Then I won't feel bad for putting his smug ass in the ground!"

This wasn't just a tantrum over a stray hair. Yang was _livid_. _'I know the feeling...'_

**"Look, babe, my orders said that I was supposed to kill Ambrose and anyone associating with him. Though, I _could_ be swayed to let you off for a little favor or two, if you catch my drift..."** Alex commented, either too vain or too stupid to realize he was stoking the fire as he eyed Yang's body, certain parts more than others, flexing his free arm. **"Anyway, trust me when I say that I just saved your fine ass. If you knew how this bastard's other flings went, you'd be begging on your hands and knees for me to..."**

He didn't get to finish his rant, head jerking to the side to narrowly avoid a sharpened piece of debris that flew past where it had been less than a second previously, breaking into dust as it impacted on the building behind him. By that point, I was already in motion, sprinting headlong towards him, and scooping up another of the stray stones littering the ground. _'If you don't have a weapon, make one.'_

**"_Ah Ha Ha,_ _that's_ more like it!"** Alex laughed, already readjusting his aim to follow me, sending a pair of smoking red shells blasting into the air.

With a grunt of effort, I sidestepped the first, before ducking into a roll that carried me under the second. Two explosions echoed as I leapt up at his feet, his eyes widening as he tried to bring the launcher's barrel down in time. He hesitated as soon as he realized I was too close to fire without damaging himself. Big mistake. Before he could move away or build distance, a battle cry rang through the air, Yang exploding into view above me, having followed my charge. She knocked the bulky weapon aside with a shotgun-fueled right hook that sent it flying from his grasp to land harmlessly several feet away, leaving a sizable dent in the metal chassis.

**"Ah, shit!**" he cried, stumbling back looking at Yang in sheer disbelief.

'_Damn right!' _I thought triumphantly.

I then launched a flurry of blows against my larger opponent, targeting his joints and legs that were only barely just blocked, avoided, or powered through but not without a fair bit of pain on his end. Years of dealing with bigger kids in Bastion before my growth spurt, and my more recent experiences going hand-to-hand with Grimm, had given me a keen appreciation for what a high level of skill, and a bit of Aura, could accomplish when it came to dealing with the size advantage. An appreciation Mr. Capaneus was finding out first-hand, as I delivered a solid shot to the side of his leg, putting him on his knee with a grunt, the limb stunned.

_'I also have a pissed-off Yang on my side. So to be honest, he was well and truly fucked from the start."_

The blonde was an utter force of nature. Second by second, she deftly dodged the Trapper's expert attempts to fend her off, all while delivering her own share of damage in return. Each punch prompted up a flash of tan-colored Aura, as her unlucky victim tried to mitigate the damage. We moved in concert with one another, supporting and striking whenever the other created an opening, no words necessary until finally...

"Gotcha!"

I ducked past a stray left as he was reeling from a shot to the side from the brawler, wrapping an arm around his thick neck with my left arm while slamming my right palm against the side of his head firmly, a strange move for a regular fighter, but the equivalent of a lethal trap in my case. However, I flinched as I saw fear in his eyes for the first time, true fear.

_'You're lucky, asshole...' _I grimaced, as I attempted to draw on my Semblance. _'Not enough to be lethal, but just enough to leave him with a nasty headache when he wakes up.'_

Unfortunately, he was luckier than I thought. My attempt did little more than screw up his hair, while sending an unexpected sickly burning sensation up my arm that left every muscle feeling numb. The implants felt as if they were set aflame, forcing my grip free as I let loose a cry of pain and surprise, the reaction catching me off-guard. The Trapper saw his chance, grabbing me by the scruff of my shirt before doubling me over with a blows to my stomach and face that echoed through my Aura, before finally tossing me away like a ragdoll.

"Joel!" Yang tried to move to my defense with a shotgun-fueled punch, but it was stopped by a dull grey colored shield, similar in shape and size to Pyrrha's, that had just unfurled itself from his armguard. The metal seemed to absorb the heavy blow, before blasting her back in a blinding flash of light and heat.

Alex just laughed, unfazed as felt at his hair as if in disbelief, while sparks and static danced at his fingertips. **"H-holy crap..."** he panted, glancing at me as I limped over to where Yang had fallen. I was clutching at my arm tightly, coughing as I spat out a glob of blood onto the ground. **"Really thought you had me there, Ambrose! Beacon make you soft, or something?"** His hand went to the strange shield, its grey surface dotted with evenly spaced motes of multi colored lights. **"Been a while since I had a scare like that. _No way_ am I letting it happen again!"**

"You alright?" I asked Yang as she stood up, shaking out her head, seemingly none the worse for wear. "I messed up, and now he's getting serious. I was hoping we could finish him fast before he brought that out."

"You kidding? Been through worse sparring with Vomit Boy," she groaned even as she attempted a cocky smirk at the humor, shooting my arm a worried glance she couldn't hide fast enough, before assuming a fighting stance with fists held in front of her. "Now, the hell is that thing?"

"His weapon." I shook out my arm, trying to get some small notion of feeling from it besides pain. If I tried I could move my fingertips, felt like shit though. "Real complicated piece of work designed by his ancestors, if you believe him anyway. Various types of Dust crystals placed along the surface absorb the energy of attacks, amplifying it, before a circuit redirects the force outwards. He literally hits you _twice _as hard as you hit him."

"Great... Any weak spots?" she grunted, hair crackling as she started bouncing on the balls of her feet. "He has weak spots, right?"

I couldn't help but grin. Leave it to the blonde bombshell herself to make fighting a lethal killer exciting.

"Aside from hitting him fast directly, or wearing him down, then not many," I noted, remembering how I'd seen the Mistralian take an RPG head on during one of the few assignments we'd had together, and come out unscathed, using the force applied to blast his way through a few dozen unfortunate Faunus in the process. "It's going to be a bitch to deal with, that's for sure..."

**"You two lovebirds done swapping last words!?"** the bulwark called over to us as he scooped up his launcher, inspecting it closely, before nodding to himself. **"'Cause if you won't come to _me,_ then I'll have to come get _you!_"**

He leaned forward, before perking up and looking over his shoulder. I heard them too, face paling as a swarm of VPD cars rounded a corner, sirens blaring loudly. **"Aw, man... Was wondering when they'd finally show up. Definitely slower than Atlas, but way faster than Vacuo or Mistral's, that's for sure,"** he muttered, raising the grenade launcher. **"Too bad for them, right?"**

We both realized what he was about to do. Yang sent out a volley of rounds hurtling towards the homicidal bastard with a scream of fury, while I tried to signal the police to retreat. Alexander blocked the shots almost casually, rounds impacting harmlessly off the shield, leaving its surface unmarred, and shining even more brightly than before.

**"Wait for your turn, sexy. I'm busy at the moment,"** he chided her, her eyes widening in horror as he fired off a pair of shells that impacted between the lead cars, practically blasting them off of the road as they careened into the surrounding buildings. Those that survived the blast retreated to a safer distance, likely trying to regroup. **"_Ha Ha Ha! That'll_ teach 'em!"** the Mistralan cackled, ejecting the spent Dust casings on the ground. **"Don't mess with the Red Hand, bitches!"**

"Since when the hell does the Red Hand attack police!?" I shouted in disbelief as I watched a few officers desperately trying to rescue their comrades from the wreckage, screams of pain and cries filling the air. The Red Hand was hardly a moral organization by any stretch of the word, but even they'd advocated that our targets were Faunus and those associating with them. We were to leave law enforcement relatively unharmed whenever possible.

**"Things change, Joel! Your little stunt cost us dozens of agents, including Corbell, if you even give a shit about that weak little bitch. We also lost an incredible sum of Lien in resources when the boys and girls in blue showed up and claimed it all!"** He shrugged his broad shoulders as he tossed the now empty launcher aside.**"After that little fiasco, the organization's higher-ups believed a little show of force was necessary, if so required."** He waved a hand at the devastation before us.**"Which I felt it was! Fucking _fun,_ too!"**

"You _sadistic_ motherfu...!?" I took a step forward, but paused as Yang held out a hand in front of me, shaking her head.

"I'll handle him. You need to call the others and get Goodwitch to send over your weapons." She glanced over at the wreckage, before glaring at her opponent. "We're going to need them."

"I won't just let you...!" I tried to speak up, but she stopped me by grabbing the front of my shirt, silencing me as her lips crashed against mine.

The whole world seemed to slow down. It was very... warm. Like a beam of sunlight hit my face, riding its way down my nerve endings all the way to my chest like wildfire.

She leaned back a few seconds later, smiling triumphantly as I took a deep breath to steady myself, no doubt blushing bright red.

"Heh, not exactly how I imagined it..." she sighed, before her eyes flashed scarlet as she looked over in Alex's direction, his head cocked to the side as he whistled to himself. His strategy was to defend and let us come to him no doubt. "...But totally worth it. Don't take too long, okay? Can't hog all the fun."

"Uh... Yeah, I-I won't... Just, uh... Be careful would you?"

She nodded, giving my arm a light punch before turning away from me as she reloaded her gauntlets, hair shining like spun gold in the fading sunlight.

_'Incredible...'_

"_Joel!_" Her voice snapped me out of it, as I soon sprinted for the totaled police cars. Alex moved to intercept me, only to be blocked by an almost feral Yang Xiao Long, forced to duck behind his shield to avoid losing his head.

As I ran I pulled out my Scroll, relaying a basic alert to my team. It was nonspecific, but we'd agreed after our excursion in the cave that if we heard it, we'd come running.

_'They're spread out with the rest of RWBY, except Max, wherever she is. Not to mention Ben's literally **unarmed** at the moment.'_

After that was done, I keyed in Goodwitch's Scroll. Unfortunately, she seemed to be busy at the moment. Holding the device in my hands, I drew up to one of the smoking police cars, where two officers were frantically attempting to free another trapped inside.

"Damn it, the door's jammed! Someone get the... Huh? Citizen! Stay where you...?" the officer in command stepped up to try and stop me, but was immediately dumbstruck as I pushed him and his fellow aside. I ignored the pain in my limbs as I drew on my Aura, gripping the rim of the door tightly, before ripping it off the frame of the vehicle with a grunt of effort and the groan of twisted metal. After throwing it aside, I tore at the leather restraints, dragging the wounded officer out afterwards. He was shell-shocked, but thankfully still alive and liable to make it.

"A Huntsman?_ Here?_"

"In-training. My friend there and I are from Beacon. Got ourselves caught up in this mess." I gestured over my shoulder towards the sounds of battle where Yang traded blow for blow with the Trapper.

Most of her attempts were blocked by the shield, however, and finally broke through her guard, the bulwark blowing the Huntress through the front of a shop's window with a loud crash that made me wince reflexively. The owner who'd hidden there scrambled for cover with a frightened squeal. _'Focus!'_

"Not sure if you noticed, but the opponent's a Trapper! You need to get your men back, and set up a perimeter. Keep this contained, while we deal with him!" I ordered as I knelt down after making sure Yang blasted her way out the smoking hole in the window, looking angrier than before. With a grunt of irritation I checked over the groaning officer's belt, nodding to myself as I pulled a handgun from his holster.

"W-what do you... Wait, that's a _Trapper!?_ Why...? Hey, don't touch that!" he gaped as I inspected the weapon with a frighteningly familiar ease, checking the remaining ammunition, before doing a few one armed test draws glaring down the sights.

"You guys seriously only use this caliber?" I mumbled under my breath almost in disbelief. "This wouldn't even scratch a Beowolf, let alone Aura... Dad was right when he said the police get screwed on funding." The man was red in the face with a mixture of annoyance and fury, even more so when I slipped the weapon in my belt and held out my free hand towards them. "C'mon, I need another! Any spare clips you guys have, too... C'mon, Goodwitch, pick up!" I cursed at the Scroll in my hand, before turning back to the pair, snapping at them with my good hand. "Oi! Right now would be great! My friend... er, girlfriend... I don't knowwhat we are yet, but she's sort of fighting for her life at the moment!"

The senior officer looked ready to argue, especially after he noted the collar around my neck, but didn't get the chance as his partner unholstered his weapon, and handed it to me before grabbing their wounded comrade.

"Good man." I nodded to him, slipping the weapon into the back of my jeans with it's twin.

"Kick his ass, Huntsman!" he cheered on, urging his friend along, who spat in my direction as he cursed under his breath.

_'Two out of three isn't bad, I suppose...' _I mused, as the Beacon professor's voice finally emanated from my speakers, all shrill commanding authority along with it.

"_Mr. Ambrose, what is the situation down there!? I've been detecting critical spikes in your Aura levels, and then we received word of some sort of attack in...!_"

Feeling it was better to get to the point before lecture mode could fully set in, I spoke over her, stunning her into silence. "Professor, long story short, there's a Trapper in the middle of Vale causing havoc! The police are trying to manage, but they can't handle this. Yang and I are trying to fend him off, but I need my weapons, so could you _please_unlock the rocket locker for me!?"

"_I need more of an explanation before I can just authorize..!_"

"_PLEASE_, Professor!" I roughly shouted out, cutting her off mid-sentence. "There's no time!"

A few seconds of silence were my only reply, and for a terrifying second, I thought for sure that the line had died. Fortunately, to my pleasant, relief she finally replied, her voice clipped and proper as before.

"_Very well. I've unlocked your locker. It's on its way to your Scroll's position, but it will take a while to reach you. And lastly, Mr. Ambrose, if this is all some elaborate escape plan...!_"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm screwed, and you'll kick my ass! You're the best, Miss! Teacher of the year!" I whooped, before cutting the line and turning back to the fight, noticing a timer on my Scroll. Minutes steadily counted down, as a plan slowly formed in my head.

_'Well. Let's go then!' _I bared my teeth before charging into the fray, pistols raised, and fingers on the triggers.

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"...But can you _really_ picture the two of them together? The implications it will cause for her status alone, not even including the danger to her life. It would be plain irresponsible... no, _foolhardy!_ He must realize that?" Weiss declared loudly as we moved down the crowded street, drawing eyes from onlookers as she passed. Me? I just kept my head down, and tried to suppress the urge to dropkick the rich girl into the concrete, or at the very least keep Miss Belladonna from doing the same in my stead, which, judging by her body language, she's been trying to avoid for the last hour.

"Not everything's about status, Weiss. And since when have you cared about Yang's social standing? For that matter, when has she?" the Cat Faunus replied angrily, glaring at the Schnee heiress. "It's her choice to make, and I support it."

_'Great. As if the tension with these two wasn't bad enough already,' _I mentally lamented as I lazily checked my reflection in the store window, cringing at the sight of me in the new blouse, skirt, and heels I was wearing in place of my usual clothes.

It had been Miss Schnee's idea. Apparently, I lacked "fashion acuity," or something to that effect, and the snow-haired girl had taken it upon herself to dress me appropriately, despite my mute attempts at refusing.

_'It feels just like Ben's damn disguises. How do people wear stuff like this?... It's either too tight, or too airy.' _I'd managed to compromise with the mask, after I almost shoved a fist through the last boutique's wall when the stylist attempted to remove it. Apparently she's worked it into the look. "Adding an air of mystery" the woman woman had called it nervously as my knuckles had cracked. _'I feel like a doll.'_

That was another nagging question about Huntsmen: why their fashion tastes were often so... eccentric. _'Joel's standard gear has armor plates, but those are at least light, practical, and assist him in combat. Ben's poncho also helped for camouflage purposes. Combat skirts and high heels, though...?'_ I shook my head at the sheer lack of survival sense Schnee seemed to possess, meanwhile doing my best to walk without falling on my face.

"She doesn't care, which means someone has to!" Weiss shot back, shaking her head as if it were the most obvious concept in the world. "That big hormone-driven dunce seemed to have realized that as well. Likely why he put up as much resistance as he did towards the idea."

Blake stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, causing a few onlookers to shoot her annoyed glances, before running off in the other direction at the look on the girl's face. "Okay, Weiss, what's your problem with him!? What did he do to you?"

I paused, seeing as I was interested in that question too. I'd noticed that the heiress had been cold to most of us on AMBR. But when it came to our leader, she was practically hostile most of the time the two were in close proximity.

"I just know him better than you think..." The heiress shrugged off her teammate's look with ease, looking off casually into one of the dress stores. "And I can tell you that he's dangerous. Docile for now, but dangerous, nonetheless. Despite what you might think, I'm just trying to look out for my teammate."

"How would you...!" The Faunus girl launched into a tirade, to which the heiress responded in kind.

As for myself, I was just about to try and ditch the two, maybe track down Ben and Ruby, when my Scroll began buzzing erratically from the bag where I held my clothes. Grabbing it up, I paled as a small red light flashed over Joel's name, along with a small icon of his symbol next to his name, indicating that his rocket locker had been launched._'Huh?'_

This was no joke. When we'd agreed on this signal, Ambrose had made it perfectly clear that this was only to be used in a true emergency. Not even Ben would fake this; it's practically our only actual consensus as a team.

_'Ben doesn't have a Scroll. Ambrose must've forgotten!' _Immediately, I reached out with my Semblance, the two Huntresses' argument ceasing as my Aura came to life, seeking out my partner. _'C'mon, Ben! Where are you?'_

"What's going on... Reika!" Blake asked, shielding her face as I leapt into the air with enough force to crack the sidewalk beneath my feet in a cloud of dust, sturdy heels driven deep into the earth.

Keeping my eyes closed, and my mind focused, I gripped the edge of the building next to me, using it as a launchpad, and sending myself hurtling through the air, traveling through the city to the stunned amazement of onlookers below. I shut out the cries of surprise, the snap of cameras, and all the other sounds that wasn't anyone from my team. I guided myself purely through Semblance alone. The distinct light of Ben's Aura burned brightly in the distance, alongside a slightly stronger Aura glowing with an innocence, that must've belonged to Miss Rose.

_'Hold on, Joel! We're coming!_

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

**"Persistent one, aren't you?"**

I could almost see the Trapper's sick grin through his mask as I narrowly avoided the narrow edge of his shield yet again by millimeters. I almost felt the power radiating from its surface crackle across my skin as it passed, edge crashing into the side of an abandoned delivery van, its frame crumpling as if it were a plastic bottle.

**"I like a babe with energy, but how the hell are you still up!?"** he asked snidely, withdrawing the shield with a grunt of effort, before leaping back as Joel sent a burst of small caliber bullets crashing against its surface without any visible effect, though he did manage to score a hit against the man's shoulder in a flash of Aura.

"_Switch!_" the white-haired Huntsman called out as he darted over a nearby car, sending another few rounds at the our opponent's feet. This forced him back even further, making him snarl angrily.

I nodded back at him, retreating back a few feet, clutching at my side gingerly as I watched his charge.

"I knew he was good, but... _Damn,_ he's amazing," I muttered under my breath as Joel pressed his advantage, nimbly ducking or sidestepping the larger man as he angled himself in between his guard.

He slammed the side of one of his pistols against the raven-haired man's head and fired, eliciting a scream of pain as his eardrum ruptured. _'Sharper senses. Right... Makes sense he knows how to fight people like himself.' _As it stood now, the two fighters almost seemed even, Joel having a near overwhelming advantage at close quarters, even with an unfamiliar weapon, while the Trapper dominated at ranged defense, at any rate.

However, I noticed something troubling. _'He's slowing down,' _I thought as Joel leapt to the side, his weapons empty, and barely managing to avoid a blow that cratered a brick wall behind him, only to take a steel toed boot to the chest.

"_Switch!_" I moved forward, pulling him back before the muscle-bound bastard could do more than gloat, as I sent a fresh volley of flaming shells hurtling towards him. Seconds later, I cursed under my breath as _Ember_ _Celica_ clicked empty.

I'd taken a few big hits, but my Semblance kept me standing. Hell, I felt better than I had in ages, my body crackling with unspent energy. Joel, however, was fading rapidly. Vivid red marks began to show along the fighter's exposed arms. His movements were more strained, and less focused than before, his face pale.

Alex's defense, however, only grew stronger as the fight wore on. His shield glowed brightly as the Dust within converted every punch, kick, and gunshot into a weapon against us, remarkably like my own ability. Unlike my Semblance, however, if we didn't provide the offensive for him, the Trapper merely needed to slam the shield's broad side against a wall or a car, drawing off the kinetic energy created to make himself lethal. But he too was showing signs of strain, our overwhelming offense chipping away at him, and that shield couldn't be everywhere.

I'd learned pretty fast how it all worked with Joel's foreknowledge and first-hand experience. The broad, circular face of the shield repelled attacks, and redirected them over a wider space, blowing the opponent away as its main defense. The edges, however, were where most of the offensive energy went, creating a piercing effect. I'd already seen it shear through a steel lamp post almost the size of my torso only minutes earlier like a hot knife through butter.

I crossed my arms to catch a low jab, just before being knocked away by a shield bash, my gauntlets groaning under the strain. '_Hold on girls... Just hold on.'_

**"Okay, Blondie! You just officially crossed the line from distraction to _annoyance!_" **Capaneus panted, eyes staring at me intently now as he reached up to his face, removing the mask to reveal a thin, shockingly young face, maybe a year or two older then Joel and I drenched in sweat. "And that's bad news for you, I assure you..."

I was just about to make him eat those words, when I felt Joel put a hand on my shoulder, holding me back. "You've done enough; he's on his last legs. I just need to bring him down," he whispered just loudly enough for me to hear. I noted the Scroll beeping in his hand. "Cover my back, but stay clear."

"Took long enough." I grinned widely, the Trapper's face darkening as he struggled to eavesdrop, his face looked pained as he wobbled unsteadily on his feet. Joel didn't look much better, though, sporting his fair share of half healed cuts and bruises, and a slight but noticeable limp in his step. "You sure you're good? I can take him, if you..."

"No. He's my responsibility." He gave me a warm smile, before regaining the cold, focused expression he held before, and taking a step towards the injured terrorist. "Alex, I'll give you one more chance! Surrender now, or run. Your choice."

"Hah! That's rich, coming from you!" the Mistralan Trapper spat, laughing to himself as he raised his weapon, his eyes darting towards me. "Didn't expect the living bombshell over there, but not like that matters much! We aren't taught to surrender quietly; you know that."

"I know. But friends or not, we were still comrades once." Joel shrugged his shoulders. "Just thought I'd be the bigger man and offer it, though I'm glad you refused." He leaned forward suddenly, as the sound of something large crested the rooftops above us. The young man's dark eyes widened in shock and sudden fear upon seeing it. "That wouldn't have been nearly as fun!"

Joel sprinted forward with a manic grin on his pale face, sliding the Scroll underneath along the ground towards his opponent, a series of numbers counting down.

00:00:05. 00:00:04. 00:00:03. 00:00:02...

"_Damn it!_" Alex was forced to leap back into a nearby alley, shield held aloft as the locker impacted directly where he'd stood only moments before, sending rubble and debris flying. Joel was unfazed, however, taking a running leap as the slab of metal began to hiss, and ejected a blueish-silver cylinder and a small rectangular box high into the air with explosive force.

_'Well, that's one way to use the locker...' _I thought with my jaw slacked, as Joel landed on the locker, using it as leverage to jump even further as he glowed with what Aura he had left. He clutched the cylinder tightly, spinning as it extended into his bladed staff, while tucking the box at his belt.

"What the...!" The bulwark had barely had time to call out those words, before ducking behind his shield again as the Huntsman-in-training brought the staff down on top of him with a deafening clang.

Rather than jump back, however, Joel fell into the hit as his weapon split, landing before the larger man's feet with his weapon already moving to knock away his opponent's arm, while simultaneously striking at his legs, the blades scratching off Aura.

"_Ambrose...!_" the Trapper growled, attempting to bring his shield around to hit him. But his target was already gone, having drawn himself with one of _Circuit's _blades through the air along the walls, acting as an impromptu three dimensional maneuver gear, the Huntsman swinging like a spider along its web.

"Too slow, Capaneus. _Way_ too slow!" Joel mocked as he sent a pair of daggers flying towards the confused terrorist. One deflected harmlessly off his Aura, while the other embedded itself deep into his shoulder. If this had been a normal fight, with Joel at full strength, that would've ended the battle right then and there.

From there, it was almost pitiful to watch as the Huntsman landed, compressing his staff as his foe reeled back clutching at his shoulder. His limbs struck out faster than I could follow, as he launched a series of punches against pressure points to Capaneus, a palm to his kidney, an elbow to his throat, before kicking him onto his knees. He drew closer for the finish, catching the Mistralan with a heavy punch to the face, before grabbing his now limp head. He lifted him from the ground, before slamming him face first into the pavement with a loud thud of cracked masonry. Joel's hand drifting back to his weapon until he was satisfied.

"All he had was his defense, but it didn't cover everything," Joel groaned, getting to his feet as he dusted himself off. "You just have to hit hard and fast. Told him as much when I last saw him... Prick." He grinned, walking towards me shakily while using his staff as a cane, stumbling, and slightly forcing me to catch him to avoid having him fall to the ground in a heap. He placed his arm over my shoulder. "Maybe put a bit too much into it, though."

"You think?" I gave him a shocked look, gesturing towards his twitching opponent. "You scared me there. You're usually not that brutal." That had been like no fight I'd ever seen, not in sparring, not in tournaments on T.V... Joel hadn't been a fighter then, he'd been a surgeon taking the other boy apart, where he stood with an almost cruel effectiveness, each blow like a scalpel. _'I sometimes forget how much he holds back sometimes.'_

"Sorry..." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, staring at the limp form sadly. "We were trained to take a beating. Might still be up if I hadn't...!"

His eyes widened in alarm as he pushed me away suddenly. I looked back just in time to catch sight of the bloodied man braced behind his shield, charging like a bull towards us. Joel had pushed me out of his path in the nick of time. However, this meant that the shield's face impacted directly with the Huntsman's side, blasting him to land limply on the pavement almost a dozen feet away. He was left coughing up blood, his elbow at an awkward angle, and Aura flickering dangerously as his eyes widened, his body likely going into shock from the sudden catastrophic damage.

"_JOEL!_" I spun around, hesitating as I saw the Trapper standing their impossibly. Blood streamed down his upper body from his head and shoulder, a solid mass of muscle staring me down with a cold, focused stare, literally burning with Aura. Suddenly, I was a little girl again trying to guard my kid sister, matched up against a monster that could rip me apart with its bare hands. I took a step back involuntarily, the killer's eyebrow rising as he looked over at the fallen Huntsman.

"Idiot held back... Should've went for the kill when he had the chance... Always was too overconfident for his own good." He gave me a bloody grin that sent icy shivers down my spine. "Father had a motto. 'Doesn't matter how many times you're hit, if you're the last one standing in the end,'" he recalled, taking a few slow strides towards his prey. "Didn't help him, much. But I still think there's some merit there."

He paused as I stepped in front of him, my arms outstretched with a look of defiance on my face as I stared him down, eyes blazing red. '_I'm not a scared little girl. Not anymore.'_

"Get outta my way, and I might consider letting you off with a warning! The poor bastard's not even worth...!"

I was in motion before he could even finish. My fist smashed against the dull metal with enough force to send him sliding back along the ground, sending up dust streaks. When he stopped, he stared back at me in astonishment, as his shield glowed like a miniature sun while it tried to contain the energy of the blow.

"_YOU DON'T GET TO SAY THAT!_" I screamed, literally ablaze with power as my hair crackled, as if on fire.

"Someone's got a short fuse... Fine! _HAVE IT YOUR WAY!_" he snarled, charging as he placed his full weight behind the bulwark, looking to crush me with my own power. And of course, I met him head on, slamming fist first into shield yet again.

The resulting explosion of force sent dust and trash flying, as well as cracks that looked like a spider's webbing along the sides of the alley wall. From my perspective, it was as if I'd just been hit by a train, bones creaking as I dug my heels into the ground, refusing to be sent back again, hair whipping through the air like an open flame.

_'My name's Yang Xiao Long...' _I gritted my teeth, feeling my Semblance roar to life as I raised my fist again with a loud cry. _'I take what my enemies dish out, and shove it right back in their faces! And no puny shield's gonna block me! I'm **unstoppable!**'_

This time, my punch sent him skidding along the ground, forcing him to his knee as a long crack appeared on the shield, his face a perfect picture of utter disbelief. "W-_what the hell!?_ How are you still standing!? _You should be in pieces!_"

"I'm gonna make you regret you ever hurt him, _YOU MONSTER!_" I roared, the ground behind me shattering as I blasted my way towards him.

The last thing I remembered was a loud crack, followed by an explosion that sounded as if it had cracked the face of Remnant itself. What followed was a bright, brilliant light... And then nothing at all.

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Alexander Capaneus - Garret Storms

**A/N: Man this chapter did not want to get written, either stuff would always get in the way or writer's block would strike and it still ended up differently than I'd intended, my fights get somewhat awkward with length I've found. Either way I apologize for the delay, I wanted to work on this more during spring break but as stated above writer's block happened so I spent it doing some rewrites done. Thanks all for the continuing support and I hope to have more ready soon.**

**P.S: I based Alexander's shield on a spartan/Captain America hybrid, Capaneus-An ancient shield wielding Greek warrior of great size and strength who was killed by Zeus after boasting not even he could stop him from invading Thebes (Yes I'm a historical/mythological etymology nerd, seriously have you seen the names I use for these characters?)**


	20. Chapter 20

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

RECOVERY

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'I messed up...' _That was the only way I could describe the current situation as I lay there coughing up the contents of my stomach, with my face in the dirt. My side burned with every short breath, as the sounds of battle raged on unabated. I'd been overconfident, underestimating the Mistralian's sheer endurance, and overestimating my response...

'_Now look where you are.' _I coughed violently, gritting my teeth in the effort to prop myself up. My right arm seemed unable to take any weight, though I couldn't tell exactly why._'On the ground. Training was worse than this, asshole! **GET UP!**'_

Somehow, through the reddish haze of pain, I managed it, lifting my head just in time to catch sight of Yang leaping towards a bloodied Alex, fist raised, and poised to take his shield head on. The sight of her alone made my eyes water, her Aura burning like sun fire, her hair aflame like a goddess of both sheer beauty and fury, ready to blow away all in her path.

"_YANG!_" I cried out, ignoring the constricting vice on my chest as the girl's fist made contact with the surface of the shield. The Dust crystals within it seemed to burst like firecrackers under the strength of the blow. In the next few seconds, everything seemed to pause, as an explosion of force cratered the earth around them. Windows shattered, and even gravity seemed to fail me, as I felt myself blown off of the ground backwards, hitting my head against something metal, before my vision blurred to black.

* * *

My eyes shot open as a hacking wet cough rose from the back of my throat. Alarms and frantic shouts filled the air, along with the distinct smell of smoke and blown out masonry. I tried to put what I was seeing into focus, blinking rapidly to clear the light, and found myself leaning against an overturned car. Thankfully, the horn wasn't currently screaming into the fading afternoon air.

The scene surrounding me looked like something out of a warzone, or a disaster movie, than the small shopping district it had been before. Debris and broken glass spread over a distance around an enormous crater, that seemed to have opened up between the two buildings where the alley had stood, taking out most of the contents within, and leaving both looking more than a little unstable.

On instinct, training took over, my mind going through a mental checklist of my major injuries from a few simple muscle movements and visual cues. '_Injured tendon in my leg... Burns along my arms and chest... Loss of feeling in my right arm... At least two injured ribs that are probably...' _I coughed hard, grunting as I felt a sharp pain in my chest._'No... **Definitely** broken. And a concussion...' _The injuries were extensive, but, from what I could tell anyway from experience or what little medical knowledge I held, not immediately life-threatening. _'Small miracles, at least...' _Say what you will about the "doctors" the Red Hand employed, but they did know how to develop a durable body, at least.

Judging by the current state of affairs, I'd probably been out for barely more than a minute. Two shapes ran towards me from a short distance away, coming slowly into view. "Holy crap, he's _alive!_ We found him!" the one in front, the officer who'd given me his weapon before and cheered me on, cried out to his fellows.

_'Please don't do that again...' _I cringed, head ringing as I tried to sit up, only to find my arm lying limply at my side at an odd angle. The hand and wrist were dislocated from the elbow with some swelling. _'Well that explains why I couldn't move it...' _I thought blankly, more from the shock than anything else, the pain little more than an echo in the back of my mind at the moment.

"Oi, are you alright? Do you know where you are?" the officer waved his hand in front of me, gesturing for his friend to go get help. "You took a bad hit, Huntsman. I'm surprised you aren't dead after that explosion, with how close you were. Wonders of being a Huntsman, right?"

"Explosion..." I muttered weakly, when realization kicked in fully. _'Yang!'_

I grabbed at the officer's shirt with my good hand, pulling him closer as my body immediately glowed with a weak, stormy blue Aura trying to fix whatever injuries it could. "My friend, where is she!?"

"Friend... I...?" he spluttered, taken aback by my sudden burst of energy.

"Yes, my friend! Blonde, was fighting literally _minutes_ ago! _WHERE!?_" I snarled, feeling slightly guilty as he pointed feebly towards the crater, his eyes wide with terror.

"O-over there, sir. B-but are you sure you should be moving just yet? Your arm..." He trailed off as I looked over the dislocation, before gripping at the wrist of my injured arm. "H-hey, what are you... _Holy shit!_" he yelped loudly as I jerked hard, a sick popping noise audible as I howled in agony through gritted teeth, slamming my head against the hard frame of the car hard enough to leave an impression in the metal.

I breathed heavily as I poured Aura into my arm, dulling the pain to a minor, at least less severe, throb. _'**Goddamn,** that hurt!... Let's not do that again... Ever.' _I panted as I tested my arm, satisfied that I could at least move my fingers and put a bit of weight on it, if somewhat painfully. _'It's mobile; that's all that matters.'_

"What the hell do they teach you at that crazy school?" he asked in bewilderment as I worked myself to my feet shakily, needing a second to steady myself on the bent hood of the car.

"Not to do stuff like that. I'm just one of the crazy ones," I answered, not thinking to spare the confused officer a second glance as I made my way to the crater, limping along as fast as my ragged body would carry me.

_'**Yang** did all this?' _I gaped around at the destruction in utter amazement. She'd told me she gained more power as a fight wore on, depending on the damage she received. But for it to do this much…

"_Yang!_" My head jerked around at the sound of Ruby crying out, voice tinged with an audible, horrifying tone of fear and desperation.

_'No...' _I quickened my pace, arriving at the edge of the crater to find Ben, Reika, and Ruby near the center. The small girl appeared to be sobbing, crouched over... _'No... No, no, no, no, **NO!**'_

This had to be a dream. All a dream, and I would wake up in a few seconds for real, and she'd be... No. This couldn't be a dream. It hurt too much.

"Psycho!?" Ben called out as I shambled my way into the crater, doing my best to avoid tripping as I moved single-mindedly towards the pair of Huntresses. "Shit, you look... You shouldn't be walkin' around like this! You need..."

I needed to get through, simple as that.

I pushed, more like shoved, my way past him, shooting Reika a glare that could split diamond as she tried to intervene, freezing her in place, looking desperately at her partner for help, and receiving none. My heart stopped as Ruby tried desperately to wake her sister. The older girl just laid there unresponsive, burns, tears, and scuff marks marring her clothing. But the fighter herself looked untouched; not even a bruise showed on her skin.

"Joel..." her sister whimpered devastatingly. "She's... She's not...?'

I just felt numb, my body feeling as if it had been doused in ice cold water. '_This isn't happening... This **can't** be happening!'_

"Y-Yang... Wake up! _Please_ wake up!... D-don't leave m!" The small girl could barely talk through her sobs, tears running freely down her face. "_Please!_ Not you, too!"

"...S-shit... You're still alive?..."

I went rigid at the sound of the familiar voice. Turning my head to look a few meters away, I spotted the other Trapper where he laid. He was partially buried in rubble and barely conscious. His shattered shield lied in pieces all around him.

"Ah... Ha Ha... Killed the wrong one, didn't I? Fuck me..."

Without conscious thought, my hand was at my belt. The dispenser was warped and broken from the explosion, forcing me to pry it open by force as I clutched for one of the small rectangles that spilled out. _'He **doesn't get to live!** Not if she can't... Not if he killed...!'_

I stood over the defeated Trapper, my knife in a hand gripped so tightly, it was warping the treated silver. I was satisfied to see the first glimmer of true fear I'd seen on his face since I attempted to shock him earlier, though he tried to cover it with the same bravado as before. Ruby and Ben were both watching me. Ben seemed nervous, but Ruby barely seemed to register. Meanwhile, Reika stared at Yang's body, her brow furrowed, as if confused.

"What the hell are you waiting for, traitor!? _Do it!_" the large man spat at me, eyes wide as I raised the knife, ready to stab downward. "_DO IT, YOU **COWARD!**_"

I wanted to do it. Not since the bastard that killed my mother had I wanted to kill someone so badly; to erase them from the world. The metal of the knife creaked almost past the point of breaking under my grip as Aura poured through me.

_'...It's **not** what she would want...' _a small voice in the back of my mind said as the knife came down. 'S_he wouldn't want more death...'_

The blade stopped just shy of the Mistralian's throat, his face contorting in rage. "W-what are you...? Y-you're _sparing_ me you, you blasted...!?"

"You're not worth it, you piece of shit!" I snarled, knocking him out as I slammed the butte of the now-useless knife into his temple. It might have a bit harder than was necessary, but I really didn't care about that at the moment. I stood up, staring down at the ruined weapon before tossing it away in disgust.

_'I didn't kill the bastard. Great... It didn't change the fact that Yang was...'_

A sharp tug on my arm jolted me back to reality. Reika was grasping my arm tightly, pointing towards the fallen Huntress desperately, her eyes even pleading. "What are you...? Wait."

I realized it in nanoseconds. She could sense Aura. Yang _still_ had an Aura! She nodded at me, realizing that I understood what she was implying. I immediately darted past her wordlessly. If Yang had an Aura, even a spark, that meant she was still alive. There was still hope. A doctor... No, that would take too long.

"J-Joel... She's not breathing! She's not...!" Ruby turned to face me before I fell to my knees, placing my head on her chest.

Senses focused, I listened carefully, my ear struggling for any sign... Then I heard it! It was faint, but I could feel something. It was barely noticeable, and more a flutter than anything else. But there was still a heartbeat, even if it seemed to be fading.

"I don't know what to do... I don't...?" She was in shock, and I needed space for this if it was going to work.

"Ben, hold Ruby back," I ordered.

The rogue just stared at me as if I'd just gone insane, his green eyes darting between myself and the sobbing Huntress. "Psycho... Joel, she... She's gone. I checked her pulse. There's... There's no point in...!"

"_BEN, **HOLD HER,** DAMN IT!_" It sounded more like a growl than human speech.

Ben seemed ready to argue, but hesitated as Reika clutched his shoulder, shaking her head slowly. "But he can't just... Damn it. Come here, Red. It'll be okay. Now, you need to stay calm..."

He moved to Ruby's side, struggling to pull the small girl from her sister into a one-armed hug. The girl's arms were flailing and thrashing as she tried to fight him off, like a caged Beowolf.

"_NO!_ No, what are you... Don't touch her! Let go of me!"

I spared the girl a somber glance as I set to work. _'The normal person's brain starts receiving damage after four minutes without oxygen. A person with an unlocked Aura can last much longer...'_ I just had to get her heart beating more strongly on its own, so her Aura can work to repair any internal damage.

My instructors at Aegis, and the Red Hand later on, hadn't focused much on it, but we were all given at least some level of combat medical training to treat our own and others' injuries. While I'd picked up what I could, it didn't exactly go into emergency cardiac treatment.

_'First and foremost, I need to keep oxygen pumping.'_

I tilted her head back and pressed my lips to hers, forcing two hard puffs of air down her throat. Placing my palms just above the bottom of her breastbone, I then compressed her chest ten times in rapid succession, before giving her another two breaths. CPR wouldn't get her heart beating again or suddenly revive her; that was film fiction. But it would keep her alive and "breathing," until I could manage a better plan.

_'C'mon, c'mon...' _The rapid compression and breaths were exhausting. For a girl like Yang, any less than a hundred a minute would be too little. But the effort to actually pull it off, second by second, was grueling even for a well rested expert. For a novice with my injuries, especially my arm, it was practically impossible to maintain this pace for more than a few minutes, and that was by sheer grace of stubborn will and an abnormally-high pain tolerance.

"_Impossible is for the weak! Tired is for the lax..." _The old Bastion mantra drilled into me after hours and hours by drill instructors, teachers, and even my own grandfather played through my head as the muscles in my arms trembled, threatening to fail with every push. "_Are you going to give up on me, Ambrose!? Are you going to quit!?"_

I gritted my teeth in frustration, however. _'It'll hold, but it's not enough!' _At this point, I was merely delaying the inevitable...

'_Unless I...' _I glanced at my arms, sweat beading down my face, before placing my hands further up along her chest, pushing past her shirt, and trying to ignore the spreading blush on my face. _'Sorry, Yang...'_

I attempted to activate my Semblance, before reeling back as pain seared through my arms as they faltered, Ben almost letting go of Ruby before I calmed down. "Damn it!" I whispered in a pained grimace, resuming the compressions again clumsily as I tried to play catch up.

My Semblance was certainly more difficult to handle than most, kept under tight control so that I didn't murder anyone with a touch, or shock someone by accident. In the early days after it had manifested itself, I couldn't even use a Scroll, or be near anything electronic without it either shorting out, or just plain overloading. Learning to channel it both offensively and defensively had proven to be a constant challenge. So had learning to channel it through my knives at a distance. Despite all of that, however, the hardest thing in my opinion, ironically, was simply turning down the level, and getting it to a point where I could choose whether the voltage I let out amounted to just a tingle on the arm, to a full-blown lethal strike.

_'These damn implants were supposed to make that easier, but I'm not going to let a few machines get in my way!'_

I moved my hands back into position, tuning out Ruby's far-off screaming, and Carson's weak attempts at comfort. "Please work. _Please_, just this once, _give me this..._" I pleaded under my breath, as I flared my Aura yet again, pushing past the pain as I burned through the inhibitors' resistance in a sudden rush of euphoric power, sending a concentrated pulse of electricity jolting through Yang's heart in an attempt to jump start it. Her body jumping reflexively as her muscles tensed, eliciting a shout of terrified alarm from Ruby.

"Psycho..." Ben's voice murmured cautiously through my pain-filled haze as I readied another attempt. I pushed the smell of burning flesh in my nostrils from my conscious mind.

_'Focus. Pain is in the mind. Endure, and press on.'_

"Just a bit more!" I cried out, giving her chest another few pumps, before moving back into position.

_'Xiao Long, don't you give up, damn it! Wake up!' _If the first had been painful, the second was excruciating. It was as if I'd just stuck my limbs, and even sections of my chest, in a fire, nerves screaming in agony.

_'**WAKE UP!...**'_

Yang's mouth flew open, sucking in a ragged intake of breath, followed by heavy coughs as she clutched at her chest. Ruby came to her side in an instant, as I leaned back to give them some space.

_'I did it... I actually **did it!**' _I grinned broadly in disbelief as the redhead clutched her sister tightly with relief, with more shouts nearing us. Ruby said her name over and over again, with Ben patting her on the back...

_'Why is everything so blurry, all of a sudden?...' _I wondered, staring down at my limbs to find them smoking, cracked, and bleeding flesh, oozing blood out from where the implants had literally burned through. Judging by the wet feeling seeping down my chest, the situation there wasn't much better.

_'Maybe just a quick nap... I feel so tired...' _The world started to turn sideways, as looks of horror dawned on Reika and Ben's faces. The pair rushed forward to try and catch me, while world slowly faded again into darkness. _'I did it... I finally **saved** someone...'_

"_MEDIC!_"

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'Never was comfortable in hospitals... Least that hasn't changed.'_

"Nurse! I have two critical cases. The female requires advanced deep-tissue Aura treatment, and constant checks on her heart and lungs! She's breathing, but I still want 'round the clock updates in case that changes. The male needs Type O blood packs - whatever we can spare - and a Dust siphon. Also, alert the Aura healers as well, and tell them to prep the alternative gear and O.R. for surgery! Absolutely _nothing conductive, _got it!?" the doctor rattled off at a machine-gun pace as we ran alongside two gurneys. One had Blondie, who was unconscious but breathing on her own now, at least, with her sister and the rest of their team moving near her. The other held Psycho, who...

_'Can Aura and Dust really fix **that?**' _I wondered, staring down at AMBR's leader as we went, and wincing as I saw small sparks of voltage dancing between his twitching fingertips. Reika gave me a nervous look, her grip on my hand tightening.

"Yes, Doctor Jones!" The nurse typed out a few notes on her Scroll before running off, shooting our group a few sympathetic glances, before a grunting shout from Jones set her into full gear, practically sprinting down the crowded corridor.

"And get Free on call down here, dammit! I'll need his help on this!" the bespectacled doctor called after her angrily, muttering darkly as he shook his head. "Dumbass... Taking a tea break, at a time like this... The fuck does he think he's..." He seemed to finally notice us, coming to a full stop as he held out his hands, effectively blocking our group from proceeding. "You all wait here, and don't get in the way."

"Not until we know they're okay!" I confronted him before Weiss or Ruby could say a word, trying to look as intimidating as a one armed cripple in a poncho could in this situation. "Those are our friends in there! We have her sister!" I gestured towards Ruby. "At least let her through!"

"Yeah, I don't know if you fully understand this, but your friends got, and forgive my lack of professionalism because I am _way _too tired for that crap right now, _royally fucked up_, and are in need of serious medical attention. So unless you're some sort of _divine being_ that can heal all wounds, which..." He pointed out my arm. "I'm going to hazard a guess that you _aren't,_ let us do our fucking jobs without hanging over our shoulders. It doesn't help for shit." He noticed Ruby sniffling, a conflicted look flicking across his face, before he scowled. "Look. We'll keep you apprised of what's happening. Just... be patient, and stick to the waiting room, alright?"

We all nodded, and went to said room as he went to go do his "fucking job." The girls went on to find seats, while I just stood there, fist clenched.

"Ay, boi!" An accented voice rose up from the adjacent hallway, as another man in doctor's robes peered from around the corner. "Heard you had a problem!" He seemed normal enough, if eccentric. I found myself doing a double-take, however, as Max rounded the corner, eyes widening in apparent surprise at the sight of us all.

"_Bitch!?_" I said incredulously. Jones turned to look at me askance, before I explained it was just a nickname. He just shook his head, walking with the new doctor into the operating suite. "What the hell are you doin' here? Did Reika call you?"

The masked girl shook her head, picking at the hem of her skirt awkwardly. _'Right. I was meanin' to ask why the hell she was dressed like that. No shoes on, even...'_

"No, no one called me," the Dog Faunus said, glancing around nervously. "The hell's going on? Someone get hurt?"

"You didn't get the signal?" Reika held up her Scroll to demonstrate, placing her finger near the red alarm light.

"I didn't bring my Scroll," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Didn't want Ambrose bugging me about where I was." Our smaller teammate bristled, glaring harshly at the other girl. "What's her deal? Don't tell me Ambrose broke another bone, or something," she chuckled under her breath darkly.

Blake stood up from her place next to Ruby, and stalked over to Max, golden eyes meeting reddish brown. "For your information, Joel and Yang almost _died_ today! A Trapper attacked them in broad daylight!"

"'Almost died.' Ha! Way he made himself sound, he should've been able to take on an army of Trappers. What, did he wear out his arm beating their collective asses?"

I was definitely taken aback. I mean, I would never describe the Faunus girl as very considerate towards others. But this? Blake, on the other hand, looked ready to tear the auburn haired girl apart, Cat vs. Dog right then and there. A fight Max seemed ready and willing to accept.

"She's not lyin'. Psycho's laid up right now, Bitch. Yang got hurt too, and she wasn't much better off," I explained, stepping in between them before they wiped out the building, and did something they'd both regret later. "He hurt himself worse savin; her life. It didn't look good."

"So he got himself hurt helping Xiao Long, eh? Figured as much. Thought he was smarter than that."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean!?" Weiss made to get up, only to be stopped by Ruby, who dragged her back down.

_'This is gettin' bad...'_

"What do you think it means? _My_ leader got hurt helping _your_ teammate..." Max explained, as if it were the most obvious fact in the world. "He's been hot for her for weeks, now. It was only a matter of time 'til he pulled something stupid."

"That's _your partner_ you're talking about!" Blake shouted, drawing more than a few stares from onlookers, especially when Reika stood next to her, looking almost as feral.

"Just because he's my partner doesn't excuse him from being a dumbass. If anything, I get to rib him even more!"

"You...!"

_'So this is what Ambrose deals with as leader, huh? Keepin' us from tearin' each other apart on a daily basis...' _I shivered, realizing that diffusing the tension was fast becoming an impossibility. _'Red's not gonna be of much help, either, considerin' how she is right now... Crap...'_

"I'm outta here. Give Ambrose my regards when he wakes up from his beauty sleep," Argus laughed as she waved us off, ears twitching as she walked away briskly, while leaving a fuming duo behind. Even the Ice Queen seemed heated, glaring after the retreating Faunus disapprovingly.

_'You know, I think I'm gonna thank Ozpin the next time I see him. Might be a bastard, sometimes, but at least he didn't make me a leader. I don't envy you, Psycho.**Not. One. Bit.**'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"_SHIT!_" I screamed, fist putting dent in the wall as soon as the door to Sonia's room closed shut behind me. "What the hell!?"

I was being loud, childish, and I didn't care. The only other occupant in the room wasn't exactly complaining, a fact that only set my anger skyrocketing even higher. I forced myself to calm down as I heard some of the smaller objects in the room start to rattle. Taking a deep, calming breath, I let my frustration seep away. Unfortunately at that moment, my mind thought it would be a good idea to overlay everyone's disapproving faces over my vision yet again, causing me to kick one of the metal chairs clear across the room with a loud crash.

"What the fuck's _wrong_ with me!?" I growled, clutching at my head as I collapsed into the other available chair next to the comatose girl's bed, shutting my eyes tightly. "Why did I act like that!?"

"My guess is you didn't want others seein' you weak or frightened, and you just went off from there," a calm voice spoke up from the doorway. I spun around just in time to catch sight of Carson leaning against the door, his one fleshy arm rubbing at his shoulder as he gave me a sheepish smile. "Just a thought."

I leapt up from my seat, grabbing him by the neck of his shirt, before literally throwing him into the room as I shut the door, making sure no one else had followed him with a quick sniff of the air.

"What the _hell,_ Max!?" the rogue whined from where he lay at the foot of Sonia's bed, rubbing at his head gingerly, his goggles askew in his spiky blonde hair. "Hell of a greetin', or is this just some weird way you show affection now!? 'Cause it's gettin' old fast!"

He gulped as I took a step closer, literally glowing with Aura as I bared my teeth openly. "How the hell did you find me!? The midget send you!? _Where is she!?_" That would be just what I needed. To see that little, annoying...

"No, she's still with the others helpin' Red out like a good friend. I just followed the trail of scared nurses and passersby. Wasn't exactly too difficult, considerin' you weren't trying too hard to be subtle." He pointed his finger towards the twisted remains of the chair, and the new scuff marks to the room. "Glad to see you do care, at least. I was worried when you just walked off. Made me wonder about the whole 'team' thing."

"About Ambrose? Of course I care! I'm not _that_ much of a sociopath!" I defended myself, clenching my fists tightly. "He's my goddamn _partner!_ And as much as I say to the contrary, I owe that son of a bitch! And then he goes and gets himself fucked up saving someone else! It's just _stupid!_"

"It was an extreme situation..." he replied calmly, getting to his feet. "Still, you went _way_ too far. He's our leader, but she's their teammate, _and_ Red's big sister. Would it have killed ya to reign it in a bit?" He shook his head, sighing in exasperation, before looking over his shoulder at Sonia. "So who's room are we invadin'? Or were you just rampagin' through the first empty room you could find?"

"Drop it."

"Ooh, _touchy,_" he prodded, signature grin on his face as he examined Sonia more closely, and then looked back to me, his eyes narrowing. I could feel my hair standing on end at the sight. "Real looker... Friend of yours?"

"C... C-cousin..." I admitted, wanting to punch myself right then and there, before sending the sniper flying from the nearest window. "Just drop it at that... Please, I don't want to get into it."

I hadn't meant for that last part to sound so much like a damn plea. The sound of it ringed pathetically in my ears. Even Carson seemed surprised. Taking one last look between Sonia and myself, he took a quick step back, coughing into his hand awkwardly.

"So this is, uh... Sonia Bordeaux, right?" I nodded, trying my best to avoid meeting his gaze. "I-I, uh... Well, this is... I'll just go." He moved past me, stopping at the door. "I ain't gonna to tell you what to do. That's Psycho's job, and I'm pretty sure even he knows that's a lost cause most of the time. But if you can... _maybe_ show a bit more compassion? Everyone's on edge right now, and attitude won't help. Besides... I'm sure Red would appreciate the support."

"Why the hell would Rose care what I think?"

Carson laughed, scratching at his face as he looked around grinning widely. "Are you kiddin'? She respects _the hell_ outta you! Terrified, too, but she wouldn't stop gushin' to me earlier about how she wishes she could act as confident in herself as you do. At least in front of others."

"She does realize I'm almost universally hated by everyone, right?"

"So? She has to deal with jealous students in our year and up envyin' how she managed to earn her way into Beacon two years early, as well as the added pressure of leadin' her own team. Honestly, I'm amazed the kid hasn't snapped under the pressure." He shrugged his shoulders, giving me one last, somewhat pleading, look. "Please just think about it, okay? I'd appreciate it, and I'm sure Ambrose would approve."

I nodded as I glanced at the floor, trying to hide my sudden blush as he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"...Well, that was Carson..." I said aloud to the comatose Huntress, laughing despite myself as I plopped down on the free seat, suddenly exhausted. "Bit of an ass, but... alright in the end, I suppose."

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

I don't know exactly how long I'd spent floating in that sea of blackness. Voices and shouts rang all around me. My limbs and chest tingled uncomfortably...

There were moments where I thought I might've regained consciousness, at least for a few seconds at a time, anyway, which were enough to catch glimpses of what was happening around me. I saw doctors bustling around, looking at charts and readouts, as well as Ben, Reika, or Max on occasion, sitting by me. Even various members of Teams RWBY and JNPR dropped by. I even thought I saw Yang once, though her hair was black as night, and she was wearing some strange, red-colored outfit. I chalked it up to a dream or a hallucination.

When I did finally come to for longer than a minute, the first thing I noticed was a strange feeling of lightness, followed by an overwhelming thirst. Then I opened my eyes. At first, I was blinded by the dim overhead lighting, which was blocked by a shadowy figure.

"Oh boy, look who's finally up..." an unfamiliar voice spoke up from above me, as the figure shifted into focus. "Now, you actually gonna be calm this time, or are you gonna try and shock me again like an asshole? Because, let me tell you, it gets really fuckin' annoying after a while to have to keep sedating you."

I noticed the IV in my arm and suppressed a shiver. _'Shit... I hate needles...' _I also noted the still-healing bruises around my wrists that indicated restraints.

"Yeah, had to use the metal ones after you ripped through the standards like tissue paper. Sorry."

"W-wha...?" I murmured through cracked lips, more than a little confused as I looked around. I found myself in a small room, a host of colorful plants, cards, and even a plate of half-eaten cookies on a table to my right. "Where...? Who...?"

"You're at Vale Memorial. Have been for close to a week, now. You've been coming in and out of consciousness for the last three days..." the figure said. Now that my eyes had focused, I saw that he must've been one of the doctors, judging by the white coat and scrubs. He sported a pair of glasses, and a curly mop of brown hair. "I'm Dr. Jones, the man partially responsible for piecing you back together. Did a damn good job, if I do say so myself."

I glanced down at my arm. The only sign of the previous burn injuries had been there were a series of small red marks spaced evenly apart, and even those seemed to be fading.

"How is that...? I remember...?" I stuttered, examining the limb more closely, and holding it in front of my face. I thought it was impossible. Even with my Aura and the Trapper body enhancements, there was no way I could've recovered this well in just a week, even if I possessed Jaune's insane levels.

"You were lucky enough to have the top surgical duo on the face of Remnant as your physicians, courtesy of Beacon's Headmaster. Not to mention a surprisingly receptive Aura for our treatments..." Jones said proudly. "Even if you didn't make it easy with that Semblance of yours. Bit of a pain, isn't it?"

He grabbed up a chart, looking it over quickly, before tossing it aside. "So, main points you probably want to know." He held up a hand to me, counting off with his fingers. "First off, we had to remove about thirty to forty percent of those little machines from your body. Not sure exactly what they were doing there to begin with... but not only were they burning you severely, they were also leaking minute levels of highly-charged Dust into your system, which, to be honest, I'm actually _really_ goddamn surprised didn't kill you outright from the poisoning."

"...I've managed to work up a pretty good resistance to Dust with my training over the years. If the exposure wasn't too high, I should be just fine," I explained, wincing as I tried to sit up, my elbow and ribs still feeling a bit sore. "Don't ask."

_'No implants. No wonder my body feels so light.' _I'd have to be careful with my Semblance for a while until I could get them replaced, or another solution came along.

"Wasn't going to, Mr. Mysterious. Also not gonna mention the few dozen interesting bits we found examining you, a lot of it not even covered in the file Ozpin declassified for us. Could care less, really." He waved it off, counting off another finger. "Secondly, I recommend as your doctor that you take it easy for a while. No strenuous activity, and_ NO fighting._ We might've put you back together again, but even someone with a recovery rate like yours is gonna need a few more days to rest. After that, though, you should be right as rain."

"Okay, then... Wait! What happened!? The girl I probably came in with. Is she... Is she okay?"

I tensed. If I'd screwed up... What if I made things worse? The dream Yang came to mind...

"Yang Xiao Long's just fine. Better than fine, actually. She's a fucking beacon of health, especially for someone whose heart stopped beating. Quick thinking with the improv defib, by the way." He shrugged lazily, giving my vitals one last look, before moving to the door. "Comes with having an Aura like hers, I suppose. She's already back on her feet. We're just holding her for observation, at this point."

I breathed out a sigh of relief at the news. _'She's safe...'_

"Now, this should go without saying, but you Huntsmen and Huntresses seem to think you're all invincible, especially after an experience like this." He straightened his glasses wearily. "But make no mistake: Aura can do a lot, but it's no miracle cure. It has limits. And next time, you might not be so lucky..."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

He muttered something that sounded an awful lot like "Bullshit," but nodded all the same, making his way from the room.

_'Weird doctor...' _I thought briefly, before looking over at the bouquets of flowers.

Plucking a stack of cards from the table, I began to read. The cookies, as it turns out, were a gift from Ruby. That she left any at all was touching in its own way. One of the notes from was just a drawn picture of two smiling stick figures, one with a big hammer, and one with what I thought was a lightning bolt shooting out of its head, eating stacks of pancakes.

_'Definitely Nora...'_

I grinned broadly, before the last card caught my eye. It seemed more official than the others, and I didn't recognize the handwriting.

"_Dear Mr. Joel Ambrose,_

_From what my Ruby's told me, I have you to thank for Yang's life during this whole incident. You even went as far as to risk your own health. I regret that I wasn't able to thank you personally during the brief period I was able to visit Vale, as you were still recovering. So this letter will have to suffice in the meantime. Know that I am eternally grateful for my little Sunfire's continued safety, and that you will always be welcome in my home on Patch Island as a friend of my family._

_Sincerely, Taiyang Xiao Long_

_P.S.: If you, or any of the trouble that follows you ever bring harm to either of my daughters again, I will personally hunt you down, and show you pain as you have never experienced, no matter how Yang might feel about you. Consider this a threat."_

I felt a chill going down my spine at the words, practically feeling the man's bloodlust as he wrote the words. '_I've seen what fully-trained Huntsmen could do when they were properly motivated. If he's anything like the ones at Bastion or in the Hand, then I'm a dead man...' _What scared me more, however, was the implication of him knowing about my situation with Yang. _'I can't tell if he approves, or wants me dead... Maybe a bit of both?' _It was a weird thought. I hadn't exactly thought about how Yang's father would feel about the relationship. _'How much has Yang or Ruby told him?'_

I was shaking my head, when I noticed something else. A small, tightly-rolled black parchment was tucked into a bouquet of flowers RWBY had sent. It stuck out just enough to stand out, but also to avoid notice unless one was really looking closely enough.

_'Hmm... That's strange...' _I thought, looking over the small scroll. It felt too coarse to be paper, and it was bound not by string, but by some form of strung leather. Unfurling it, I found that the inside was a deep red. The words stood out in midnight dark ink.

"_Thank you for her life, Guardian. You cannot know what it means to me to see her safe and protected. You have my gratitude, but please tell no one of this letter. Especially Yang. If fate wills it, we may yet meet face to face."_

A strange, unfamiliar symbol was the only signature.

"What the... 'Guardian?' No signature, or anything... 'Fate wills it?' Who would sen... _SHIT!_" I swore loudly, dropping the parchment as it began to decay rapidly in my hands. It disappeared before hitting the ground, leaving behind a decayed smell, just like...

"Who the hell leaves a note on _treated Grimm flesh?_" I muttered, staring suspiciously at the spot where the note had vanished.

It was difficult, due to the inherent danger of the creatures, but I did know that there were processes of preserving Grimm flesh for long periods of time after death, but those were usually only reserved for researchers, or wealthy Huntsmen looking for a trophy, and even then they still decayed rather quickly, and most studies never really found out anything too important. This note had been designed to disappear after the inside made contact with the air, which spoke of familiar skill.

_'And the desire to leave no trace... That figure. The one who looked like Yang... What if that wasn't just...'_

"What was that about?" I spun around, as Yang stood in the doorway, wearing a thick hospital gown. A curious look was on her face, looking as if she'd just gotten out of bed.

_'Not exactly sure what time it is with the curtains closed...' _Seeing her standing there, though... _Alive..._

"Do I have something on my face?" she grinned, as she stepped into the room, plucking a cookie from Ruby's tray, before sitting at the foot of my bed, swinging her legs. "Mmm... Man, that's nhice. All I'fe had for dahys is hospithal fhood. Sthuff tastes awfhul," she said through a mouthful, moaning as she devoured the pastry. "Ruby always did know how to find the best bakeries..."

"..."

"_Hellooo?_ Remnant to Joel! Geez, they told me you hit your head, but... Uh, Joel?"

She let out a squeak of surprise as I wrapped my arms around her, and pulled her close to me in a tight embrace.

"I thought I lost you... That I got you killed..." I whispered, voice muffled in her hair, shoulders shaking. "Yang, I'm so..."

She just sighed, pulling me into a hug of her own. "It's okay, you big lug. I'm just fine!" She leaned back, flexing her bicep with a wide grin. "Takes a lot more than a Trapper and a little explosion to keep the Blonde Bombshell herself down! Actually..." She gave me a light punch on the arm. "I hear you're the one I have to thank for that, so don't even think about blaming yourself. I won't allow it."

"_I_ brought Capaneus here! He was after _me!_" I argued back, leaning against the headboard. "And yet it's you who almost pays the price... That's on me..."

"So... What? You want me to scream at you? Say 'I hate you?' You saved my life, Joel. Because of you, I get to go back to Ruby, my dad, and all my friends. _That's_ what I'm focused on." She put a put a hand on my cheek, warmth radiating from her in waves. Or maybe that was me blushing. Not too sure...

"Yeah... F-funny thing about your dad..." I stammered, trying to change the subject as I grabbed up Taiyang's letter, and passed it to her. "Wasn't exactly how I pictured my first impression being. Thought I'd be conscious, at least."

"Great... That's my dad. Overprotective, as always," the blonde groaned, scowling as she handed me back the piece of paper. "He's been like that since my sister and I were kids, which I understand, don't get me wrong. But he needs to learn to mind his own business, and that I'm not a little girl anymore."

"You don't think he might have a point?" I asked, folding up the note after giving it one more read. "How much about me have you and Ruby actually told him, exactly?"

"He knows about the whole Red Hand thing from his own sources. I told him everything else a few days ago after I woke up, and he was cleared to come visit me. Shouted up a storm, saying how I needed to 'take better care of myself' and 'think about the sort of people I hung around with.'"

'_Ooh, that's positive.'_

I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly. "And what did you say?"

Yang perked up noticeably, playing with a lock of her hair. "Just the truth. That you've been a good friend to Ruby and me, and haven't shown any sign of wanting to hurt us. Quite the opposite, if you think about it. You're always willing to help us whenever we need it."

"From the letter, I take it you told him I might be a bit more than just a 'friend'... right?" My eyes narrowed, feeling a grin tug at my face as the girl in front of me blushed scarlet, coughing into her hand. "Xiao Long..."

"Maybe I might've mentioned... stuff."

"'Stuff?...' Like that kiss? Because that was an extreme situation... N-not that it wasn't incredible!" I finished quickly, mind racing.

_'That's not too bad. I can fix that...' _Though I didn't like the way she was fidgeting, trying to avoid meeting my gaze now her eyes were back to normal. "Wait... What else?"

"I may have... over-exaggerated a _few_ details of us spending time together..." she said meekly, curling her finger through a ringlet of hair, laughing weakly to herself as my face paled. "Sorry. I, uh... got a bit heated."

_'Okay, forget both. **Dead.** He most certainly wants me **dead.**'_

"Not funny, Yang." I sighed at the bad attempt at a pun, leaning my head back against the wall. "Especially after something like this. Alexander was just the _first_, and the two of us almost bit it. They'll probably send a team next."

"Or give up entirely because of how great we are. Is this supposed to make me want to back off? Just because my dad's pissed, and a few people want you dead?"

"Yang, I'm trying to be serious here." I leaned forward, only to be pushed back against the wall by the Huntress-in-training, her hand holding me firmly in place with unexpected strength. Her eyes shifting slowly from brilliant violet to harsh red as they bore into mine.

"What makes you think I'm _not!?_" she growled. "These Trapper assholes wanna fight and hurt the people I care about? Well, they just put their 'Hand' in the fire, and now they're about to get _burned!_" She punched her fist into her palm.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing, chest aching painfully, but I just couldn't stop. Yang looked taken aback, eyes returning to their usual, beautiful shade as I finally managed to regain control of myself, breathing heavily as I wiped at my eyes.

"You're incredible, you know that? Threatening terrorists and trained killers, yet you _still_ manage to work a shitty pun in."

"I didn't think it was _that_ shitty..." she moped, rubbing at her shoulder, before giggling to herself. "Okay, you're right. It _was_ pretty bad." She leaned forward, a sly grin on her face as she wrapped her arms around my neck, chest pressed against mine. "That's me. Amazing comedy, great hair, and an endless amount of energy. Think you can keep up, Sparky?" she whispered in my ear softly.

_'Oh, we're doing nicknames now, are we? Ben would be proud.'_

"Willing to find out if you are, Sunshine," I replied cheekily, drawing her into a deep kiss. Brilliant warmth seeped through my limbs, as I traced lines with my fingers down her back and through her hair, her grip tightening as she let out a short moan...

"_OI!_ The fuck did I say earlier!? No strenuous activity, moron!" We broke apart quickly as Dr. Jones peered into the room, a folder open in his hand, with an exasperated look on his face as he turned to Yang. "Thought you might be in here. Scared the hell out of Free. Idiot thought you got kidnapped, or something. Side note, would you mind giving it a day before playing doctor? Not sure if you noticed, but the walls here are pretty damn thin."

"Sorry!" We both blushed furiously, before smiling to each other, hands clasped tightly between us.

The man just slapped a hand over his face, groaning loudly. "Great! Only thing worse than Huntsman. _Teenage_ Huntsman! Seriously, why the fuck do I even bother sometimes?"

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Cedar Jones - Newton Pittman

**A/N: Hey all, hope you enjoyed the chapter. With this we are officially into season two territory, beat my own record for that little achievement, and I'm already brimming with ideas on how that'll all go. Sorry if it got a bit fluffy with the end there, for Maxine sorta seeming way more tsundere then I meant her too, and if I accidentally butchered all of medical science with the resuscitation scene. (Take an actual class and not just my vague, hastily remembered description if you intend to use this in reality please) Anyway thank you for the continued support and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Reviews are always welcome bad or good and they only help the story and my writing improve.**

**Edit 4/3/2015: Yeah I know I had to re-post this sorry, not sure why some reviews are messed up for this chapter but if you can post something normally then I guess I'm worrying over nothing. I'd just like to give big thanks Drake for reviewing and giving me his opinion about the Dr. Jones character, who Roosterteeth fans will know, not nearly enough "F***s" to truly represent him. This is what I mean by you guys help make the story better by saying something. I'm very accommodating and if you have a constructive opinion concerning something in the story then tell me, especially about the characters not sounding right because yeah I do draw a lot of these from Canon or other sources and I want to do them justice, and I'll gladly see what I can do.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

CHAPERONE

**_-Weiss Schnee-_**

"I thought you were looking to spar, _Princess?_" AMBR's auburn-haired sadist crooned maniacally at the sight of me curled up pitifully on the floor of the sparring ring in my workout gear, clutching at my side, stressing Benjamin's little pet name in an infuriatingly haughty tone. "But if you prefer to keep sucking face with the mat, well..." she trailed off, idly picking at her teeth while still managing to shoot me a toothy grin in the process.

_'How **dare** she treat me...!' _I bit my lip tightly, forcing back the tide of self-entitled thoughts that had sprung to mind. Instead, I devoted the energy towards forcing myself up to a seated position, coughing as my side throbbed despite my Aura working to mend the damage. _'I'm not going to complain; I won't! I'm asked for this!'_

For years, I'd found myself the willing target of praise and adoration heaped on by educators of various fields. From music and business analysis, to swordsmanship and tactics, I always did my best to excel to the heights, and bask in their praise, if wishing somewhat that it could come more from a singular source. Perhaps it was this unwitting praise, and my own fair share of overconfidence, that had led me to neglect certain facets of my training, and after last week's debacle in Professor Goodwitch's class, well...

Needless to say, I had to admit, with some hesitance on my part, that I'd grown... complacent.

_'I never expected to defeat someone with a reputation like Pyrrha's easily...' _I shook my head out, blowing a loose lock of ivory-colored hair out of my face. _'But for her to completely overwhelm and disarm me, without even using her weapons at that...'_

That loss had been an embarrassing, and, in equal measure, eye-opening, to say the least. Skilled as I might be in Dust application and sword craft, if I were to lose _Myrtenaster_, be it in a tournament fight, or worse, out in the field against the Grimm, I'd be nigh defenseless.

Hence, my current position. _'Still, did it **have** to be her?'_

"_Heeelloooo?_ Remnant to Snow Queen! C'mon, I didn't hit you _that_ hard, did I? Think I might've struck the washboard a bit..."

A nerve pulsed above my eyebrow as I reapplied my mouth guard, eyes narrowing dangerously at Maxine Argus, my hand-to-hand combat "instructor," before pulling at the light blue padded gloves I wore over my hands and wrists. While I would've infinitely preferred asking someone from my own team, if only to lessen the sting somewhat, I found that it was a harder task than I anticipated. Ruby knew even less than I, despite her skill with _Crescent_ Rose,her knowledge extended to little more than what slap fights she had with her sister, and that inane video game the two played and to mention the fact she was both my junior _and_ my leader, which would've only stung more, despite her good intentions. Blake, on the other hand, would've been an excellent teacher, and supportive also. Perhaps too much to the point where she might go easy on me, even, without meaning to, which "thankfully" was a worry that was practically non-existent with the haughty bitch before me.

_'She's enjoying this a bit **TOO** much...'_

Of course, then there was...

"So, if you don't mind me asking, why aren't you bothering Xiao Long or Ambrose with this? They're both _way_ better at this sort of thing then I am. Probably'd go easier on ya, too."

"I, ah... I don't need '_easier_,'" I growled, getting up to my feet as I tried to work myself back into a decently dignified, balanced Atlesian stance, which was completely unlike the open, wide-armed, Mistralian pit fighting one that the Canine Faunus favored. And that was not even mentioning how it was completely unlike her fellow Mistralian's graceful dance, all brutal grapples and punishing takedowns that had me seeing stars, and bruised to the bone.

_'How can she and Pyrrha be from the same place, yet be so different?'_

"Besides, I wanted to give them time to recover." I glanced over my shoulder towards the other half of the gym, easily picking out the tall man's white hair from a distance, who was currently with my blonde teammate. She was currently bench pressing what looked to be the combined weight of our team, her hair sparking with the effort. My fellow Huntsman-in-training caught me staring and waved, earning him a scowl from me in response.

"_Rrrrrrrright..._ 'Recovering...'" I bristled at the tone of voice she used, before ducking under a surprised swing and follow-up kick, her bare heel crashing against my wrist in a blow that sent me back against the ropes. "Sure you aren't still scared of him, _Princess?_ Or maybe you're a bit jeal... _OOF!_" I got her clean in the face with a backhand, sending her reeling backwards, clutching for her cheek. A victorious smirk finally crossed my face as she spat out a red glob, raising an eyebrow shortly after. "Jealous, then?"

"Hardly. Those two dolts deserve each other," I breathed, launching into a few more swings that the Faunus sidestepped with painful ease and agility.

Jealous? Ha! _Nervous_ was more accurate. While I would admit, albeit painfully, that the Joel Ambrose I'd known years ago and the man I knew today were two very different people in many ways, and that he possessed many... admirable qualities, he still was a dangerous individual with a collar on his neck, and the notice of the Kingdoms on his every move. If Yang wanted to place herself close to him, then I couldn't stop her even if I felt inclined to, the Huntress-in-training too stubborn and headstrong as she was. However, that didn't mean I wouldn't keep a close eye on them in the meantime.

Maxine followed my gaze, eyes finding her own partner as she nodded, a look of disgust on her face as Joel tossed Yang a water bottle, the pair laughing over something the brawler had said. "Deserved or not, it's friggin' awkward as all hell... The _smell_ alone..." I never did hear what else she had to say about that particular line of thought, suddenly finding myself face down, with the Mistralian Faunus twisting my arm in a firm lock behind my back, pushing just enough to make it excruciating but not unbearable. "Do pay attention, Weissy. You asked me to whip you into shape, and I intend to do just that. As _slowly,_ and as _thoroughly_ as possible." She punctuated each word by drawing my arm further and further back, setting tears burning at the corners of my vision.

My face went the same stark white as my hair, and I felt my first glimmer of fear since entering the ring, feeling rather faint from hearing the Faunus girl chuckling darkly from above me.

_'Weiss, just what have you gotten myself into!?'_

* * *

**_-Blake Belladonna-_**

"You want me to... Sorry, what was it you wanted me to do, exactly?" AMBR's sniper raised a blonde eyebrow at me, looking up from the magazine he'd just resumed reading in his hands as he lounged on his bed. Not exactly school-approved reading, judging by the cover.

"I want you to clue me in on the next time you catch wind of Yang and Joel leaving campus," I explained clearly, crossing my arms tightly, trying to look him in the eye with some fair level of certainty. "Dates, places, and times, if you would. I'm certain you can work it out of him somehow, one way or another."

The former bandit took a moment to himself, leaving me to fidget awkwardly, already uncomfortable enough with this. He flipped to another page with a flick of a bionic hand, before glancing back up at me. "Plannin' to crash our latest couple's date, are we?... No... No, you just want to watch 'em, is that it? And here I was thinkin' you were the one rootin' for them the most."

"I am. I just want to be sure, is all," I affirmed, the rogue frowning back at me. "_Completely_ sure."

I trusted Joel, and in his desire to be a better person than he'd been before. He cared for my partner, and had risked his life to save hers. However, I'd also been wrong about people before.

_"It was an accident, Blake. They forced my hand... They were only Humans, my love. And they attacked me first. I merely responded in kind... Why are you so worried? They were only a bunch of vermin..."_

I shook my head, staring Ben full in the face. I could play chaperone if it meant keeping her safe, even if it left a bitter taste in my mouth. At least until I was sure.

"Can't say I'm too comfortable condonin' all this. Spyin' on them..." The cyborg scratched at his shaggy hair, faking nervousness. It seemed that his hair's usually spikiness was not natural as I had initially thought. His mouth suddenly turned upwards in a smirk. "This isn't just some voyeuristic endeavor, I hope, 'cause I can't exactly promise they won't try for a bit of _alone time,_ if you get my drift... And this all does sound _kinda_ naughty, if ya think about it..."

Which practically begged me to do so, with some uncomfortable results fueled by my last literary foray.

My face flushed slightly, but I gave him a reassuring shake of the head, trying to get _THAT_ image out of my head. _'Yang does make for a good main character, though. Beautiful and confident, but perhaps a little too embarrassed when he moves to remove her... No, **NO!**'_

"This isn't the first time I've done something like this. All I want is to make sure he treats her well," I said hopefully, covering up my little slip, and failing miserably if the sly smirk he bore was any indication.

"Well, long as they don't catch videos or artwork croppin' up online, I think I can manage... Provided you do somethin' for _me,_ of course."

I was dreading this; what I'd have to do to secure his help in my little scheme. _'I swear, if he even tries...' _I blushed, crossing my arms even tighter under my chest as he considered his fee. Supposedly, according to the rumors I'd heard from those students who'd "spent time with him," he was something of a gentlemen. Though, polite or not, I still had my standards, and I wasn't about to...

"That 1st edition copy of _Ninjas of Love: Blossoming Passion_ you have stashed under your mattress. And _not_ the fake one you keep down there to fool the sisters. The _real _copy."

I gaped at him with my jaw slacked open, unable to hide my shock as an utterly evil grin appeared on his face. "H-how do you...?"

"I have my ways; you know that. Anyway, that's not important. What _is_ important, is that your book's apparently some quality literature, and I'd like to... sample it. As in I get first readin' rights. Been wantin' to see what the hell has you and Psycho so entranced," he commented casually, as if I wasn't giving him an amber-eyed death gaze cold enough to freeze ice.

Tukson had gotten me that priceless bootleg copy a few days ago, as thanks for a heads-up regarding White Fang Recruiters passing through. The prolific author behind the series had apparently gone to great lengths to keep early copies under wraps. The book had already been banned in Atlas.

_'I pity them, unable to understand the genius behind such a glorious work. And now this rogue wants to take it from me!'_

"Not to keep, mind you. I ain't that cruel. I swear to give it back when I'm done. Might even throw in a review for my time. Whaddya say, Ninjette? Interested?" He offered a hand, his flesh and blood one.

My eyes were slits, but this man made it seem as if he was simply asking for the weather, that shit-eating smirk ever present. "Deal." I grasped the limb, making sure to crush as many fingers as I could in the process. "You're a bastard, you know that?"

"Eh, been called way worse, sweetheart. I'll be sure to keep ya posted. Now, about that book..."

* * *

_'Of course,' _I lamented, closing my eyes as the ear-splitting, bass-laden thing this particular club called "music" pulsed all around me. It didn't help that I'd been forced to take a higher vantage point at one of the tables on a small balcony area to avoid the crush of people dancing below in one huge mass, putting me almost directly beneath one of the blaring speakers.

I'd always hated places like this: unbearably loud venues with lights that were hell for my night vision, obnoxious party goers looking to either get drunk, or worse, all sense of personal space seemingly abandoned. Not to mention the smell... _'Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick...'_

Remembering why I was here, I looked down from my perch towards the bar, where a familiar mane of blonde hair sat talking animatedly with a patch of stark white while it sat and listened. I'd been watching them at school, and more recently for the last few hours. From those observations, a few things had been made readily apparent about their relationship.

For one, it was easy to see who dominated the momentum, Yang's attitude and personality leading the way. The pair had torn their way through a circuit of popular Valean examples of nightlife before winding up in this particular den, the blonde sitting down at the shockingly almost deserted bar, and somehow managing to coerce the bartender into a drink in the way only she could. Joel was merely tagging along, apparently content with enjoying her himself, dancing when she pulled him along, indulging her mad taste in humor...

It was a stark change from the man he'd been when I'd first met him: friendly for the most part, if a little reserved, and for good reason as we would later find. Yet, somehow, my partner had found a way to crack that shell of his. Here he sat, laughing, smiling, actually acting out something dramatically for her that had Yang pounding the bar top trying to contain herself. I could definitely see what would attract someone like Yang to him: a kindness and willingness to go along with whatever she could dream up, and keep her grounded if she went to far.

This was a look at the real him without his guard up, the Joel that the Red Hand and their Trappers had tried to suppress. This, more than anything else I'd seen tonight, made me feel like I was intruding on something sacred. _'Maybe one day he'll be able to be like this all time...' _I wondered, as my partner got up to make her way towards the dance floor, her companion staying behind to finish his drink first, tapping a finger to the beat on the bar top. _'Or maybe this is all hers... That would make for a cute story_._'_

As the Huntress made her way away, however, I noticed a pair of well-dressed men watching her also, certain parts of her more than others, anyway, with hungry expressions on their faces. One of them even made to follow after her, but, unfortunately for them, I wasn't the only one who noticed. The man was still leaning on the metal surface of the bar, but suddenly jerked back with a loud yelp, toppling backwards out of his seat on top of his friend. Curious, I looked back to where Joel sat, and found him staring at the pair sternly with his finger pressed to the surface, it still sparking somewhat, which he made damn sure they saw as he sent them running with a tick of his head towards the door and what looked like a protective growl.

The night still ended with a fight that tore the place apart, and sent patrons scrambling for cover in a completely unrelated incident involving accidental hair-pulling. However, the thing I remembered most from it all was the smiles on both their faces as they stood back to back, my partner laughing all the way.

_'I just hope Carson's a fast reader,' _I thought to myself, as I relaxed into my seat on the airship, a contented smile on my face. _'Maybe I should take up writing in the meantime?... For now, anyway."_

* * *

**_-Ruby Rose-_**

"..."

"C'mon, Reika, you know I can't understand anything when you go that fast!" I whined as the girl flashed a few more quick hand signs my way, before slowing down considerably, doing her best to clear things up, but I was still only able to get maybe a third of it. "Look, I know I'm asking a lot, but I have a responsibility to keep my sister safe, and that means making sure... Zwei, no! Stay! _Staaay_..." The corgi froze in place just as he was about to round the corner into the busy street line with brightly colored stalls, the first signs of the coming Vytal Festival. "I know it smells good, boy. But we have an important mission here. That comes first."

My stomach chose that inopportune time to growl loudly, Reika shooting me a curious look, while Zwei let out a happy bark. _'Traitor.' _I glared down at my stomach, surely red-faced, before peeking around the corner, catching sight of our targets. Joel and Yang were walking hand in hand... Well, Joel was attempting to walk, while Yang dragged him from booth to booth taking in the sights.

_'He can keep up with her, at least,' _I observed, watching as my sister navigated the crowd in a way that forced a bit of fancy footwork from the Huntsman-in-training in order to avoid toppling into other pedestrians in their path. _'But can he measure up?'_

That was the question: could Joel Ambrose measure up to the existing standards for potential boyfriends set in place by Taiyang Xiao Long, and, unofficially, enforced by his youngest daughter? Yang was a beautiful girl, and that meant that she attracted a fair amount of attention from boys growing up, especially as she, uh... _developed_ over the years. Some were nice, but simply couldn't handle Yang's personality, while others... Well, let's just say the police had been called to Signal more than once due to the screaming.

In my book, he already had more than a few points in his favor after what he pulled after that Trapper attack, somehow bringing Yang back from the brink. My whole body shivered as I remembered those few moments where I thought I'd lost her forever. It had been complicated sorting my feelings over the event out, especially when Dad came to visit. Joel had saved Yang's life, which was a fact. Though, it was also certain that, if he hadn't been alone with her, she wouldn't have been hurt in the first place.

_'Why's this all so hard?' _I scratched at my head, trying to focus as I noticed the pair moving on, and used my Semblance to dart to the next alley over unseen in a hail of rose petals. _'She seems happy...' _I watched as Yang raged over one of the carnival games, doing her best to peg bright balloons set to a board with a set of darts, and failing spectacularly.

"C'mon! Stupid...!" Her hair crackled as the booth owner counted her Lien happily. "Why can't I...!?" She swore loudly as one of the balloons shrugged off a direct dart throw like a fleabite. "Wha... that's _rigged,_ jerk! No way that didn't go!"

"Hey, not my fault you can't throw, Missy. No balloons, no...!?"

He gaped as the air was suddenly filled with the sound of loud pops, as the balloons were decimated one after the other faster than I could follow. Joel's hands lashed out with near inhuman quickness, placing each dart perfectly with enough force to shake the wooden board behind it, stepping back when he was done with a sigh of minimal effort.

"That enough for one of those?" he asked the stunned man casually, gesturing towards a large stuffed Ursa plush. "Might want to replace your darts, by the way. Tips're pretty dull, and the weight's off to the sides."

"U-uh... Yeah, sure thing. I'll, uh... get that checked out." He practically threw the toy at the boy, closing up shop faster than I could blink.

"Show off," Yang teased as she accepted the plush from her boyfriend with a teasing wink, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "I almost feel sorry for the guy." She hugged the Grimm doll to her chest closely.

"'Almost,' huh? That's generous." He laughed to himself, bending down to peck her across the creek, before ducking past her Scroll in hand and a businesslike tone in his voice. "So that's my win again, putting me up four to two. You're slippin', Sunshine." She put on a false pout that instantly vanished as she motioned her head towards the "ring the bell" game, a flicker of fear crossing her boyfriend's face as she looped her arm in his.

I braced myself for the inevitable fallout, and followed along with Reika and Zwei in tow.

* * *

"What am I doing here?" Reika patted me on the shoulder as I slumped my head against the wall, tired, hungry, and frankly a little jealous of the feast the couple was enjoying across the street, cozied up on the patio of a little hole in the wall my sister had picked out. "I'm as bad as Dad used to be. Spying on my own sister..."

We'd spent hours trailing the pair, and the worst that had happened was a little mishap in the beginning that involved Yang, a hammer, the wayward hair-grabbing hand of a toddler, and a bell that had soared all the way back to Beacon. Joel had managed to calm her, and the angry security guards, down, and get them clear without too much trouble, using a Maxine-brand smoke bomb and some quick maneuvering. Thankfully, with Reika's help, keeping track of the duo wasn't too much of an issue.

"I mean, Yang used to bring around a lot of people at home from school, or people she met in town. She'd also hold parties when Dad was out on business..." Turns out having a reasonably-sized cottage in the middle of nowhere for a house was a big draw to teenagers. Most of the time, it just forced me to have to barricade myself in my room, working on designs or projects for school as I tried to drone out the noise with my music, or went to hang out with Uncle Qrow if he was in town. Dad would always catch wind of it in the only way a father could, and then they would fight, be angry for a while as their all-too similar personalities clashed, and then made up in the end when they tired out of it, usually around the same time.

Dad had called Joel a "rebellious phase" after their fight in the hospital when he'd come to visit. But the problem was I just couldn't see it. If anything, he was the one helping keep her out of trouble, rather than getting her into it. Well... for the most part, anyway. The two had been remarkably fast friends, partially because Yang had been so invested in digging to see what was underneath the front he'd put up in the beginning. Apparently, she liked what she found.

_"You're just looking out for your sister, and want her to be happy. You want to make sure for yourself that he's right for her,"_ Reika signed towards me confidently, eyes showing the smile on her face even through the mask. _"There's no shame in that."_

"...How can you be thinking of food at a time like this?" I gaped at her, a confused look in her eyes as she started shaking her head frantically. "I know he's your team leader but... No, no, I'm the one making a big deal about this." I glanced back at the couple, making up my mind in an instant. "You know what, Reika? You have a point. I think I've seen all I need to see here today." I stood up tall, spinning on my heels and leaving the mute girl alone with the panting dog, before she trailed after me with one last look back.

_'I wonder if Blake's done with that book of hers?'_

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"...So are they gone yet?" I spoke up after we finished placing our order, peeking up at my boyfriend's focused visage as he sat with his eyes closed, head cocked to the side just a smidge, scanning the area. It was an impressive feat, given all of the background noise around us. "We're in the clear?"

"Give me a second. I think... Yeah, we're good." He opened his eyes, smiling broadly as he eased back into his seat with a groan. "Guess I owe you..."

"Dessert? Yes. Yes you do," I cheered triumphantly as the server brought a pair of steaming mugs of hot chocolate out, the two of us toasting each other before enjoying the brew. "Face it. I know you, and I definitely know Ruby. Wasn't even a contest. I did think it'd take her longer than this, though. Maybe another day, at least."

"She has the right to worry. She's only looking out for her big sister, is all." He shrugged, wiping at the foam mustache, raising an eyebrow as he looked off to the side towards a small, now deserted space between two buildings. "Still, she managed to rope Reika into it as well. Then there's that time with Blake..."

"I can't believe she followed us through all that!" I laughed, remembering that particular night fondly. Joel had noticed the ninja around halfway through the date, something he considered a rather impressive feat on Blake's part. Me, being my lovingly vindictive self, had wanted a bit of payback. Cue the loudest, rowdiest clubs I could find, coupled with a fair bit of "unintentional" chaos sprinkled in for good measure. "I got to hand it to her, though. Our little kitty's a determined one to stick it out through all that. Makes me wonder what Weiss is gonna try."

"Pretty sure she's got more on her plate to worry about than what we're up to," he said with a sympathetic grimace that I couldn't help but share.

The heiress was improving in her training sessions with Max little by little. She wasn't being carried out in a stretcher anymore, at least, which I took as a good sign. "You couldn't ask her to... I don't know, ease up a bit?"

The team leader shrugged his shoulders, taking another draft. "It's _Max,_ remember? Easing up wouldn't be much better. Plus, according to her, Weiss is the one who asked for it." He looked up, meeting my stern expression before sighing. "_Fine_. I'll talk to her."

"Good to hear." I lightened up, running my fingers over the plush toy at my side. "Thanks for this, by the way. Today, I mean. It was a lot of fun, cutting loose without actually you know..." I mimed a few punches. "It's nice."

He smiled, reaching down to pluck up his own Nevermore from a bag of similar prizes. "How could I not? You paid me so well, after all." He glanced down at the bag with a bemused expression. "Show off."

We sat there for a few minutes, just taking in the sights and sounds, enjoying the atmosphere. I always wondered how it must be, walking around a place like this with all those enhanced senses of his, without needing to focus on Aura or stuff like that, and being able to really take in his surroundings in way I couldn't. Blake was born with them, and didn't know any difference, except for a maybe bit of muffled hearing when she wore her bow.

"We'll need to do this again, won't we?" I said suddenly, the Huntsman perking up at the sudden break in silence. "Not just that. I want to see what Remnant has to offer. Maybe visit where you're from, or maybe Mistral or Vacuo, if you're not comfortable with that?"

"Yang..."

"These guys can't keep that collar on you forever," I said firmly, leaning forward to grab the front of his shirt, and pull him closer slowly, letting our lips come together so suddenly, I felt a slight shock run through me from the contact. "You, me, Ruby and the others, JNPR, even AMBR if they're willing... I want to see it all after graduation, and you aren't _that_ annoying," I said, letting him fall back in his seat, looking sufficiently winded. "Interested?"

"W-well when you phrase it like that, how can I say no?" he rubbed at his hair awkwardly, utterly failing to hide his blush. "Can't even remember the last time I visited a place and didn't spend most of my time getting shot at... Sounds fun."

"Perfect." I clapped my hands together, as I picked over the dessert menu carefully. "It's a date!"

It was cliche, cringe-worthy, and so utterly worth it to see the boyish grin spread across his face at the prospect.

\- END


	22. Chapter 22

**Edited as of (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

REUNION

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"...and AMBR's overall performance seems to be improving quite rapidly, as well," Doctor Oobleck noted approvingly, eyes darting through his Scroll rapidly as I leaned back in my seat. It was always a bit exhausting trying to keep up with the man sometimes. Those progress reports from Goodwitch were dozens of pages worth of data, and the bespectacled Huntsman was barreling through it in seconds. I usually just contented myself to examining his office, the room filled with curious little knick knacks and curios of the Doctor's travels. "Especially your combat and tracking scores as a whole coming into the new semester. Marks like these place you amongst the top five teams in your year just ahead of Team CRDL. Impressive."

"And that's supposed to be an achievement?" I replied in amazement, shaking my head as I glanced at the small holographic screen, before wincing as the History Professor shot me a stern look. "Sorry, sir. Our two teams don't exactly have the best relationship, if you'll recall... Sort of the reason I'm here, in fact. Not that I don't see the benefit, of course!"

_'**JUST** ahead. Either one of us could shred those assholes alone. Hell, we'd think it a public service.'_

"I'm glad you see merit in our sessions here, and I'm also well aware of your team's difficulty with others, Mr. Ambrose. Just remember that while Beacon does promote healthy competition between its students, in the end, history has shown it is only by working _together_ that we will overcome the Creatures of Grimm," he said sagely, closing up his Scroll as he took a swig of his trademark thermos, sighing contentedly. "Excellent texture... You're sure you wouldn't like a cup?" He gestured to a shelf in the corner of the room, laden with brightly lit tins, eyes shining.

"N-no thank you. I was never really a big fan of coffee. Couldn't get used to the taste," I said quickly, waving off the offer. It was nice of him, but whatever the hell was in that cup was a lot stronger then I was used to, judging by how Oobleck could zip around. Whether that oddity was a result of his Semblance or the drink itself, I still had no idea. I vividly remembered how one sip in an earlier session with him had left me sweating bullets and wide awake for two whole days, until I finally crashed in the middle of Goodwitch's combat class.

_'Fun time, that was. I wonder how the world look must to someone like him, living at that speed?_ _Maybe I should ask Ruby about it? She might know.'_

"Ah, a shame. I've been looking for a drinking companion for some time now, and our esteemed Headmaster doesn't quite share my tastes in fine coffee," Oobleck sighed, looking somewhat disappointed as he glanced at the clock. "Well, that's it for your required time this week. You're free to leave, but if you have any questions..."

He got up from his seat, voice suddenly muffled behind his desk as he dug through it; I was still looking at the afterimage he'd left behind. _'Man, that's off-putting...'_

"Actually, Profe... _Doctor_ Oobleck..." I piped up, quick to correct my near mistake as the green-haired man's head popped up like an arcade game, staring at me intently. "I-I did have a question. It's, umm... something that's been bothering me a lot lately."

"Bothering you, eh? Does it perhaps have something to do with your latest assignment? If you or Miss Scarlatina require assistance, I'd be more than happy to give pointers. The establishment of the CCT network and the rise of the communicative age between the Four Kingdoms has always been a point of great interest in my..."

Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, PhD in History and Archaeology, was probably my favorite teacher at Beacon. Most of the others were either boastful, strict, or responsible for more than a few pains in the ass for me and my team. Somewhere, I hoped Ozpin coughed into his mug as I scratched at the collar, trying to look casual. He could, however, tend to grant a lecture on the spot, and if I didn't head him off now, he would probably be off on some tangent until late into the night. This was too important, at least to me anyway, and had been nagging at the back of my mind ever since being released from the hospital a few weeks back.

"No, I think Velvet and I have that handled; thanks,"I assured. "This is something more... well, personal."

Oobleck nodded his head in apparent understanding. "Hmm... This is interesting. Concerning Miss Xiao Long. then, correct? Well, my boy, while I may not have as many eccentric 'tales of romantic conquest,' as Peter Port would call it, I have had my fair share of dalliances with the fairer sex. One particularly memorable time had me stranded in the Frontier, alongside..." he gazed up at some of the pictures lining his office wall wistfully with a grin on his face.

"_NO!_" I choked out, face reddening furiously as I shook my head. _'Does **everyone** know about us!?'_

I had no idea how or by whom news of my new relationship with one of Beacon's most attractive first year students had spread, but ever since the new semester had started, I'd noticed way more dirty looks from other students aimed my way. Not as many as there had been when the whole Trapper thing came out, but enough to make meals in the cafeteria and stints in the library a more than awkward affair. Yang, on the other hand, didn't seem at all bothered by it, still having her same amazing, cheery personality that she'd always have. Life had been good, I wouldn't lie. But still...

"It has to do with my performance since coming to this school, and how I think my being here has affected me. I've discussed it a bit with Yang, and not that I don't trust her opinion, but I was hoping you could weigh in your thoughts as both an instructor and as a Huntsman?"

The Professor seemed a bit concerned but nodded, zooming back to his chair, and taking out his Scroll yet again as he opened a fresh page. "Well, as long as you are comfortable with me reporting it to Professor Goodwitch and to the Headmaster if I find it particularly concerning, it's part of my duty."

I nodded, taking a deep breath before continuing. "...I think my time at Beacon's made me weaker," I blurted out, letting the words stand as the doctor sat there, a look of surprised confusion clear on his face.

_'Guess he wasn't expecting that.'_

"W-well, that is an... interesting observation," he said finally, taking a few lightning fast notes on his Scroll in a series of rapid taps on the screen. "One that I find quite hard to believe, if your scores are any indication. Your abilities already place you above the standard student for your age range. If anything, you are likely the equal to some of your older peers, if not superior in certain aspects."

"I'm not referring to my physical skills," I amended, feeling it better to go into more details, though finding the words to describe it was... difficult. "It's more _mental,_ like I've lost the edge that made me such an effective warrior during my time with the Red Hand. I don't know if it was my time imprisoned, or my time here that did it, but something's definitely changed in the way I handle situations."

"Changed in what way?"

"You see, I was never the best or the brightest amongst the other Trappers, but I always succeeded in my missions because I could take anything the White Fang and their associates threw at me, and take them down without thinking. It was a mindset I had ingrained in me growing up in Bastion, as well. 'Endure and eliminate the enemy with no hesitation, or attachment.' I didn't toy with them like the others did, sometimes." His eyes narrowed slightly, but he gestured for me to continue. What I said was true. While Trappers like Alexander saw merit in making Faunus suffer, I never saw the joy in it. They were an enemy to be taken down quickly, and then put out of mind. "But with that attack a few weeks ago, I messed up."

"According to witnesses, Miss Xiao Long in particular, you beat your attacker quite handily once you had your weapons in hand. He caught you by surprise while you attempted to defend your comrade."

"But that shouldn't have happened!" I needed him to understand. "Alex was cocky, and I exploited that. The problem was I knew that he would have above average endurance from his training. However, I still hesitated to inflict enough damage to bring him down. And then there was that whole fuck-up- Sorry, _situation_ with those... _things_ on our first mission in that mine. I was completely under its control, and if Ben hadn't been there, we'd all be dead, no question. I should've been able to resist it..."

"Joel, we've been over this in our earlier meetings. What you and your team faced was a creature thought of almost as legend, due to the sheer lack of people who had survived encounters with them, even amongst veteran Huntsmen. There is a method to overcoming them, but it has never been fully explored, at least in the material I possess. I am still quite intrigued by how Mr. Carson was able to do it so effectively, to be honest." He glanced at me pensively. "Has he...?"

"I asked him about it, too. He said he doesn't know for sure, and just got lucky. He's lying, but I didn't think it was worth pursuing, considering at the time we all just wanted that hell behind us," I explained, trying to make it clear that this was still the case. "I won't bring it up again... I'm sorry, but he deserves some peace; we all do."

"And I wouldn't ask you to, either, but we're getting off point. This 'hesitation' you felt as you engaged the Trapper... Was it due to lingering feelings of camaraderie; guilt at leaving the organization?"

He was testing me. I understood the thought behind the question, at least. If I still held any loyalty to the Red Hand, it could be a real problem.

"No, at least I don't think so... It was more that I hesitated in my strikes without realizing, because I was afraid I might kill him. Because of that, he was able to recover and catch me off guard, almost getting Yang killed in the process."

"A true Huntsman or Huntress should always hesitate to kill another living soul, even in the most extreme of situations. We're protectors; not warriors. Some minds might disapprove, but I personally applaud of your decision to spare the young man, as it shows how far you have come."

"Yang says it's stupid for me to dwell on this, but I can't help thinking that something's wrong with me... What if a situation comes up like before, and there's no other option, but I screw up? What if...!?"

"You'd be surprised how often the phrase 'What if...' appears in my line of study as a historian. It's a frustrating inevitability one faces when he or she possesses such extensive hindsight of the past," the teacher said somberly, a freshly steaming thermos in his hands near instantaneously. "What if General Lagune had anticipated the Faunus Army's overwhelming advantage at night during the Battle of Fort Castle? What if the architects behind Mountain Glenn had taken greater care in it's construction, and realized the lack of proper natural defenses to stave off Grimm? I ponder such questions everyday, my mind racing through possibilities of how life in Remnant could've been radically changed had a decision not been made. How things could be better, or how they could be worse..." He took a long draft, closing what looked to be a message on his Scroll with a sigh. "Then I realized that I was focusing on wondering things that might've been more than _learning_ from that which actually happened, and _utilizing_ it for the future benefit of all. What you seem to be describing as hesitation, I see as a reemergence of an appreciation of _life._ You saw your detachment as a strength. However, having the desire to preserve life, even that of your enemy's, is hardly a weakness, but one of the very things that sets us apart from the Grimm."

"But...!"

"Can you, for example, say that you, if you didn't this quality, would've been able to go so far as to save Miss Xiao Long's life?"

I thought about that for a moment. _'Would I? I'd like to think that even with the Trappers I would've tried... But with my injuries at the time...'_

"...I might've let her die..." I murmured under my breath, suddenly feeling cold. "I would've focused on just myself... And prioritized on taking Alex down permanently."

"Perhaps... Perhaps not. We'll never know for sure. But I do know that a student of mine is alive and well, because of you. Something I'm ashamed to admit I wouldn't have thought possible a few months ago when the Headmaster came forward with the idea for your enrollment. A fact that gives me _hope._"

"...Th... Thank you, sir," I choked out, not really sure how else to respond.

"Good! Now that we have that settled, Professor Ozpin has requested I send you along to him next. Seems he has something that requires your attention." He was at the door instantly, holding it open before I'd finished getting to my feet. "I must say, with progress like this, I'm starting to wonder if we truly need these sessions at all. They must be wearing on your time."

"No, not all. Actually, I find that they help quite a bit," I grinned, bowing my head respectfully as I left the room. "Good day, Doctor."

"You too, Mr. Ambrose. I look forward to our next discussion."

With that, he closed the door, leaving me to ponder what had been said, as well as what Ozpin could possibly want. _'The police should already have everything they need to put Alex away... Maybe a final statement or...' _My train of thought was summarily interrupted as a group of students ran past me, gaping out the window at something, while whispering excitedly under their breath. Curious, I wandered up behind them, using my height to look over their heads. _'Wonder what's...?' _My answer came abruptly as two large shadows flew past the window, accompanied by the distinct hum of airship engines. Pushing past the students, I got a closer look at what I now realized were Atlesian fighter-dropships. Floating out further from the school...

"Aw, shit..." I swore under my breath as the enormous airship crested the cliffside, surrounded by smaller ships and carriers, already offloading what looked to be squads of armored troops and militarized drones onto the pathway leading to the academy. They walked in column formation past stunned and nervous students. Standing in the middle of them flanked on all sides stood...

_'Well, nice to see you again, General.'_ I paled as James Ironwood, disputably the most powerful man in the major Kingdom of Atlas, and the same person who oversaw my trial and imprisonment, walked across the courtyard briskly, stopping to stare at the large tower with a determined look on his face. _'Something tells me today's gonna be fun...'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"That's not fair, Max!" the diminutive leader cried out as she struggled feebly, floating unsuspended in the air as I laughed. "C'mon, let me down already!"

"With speed like yours, Rosie, you call _my_ Semblance unfair?" I grinned as Rose became a blur of motion, trying to use her Semblance to escape my own. '_Man, she's a pain to keep a hold of.'_

I grimaced as Schnee managed to slip past Reika, who was at the moment dealing with a vicious attack by Xiao Long. "Actually, you know what? Sure, what the hell!?" I shrugged, releasing my hold on the girl with a sigh after spinning her around. Still caught up in her Semblance, the hooded Huntress sped off wildly, careening into the heiress before either of them could react, and sent them both flying off the stage in a heap to assorted cheers and winces from onlookers.

"Weiss and Ruby are out!" Jaune Arc, the blonde knight who led team JNPR shouted out, acting as the referee for the match. Nice enough kid, I supposed, but a bit of a wimp. At least that was what I'd thought a few months ago when Ambrose had me slogging through the Emerald Forest like a bloodhound, only to find him stuck in a tree, with an impressively large Beowolf pack trying to pick him off.

_'Fun day in the end, at least...' _I thought happily, as Carson landed a shot on Xiao Long, knocking her off balance just long enough for a blow from the shrimp to send her flying. '_Ambrose let me play with them while he and the others got the young leader to safety.'_

"Alright, that's three people! AMBR wins the match four eliminations to one!"

"Hell yeah!" I punched the air as Ruby picked herself up, still seeing stars floating before her eyes. Weiss was glaring daggers at me, bristling angrily, to which I just responded with a coy wink. _'Awww... Somebody's a sore loser.' _I did sort of wish I got to take out Xiao Long as well for the whole team sweep. Plus, between her, Ambrose, and Ben with his latest "friends," our dorm room was fast becoming a no-go zone, and I personally thought I was entitled a bit of payback. "Gaze upon me and despair, peons!" I cried out maniacally.

"Why me?" a mopey voice groaned from the sidelines, as our fourth substitute member, Sun Wukong, walked back to rejoin us while rubbing his aching skull. He was giving me an angry look, a red mark clear as day on his cheek. "No, seriously, why me!?" He stared at Ben and Reika, who only shrugged as they walked off, Ben towards the benches for maintenance of his new arm, while the pipsqueak walked towards Ruby and Belladonna.

"You want the truth? Ambrose was busy today, so we needed someone who could swing a stick at least somewhat decently, and could imitate him. Accuracy is pretty important for our formations," I responded, scratching at my ears absently, humming to myself happily. "Rosie over there recommended you as a suitable enough replacement. Thought you'd be honored."

"So one of your 'formations' involves using whatever that thing it is you do to send your teammate flying head first into the enemy at the start of the match!?" he asked indignantly, face reddening as he stared towards the far off Cat Faunus, who blushed back when she saw him staring, crossing her arms over her chest.

_'No, but it was funny as all hell to watch, though.' _I smiled evilly.

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to get closer to Kitty Girl, right? I just wanted to help you along. Not my fault she didn't respond well," I waved him off, as I moved over to where Ben sat, having removed his poncho and was now fiddling with the new robotic appendage using a small multi-purpose tool. Apparently it was a new design from Rosie herself, sporting a nice silver color as opposed to the bronze one from before, a small red rose design emblazoned on the shoulder. "So how's the new piece?"

He glanced up at me in surprise, but played it off with a playful grin. "Heavier. And the fingers are a bit stiff, but it'll work for now. At least until I can tweak it a bit more. Red actually got it down pretty well, considerin' the amount of time she had to get it done." He flexed the wrist experimentally, nodding his head, before moving up to the elbow. "Overall, very nice. Passed the stress test, anyway."

"Definitely looks better. You were starting to look a little lopsided," I commented, sitting down with a thud, leaning back against the wall, axe on my lap, as I grabbed for a water bottle, pouring some the contents over my face to cool off. "Nice to to know we still can kick ass without Ambrose hanging over our heads." The rogue chuckled to himself. "Speaking of Ambrose, what the hell were you two going on about this morning that was more important than me getting my beauty sleep?"

"Shame. We all know how much you need _that... ACK!_" He let out a yelp as I upended the rest of the bottle over his head, leaving him spluttering. "Sorry, couldn't resist." He wiped his face on his poncho. "Anyway, it was nothin' you need to worry about."

"Didn't sound like 'nothin',' to me." I gestured to my ears as I tied my hair back in a ponytail, mimicking his accent with that remark. "Sounded like it got a bit heated. Did he challenge you for room time, or something?"

"Room time? What do you...? Oh. _Ohhhh._" His lip curled, shaking his head. "Nah, we have a system worked out for that, so don't you worry. Apparently with his Semblance actin' up as it is, things have been pretty tame with them, so far." He waved at Xiao Long and Ruby, probably showing off the arm to the small girl, which made her face lighting up. "If you _must_ know, he was askin' me my opinion on choosin' a second-in-command for the team."

"Second-in-command? Like, an assistant captain or something?"

"Yeah, that's generally what that means... _ACK!_" I gave him a quick shot to the ribs, doubling him over. "How the hell do you and Reika always manage to aim for the same spots!?... Yeah, he thought it would be better if we chose amongst ourselves, rather than have him pick one. I told him it wouldn't really matter much, and we'd sort it out when we needed to. Except maybe... y'know."

"Louder?" I finished for him. "Doesn't sound too bad of an idea in my book. If Ambrose gets laid up again, the team'll need someone to take charge." Goodwitch had explained the whole team concept in detail during the first class we'd had with her. A pair didn't usually require a leader, as they would simply work together towards a common goal. Anymore than a pair, and things usually got more chaotic, requiring a command presence. "Waiting for Ambrose to bite it doesn't seem like the most opportune time to decide, though."

"Let me guess: you think _you_ should be in charge?" I just smirked with confidence, nodding my head as I stroked _Cerberus' _blade affectionately.

"Why not? I'm the best one in a fight, and Ambrose's partner aside. You obviously don't want the position, and I can't really see the pipsqueak as one who likes giving the orders."

"You'd be surprised. Reika can be _very_ persuasive when she wants to be," he replied, eyes fixed on his arm. He'd removed a metal plate, exposing some of the inner wiring. "Thing is, in terms of raw power, I'm pretty sure she can outlast you by _leagues._ So if we're goin' off of use in a fight, I gotta give it to her." He pointed towards the mute, who was at this moment having an arm wrestling contest with that orange-haired Valkyrie chick. Nice girl. Had a fine appreciation for explosive surprises. The two actually seemed evenly matched. In fact, the pink girl was red with the effort, while Murasaki didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat. "Look, I know the command position might sound cool, but I don't like the idea of pickin' Psycho's substitute. Even workin' with Muscles, there, feels off." He motioned towards Wukong, who was at this moment trying to make it to Belladonna, and failing spectacularly. "You just _had_ to throw him, didn't ya? No mercy among Faunus, I see."

"Saw my chance, and I took it. Been _way_ too long since I got to have some innocent fun."

"Your definition of 'innocence' scares me, Bitch. Y'know that?"

"I do. Wait 'til Goodbitch has us doing CQC practice again. I've got a few moves Ambrose taught me that I've been _itching_ to try out on some bitches."

"Sure it isn't fleas?" I actually laughed at that. Still sent him hurtling ass first into weight rack, but at least I had fun with it.

_'Ozpin would be proud.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'Well, this isn't awkward at all...' _I thought genially as I walked alongside Ironwood, flanked by four guards toting rifles on their arms, all of which were ready to take me out the moment I made a move towards the General without his permission. _'Nice to know **some** things haven't changed.'_

I'd made my way up to Ozpin's office as soon as I could, walking in on what seemed to have been a tense conversation between himself, Ironwood, and Goodwitch. The Atlesian had all but dragged me from the room after giving a few parting words to his fellow Headmaster about children fighting a war. _'Who knows with this guy?'_

"So, from what I've heard, it seems you're settling in quite well here at Beacon..." The man looked down at me, one of the few individuals I'd met beyond Ozpin who could say that literally and figuratively. "I'll admit, from what Ozpin's told me, I'm quite impressed. You're recovering from your experience a few weeks ago, at least. The endurance of youth, I suppose."

"Well I've been getting a few more random shocks than I'm used to, and I wouldn't let me handle anything too expensive, but beyond that, I'm good. As for me settling in, I _was_ a student at Aegis Academy in the Frontier before the whole Trapper thing, remember? Just had to fall back into old patterns," I replied, looking over my shoulder at the guard on my left behind me. Twitchy fellow. _'Must not be used to frontline work, yet. I'd heard most of Atlas' military was automated, but damn if it's not hard to believe.'_

Ironwood nodded, smiling at a few passing students from his school in Atlas. "Almost makes me thankful you didn't jump on my offer. Especially with the results."

"So _that's_ why you're here: to pick up Capaneus. The commander of Atlas' military force, and Headmaster of its largest Huntsman Academy, doesn't just pop across the continent, even for something like the Vytal Festival," I surmised, wishing Mr. Twitchy would stop raising his rifle every time my hands went higher than my waist as I scratched at my hair, flinching as sparks flew from the contact. _'Stupid Semblance...'_ "Fair warning, he makes me look like a model citizen, especially with authority figures, so your Trapper-turned-soldier bit might not sound that appealing."

"Good to know..." he noted as we stepped into the main walkway. "He'll be held aboard my ship until I can arrange safe transport. However, you are incorrect in assuming I'm merely here for one man. I'm here to enforce the security of the Vytal Festival, first and foremost."

_'How noble...'_

"Well, while I appreciate you checking up on me, I don't really get why you're asking me out here. I haven't changed my mind about working with you; answer's still no."

"You were requested by one of my associates, actually. He heard about your situation, and flew all the way out here from Atlas to provide assistance. Quite surprising, really."

"Huh? Who are you...?" I started, glancing at the General confused, before an all-too familiar voice rose up from one of the ships that had landed. One that made my blood chill.

A group of mechs, new models by the looks of them, stood in a row, with three Human figures standing in front of them. Two were a pair of soldiers, in full armor, while the third was a much younger man, with short cut brown hair. He was wearing glasses, and sported what looked to be an Atlesian student's school uniform, only with a red armband and tie. He was in the middle of conversing with his watch, a small holographic image of what appeared to be a shimmering red mote of light floating just above its surface...

"I don't care what he says, there needs to be someone watching the subject at all times... Good. Also, get someone to send down a programmer. Mech #1606-1 is looking a little shaky. We need it smoothed out if we're meeting the demonstration date, and I don't have time... No, I don't care..."

He looked up, finally noticing our approach, blue eyes narrowing behind his glasses as he stood up somewhat jerkily. I couldn't see them too clearly from here, but I knew there were a few burn scars along the right side of his neck. He was taller than me by at least half a head, a fact that he'd never failed to point out boastfully, despite being younger than me by a few years...

"You know what needs to get done, Allison, so get it done," he said calmly. The red mote gave an affirmative, before disappearing as he lowered his arm. "Well, then... Hello, Joel. Long time no see."

"...Jake."

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter**

Jacob Ambrose - Todd Haberkorn

**A/N: Hey all, personally I didn't think I'd be updating this so soon, but the chapter actually seemed to write itself while I was in the middle of editing this story's earlier chapters (Similar to LMNH my other story, just a few cosmetic changes and grammar fixes though I'm sure I missed a few.) Seems I had Joel's brother down as Connor rather than Jacob, my bad. As always I appreciate the support and hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'll do my best to have another one out for you as soon as I can.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Edited as of: (10/25/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

_WHAT IS LIFE?_

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"Can I be the first to say that food fight was _totally awesome!?_" I cheered after we entered the library, still picking loose bits of mortar out of my hair and clothes, little souvenirs from my little trip through the ceiling courtesy of Nora. "Because that was totally _AWESOME!_"

"Yeah, it was..." Ben replied, taking another peek at his cards, before leaning back in his seat with a wide smile on his face. "It's almost your move, Blondie. My forces are waitin'."

My eyebrow twitched visibly as I stared down at the board, taking stock of my options. Remnant: the Game, a game of luck, strategy, and deception, as players representing the Four Kingdoms battled it out for world dominance... _'No wonder this smug asshole is so good at it.' _The rogue had expressed interest in the game as soon as I'd described it and explained the rules, especially the latest expansion pack that allowed for other factions beyond the Kingdoms, a feature added after a series of complaints from fans in places like the Frontier and the Badlands.

Things were looking bad, indeed. The sniper's raiders had already cut off supply lines to my Mistral forces, and had Ruby's Atlesian ground troops caught up in a particularly nasty ambush of Grimm. Weiss and Blake, however, he left untouched, considering they weren't exactly an active threat. _'Players outside the Kingdoms are supposed to have more land, no bonuses, and less resources. The developer's payback for the complainers.' _I flinched as he casually wiped out Ruby's airfleet with the flip of a card, and another damn ambush. _'How is he winning like this!? It's his first time!'_

"I have... absolutely no idea what's going on," Weiss said, staring at the cards in her hand awkwardly. "I take it Benjamin's winning?"

"That's _Lord_ Ben to you, Ice Queen..." the rogue said with a smile, leaning over to catch a glimpse at her hand. "Anyway, you use _Sandstorm_ and stun Blondie's army in their tracks, givin' your Vacuoans a chance to break her wall and infiltrate her Kingdom..." My face lit up as I plucked a card from my hand, only to have a robotic finger wagging in my face. "Meanwhile, I'll use _Railway Robbery._ Very insensitive card, by the way. Makes all us Badlanders out to be thieves, or somethin'," he laughed under his breath as he rolled a dice. "But bad nomenclature aside, if I roll a 6 or higher, as I just did, you lose your hand and the trap card you no doubt possess, Blondie."

"B-but..." I stammered, gaping at the board as my kingdom was just invaded.

"And that means what exactly?" the heiress asked, looking at my fellow blonde with a confused look on her face.

"It means I just saved your armies, and kept you in this game so you can defeat Mistral, and take control of their trade route. Meanwhile, I'll tear Atlas apart from the ground up with a series of guerilla attacks..."

"Hey!" the redhead piped up indignantly, but Carson silenced her with another finger.

"Which'll put us in place to conquer Remnant in three turns or less, considering Kitty here doesn't try anything."

Blake reacted with a start, looking around at us all. "Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?"

Ben nodded his head towards her, before turning back to his ally and continuing his explanation leaving me to fill in my partner on the specifics. "At which point, you will cede control of the board and your assets to me, while I leave you a token piece of land within scenic Vale, with benefits," Ben finished with a flourish, flipping a card between his fingers.

"And why would I accept such a one-sided deal? What benefits could you provide?"

"Well if you don't, then I destroy you, and take total control of Remnant. But in the end, I think cooperation between new players is a worthy goal to strive for in the New World Order. Need someone left to keep me in line, right?" He gave her a sly wink. "I'll even throw in half of Atlas for a dinner date tomorrow..."

I honestly thought he was going to die right there by the heiress's hand, JNPR, and even Maxine looked around from where they sat behind us, shocked as her icy stare softened visibly. "Make it _all_ of Mistral, and I _MIGHT_ just consider it, outlaw," the white-haired girl sighed, shaking her head wearily to our disbelief. "And it better be at a reputable establishment; if I see one speck of grease, I'm gone."

The former bandit punched the air in victory, before proceeding to rip down Ruby's defenses, leaving the girl sniffling over the loss of her soldiers.

"Okay, no offense to my boyfriend or anything..." I groaned as I face planted into the table. "But why the hell aren't _you_ leading AMBR right now, if you're such a great strategist?" This was humiliating. I'd been playing this game for a long time, yet he'd been at it for about an hour or two, and had already beaten me, Ruby, and secured an alliance and a date with the Schnee progeny herself.

"Great strategists don't always make great leaders," Ben answered, shrugging his shoulders. "I've always been more a 'big picture' kinda guy." He waved a hand at the board. "Psycho, well... he's good in the moment, and especially under pressure. Like if I was the planner, then he's the commander on the front executing it; the one who gets things done when the action starts."

I turned to face Weiss, who I was was staring at the "reformed" criminal with an approving eye. "I'm surprised, Weissy. Never pegged Carson as being your type."

"Don't be ridiculous, Xiao Long..." the snow princess balked, shaking her head as she looked slyly at the one armed rogue. "I'm merely taking him up on his offer of free food and entertainment. Despite being a womanizing deviant, I hear he's at least a gentleman when it comes down to it. Besides, no one's ever offered me a country before for a simple outing. It would be rude to refuse."

Carson bowed in response, beaming like a kid in a candy store. "I thank you for the compliment, milady."

"If you guys are done, can I get the next game?" Jaune said poking his head over Weiss' shoulder. "Think I might be able to give you all a run for your money."

"What, a simpleton like you?" the heiress laughed haughtily, crossing her arms. "A game like this requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I _seriously_ doubt you possess."

"Uhh... You attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago." The heiress blushed scarlet, while the knight grinned at me thankfully.

"Bring it on, Ice Queen! I'll have you know I've been told that I'm a natural-born leader!" He struck a heroic pose.

"By who? Your mother?" the heiress countered with a frown.

"A-and Pyrrha?" The spartan waved at us from her seat, smiling warmly at the knight. _'She's so into him it hurts. Called it!' _I shot her a sly wink as she turned back to her comic book. The girl just netted me a nice dinner and movie in Vale, courtesy of one Joel Ambrose.

"I can second that. Hero here ain't half bad, least from what I've seen..." Ben got up from his seat and patted him on the back. "He's just... untempered, that's all."

"Yeah that's ri... Huh?" He stared at the rogue in confusion, pointing to himself. "I'm 'Hero' now? Not 'Vomit Boy' or 'Screamer?'"

"Yep! Turns out killin' an Ursa Major all by yourself has it's perks. You're a lucky man, Arc my boy. I don't just change these nicknames lightly. There's a whole personality and traits aspect that goes into it, along with hours on hours of deliberation... Anyway, I feel that 'Hero's' the one for you." He poked his fellow Huntsman-in-training in the chest, the rogue's metal hand tapping at his breastplate, with Jaune's face lighting up. "Congratulations."

"You do realize he comes up with these things on the spot, right?" the Dog Faunus called from across the table, right in Ren's ear as he tried to read. "I wouldn't read too much into them!"

"Says the one nicknamed 'Bitch.'" He tossed a Nevermore piece at her casually, the Huntress catching it with her Semblance, before staring back at her book, muttering angrily under her breath.

_'Yeah, she's still sore about the food fight...' _It had actually been an even battle between RWBY and JNPR, with AMBR, minus Joel, cheering us on from the sidelines. At least until Max got a few exploded soda cans to the face. The resulting damage from her Semblance-fueled rage was extensive, so much so I was genuinely impressed Goodwitch was able to stop the whole section from collapsing, let alone put it back in complete order.

"Regardless, I wouldn't feel comfortable putting the well being of an entire Kingdom, even a fake one, in your hands," Weiss concluded, pushing Vomit Boy away from her. "It would be irresponsible to trust it's safety..."

"Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before. I mean, you told us all that Blake is secretly a Fa..." We all shot him simultaneous death glares, Pyyrha darting over to grab at his mouth, while Ben slipped his artificial limb over Jaune's neck and squeezed, cutting off oxygen with a subtle headlock.

"Fun-loving person, whom we all admire and respect," Pyrrha subbed in, looking over at the other two for support. Jaune laughing awkwardly, while Ben nodded his head in agreement.

"Absolutely right! An inspiration to us all!" he supplied, giving Blake a warm smile and a thumbs up, letting Jaune massage his throat and breathe easy.

"Wow, my bullshit detectors're going _DING,_" Max chuckled, putting her feet up on the table, drawing an angry, disapproving look from her teammate as they tried to placate the Ninja, though it was definitely too late to salvage the situation.

"Right... That. Uh, just forget I said anything. Enjoy your game, ladies," Jaune choked out with an exaggerated bow as he walked back to the table with Pyrrha, looking forlornly at the comic book she'd swiped.

"'Sup, losers." We all turned to catch sight of Sun waving at us, a blue-haired boy in a red coat and goggles trailing behind him, peering around at all the book shelves. Must've been the friend he said he'd be meeting after practice. I noticed Sun shoot a few quick glances towards Blake and Maxine, warm and excited for the former, pale and dreading for the latter.

"Hey, Sun!" Ruby greeted up from her seat, while Ben fell back into his seat, leaning over to fistbump the Monkey Faunus. I remembered seeing Sun and his friend back in the mess hall, but things were a bit too hectic to let us introduce ourselves.

"'Sup yourself, Muscles?"

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, Ben, Ice Queen..."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that!?" Weiss growled angrily, shooting Ben and Jaune angry looks, especially when the sniper replied with a thumbs up and a cheeky smile.

"I never got the chance to introduce you to my old friend," Sun said, gesturing to the young man beside him.

"Uh... Aren't libraries for reading," his friend asked suddenly.

"Thank you!" Ren cried from his spot at the other table, waking up Nora, who had most likely been dreaming about pancakes, judging her her first words.

"Shut up. Don't be a nerd," Sun hissed.

"Eg, ge, ge, ge!" his friend cut off. "_Intellectual._ Okay? Thank you."

Ben immediately blurted out a series of coughs after the boy finished speaking, but I could have sworn I heard the word "nerd" on his first one.

He introduced himself as Neptune, and revealed that he was from the same school and team Sun was from. _'Looks alright, I suppose. Seems a bit of a tryhard, though.' _He winked when he noticed me staring, flashing me a toothy smile. Weiss seemed a bit flustered as he introduced himself to her, blushing slightly as he called her "Snow Angel," something Ben and Jaune had picked up on too, faces turning grim. He even tried flirting subtly in front of Weiss, but it was still pretty obvious to anyone but her.

"Hey, there. I hear you're from Haven as well. What made a vision such as yourself...!?" He was cut off as a Nevermore piece shot off the table on its own, and smacked him in the skull like a bullet, knocking him out cold.

"I tried to warn him..." the Monkey Faunus groaned as Ben and I laughed out loud, Weiss struggling to wake him, while Max just put a book over her face.

"They just get more and more annoying _every_ _day_... The fuck's Murasaki and Ambrose, anyway!?"

_'That's... actually a good question,' _I thought, staring out the window as more Atlesian ships blew past it, rattling the panes lightly. '_I hope he hasn't gotten himself in any trouble.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'And I thought hanging around with Ironwood was awkward...'_

"So... Any explanation for what happened back there?" Jake asked as we moved through the winding corridors of the Atlas flagship. The thing was massive, easily larger than anything I'd been on previously. "I don't think buildings are supposed to shake like that and stay standing."

He was referring to the incident with the cafeteria. I'd initially thought the school was under attack, both me and Jake having been startled, and likely recalling fairly unpleasant memories from our earlier life. Fortunately, I'd realized the situation. "No, but I'm pretty sure my team and some friends of mine were involved. My girlfriend at least, anyway."

The young boy's eyes widened behind his glasses at that, a frown on his face. "_Girlfriend?_"

"Yeah... The blonde that flew out of the roof; that's her." I grinned sheepishly as I shrugged, wrists still bound by the rubber cuffs. "Yang Xiao Long. She can be... a bit _wild_, at times." Not like I had any right to say that. I'd already knocked out Twitchy within seconds of noticing Yang, stolen his rifle, and was ready to bust into the mess hall, gun blazing, until I heard her laughing wildly as she flew.

_'Didn't stop half the soldiers present from tackling me to the ground afterwards, though...' _I mused, scratching at my aching head.

"Why am I not surprised?..." The scientist shook his head as he limped along. "I'd heard something to that effect, but had trouble believing it. A condemned prisoner at a Huntsman Academy, and you _still_manage to attract someone?"

"I'm still kind of in shock myself, to be honest with you," I laughed, a warm feeling blooming in my chest at the thought of the blonde. "So... can I get these cuffs off now?"

"You gave Private Jones a concussion."

I shrugged, flinching at the look he gave me. "He pointed his gun at me. I asked him for it nicely, explained the situation..."

"You barked out some quick curses, demanded his weapon on the spot, then flipped once you saw the girl break through the roof," he summarized sternly. "Glad to see you're still as recklessly impulsive as ever."

I gave him a smile and held up the cuffs, giving him my most apologetic look. "Would it help if I said I was sorry?..." He glared at me angrily, before fiddling with his watch, the cuffs unclasping with a loud hiss. "Thanks."

"Just don't touch anything you aren't supposed to," he growled, muttering angrily under his breath. "And Natalie was going on and on about how much you've improved..."

"...You've been in contact with her?" I asked shocked. I'd asked my old friend to look in on him, but I hadn't expected her to reach out to him. She was supposed to be in hiding.

"Who do you think convinced me to come all the way here?" he said, glancing down at his watch screen. "We've been exchanging messages and ideas for months... Ever since you were arrested, actually."

_'Well that explains how she got a hold of his contact info so easily...'_

"I wasn't aware you guys were even talking. Thought you hated her, actually."

"Disapproved of her decisions, maybe... But I never hated her. Surprisingly, we actually kept some semblance of communication, even while you two were with the Red Hand. It wasn't easy, but she always tried to check up on me. _SHE_ cared."

I flinched at the venom his voice carried, but kept my face neutral. _'Not like I didn't have that coming...' _Still hurt like hell to hear it, though.

"She's been invaluable, and even helped me with Allison here." He raised his wrist, the small red wisp of light burning to life just above it's surface. "And before you ask, no, I don't know where she is at the moment. Anyway, introduce yourself."

_"Greetings, Mr. Ambrose. My name is Allison. It is a pleasure to meet you."_

I looked closer, examining the tiny figure. _'An AI... Incredible.' _I'd dealt with such programs extensively during my time as a Trapper, either receiving orders via the Hand's Trapper liaison Locke, or working to avoid the host of intelligences that handled city affairs that our hackers distracted on missions.

"I thought Allison was your secretary. Is she the intelligence for the ship?" Jake might be important, but a ship's AI devoting processing power to act as a file pusher for one person was unheard of for anyone short of a council member, or military commander.

"She is, and not at all. You're looking at one of the few Artificial Intelligences, and the first I've developed, capable of operating without a main computer hub or generator. Her matrix - her brain - is housed entirely within my watch. She is literally a personal AI that, from there, can interact with nearby systems."

_"Due to my small size, however, my processing power is slower compared to corporate standard Intelligences," _the AI intoned in a synthesized voice. _"However, Professor Ambrose has stated he prefers my efficiency, which is leagues beyond what an organic employee can produce in the same amount of time."_

Incredible. I'd known he was interested in robotics, but making his own custom AI... "Uh... well, nice to meet you too, Allison." I waved at the watch awkwardly, while Jake snickered at the sight. "So... where are we going?"

"My lab. Natalie mentioned that you needed maintenance for your inhibitors," he replied, glancing down at the red light. "Is everything ready for us?"

_"Yes. The supplies and equipment you require are in Lab 5's medical wing. Please proceed through the hanger for the quickest route from your position."_

My brother nodded, taking a quick right past a pair of soldiers who actually stopped to salute him. "Thank you. Amazing job as always." The red light sparked once before winking out of sight. We stepped into a large elevator occupied already by a few engineers, some of them shooting the tall boy next to me excited looks.

"Handy assistant you got there," I said as an aside, gesturing to the watch before wincing. _'Oh, damn it, did that count as a pun?' _Yang must be rubbing off on me.

Whether he noticed it or not, he didn't respond, merely examining the elevator with a discerning eye. _'That's my brother.' _I smiled to myself, thinking back to how things had been in Bastion. Despite his size, Jacob Ambrose had never been a fighter, his Aura deemed too weak to merit training as a Huntsman, but he was an impressive thinker, always looking at the world, trying to figure out how it worked and improving it, be it Mom's toaster, or our neighbor's car engine. _'And look where he is now... Assisting someone as important as Ironwood, and making a difference... Mom and Dad would've been glowing.'_

"Here we are," he said suddenly as the lift stopped, opening to reveal an enormous hangar bay littered with catwalks and personnel working on airships, those new droids I'd seen back at Beacon, and...

"What the _hell_ is that thing?" I gaped, leaning over the walkway edge to get a better look at a massive mechanical giant, currently in the process of being retrofitted by a team of mechanics, who all stopped to salute Jake as he walked up next to me.

"The Atlesian Paladin-290. The next step in military technology, and mechanized personnel defense, built in a partnership between the Schnee Dust Company and the Atlas Military," the boy said proudly, gesturing to the mech. "General Ironwood is accepting of a mechanized army, but has always held the belief that there should always be a Human mind in war. The Paladin is the extension of that, giving a pilot the destructive power to go head-to-head with massive Grimm, usually of a size reserved for Huntsmen, with relative ease. You're the first public eye to get a glimpse of it before we unveil it tomorrow."

"D-did you work on that too?" I stammered in amazement, examining the slew of weaponry adorning the chassis.

"Partially. I just wrote the software and recommended shock-proofing it," he admitted, waving a hand towards the techs to get them back to work while I sent him a withering glare. "This and dozens, if not hundreds, like it will soon be patrolling Atlas' border, along with a legion of the new AK-200s replacing the old 130s within weeks."

"Amazing..."

He smirked, adjusting his glasses before gesturing for me to follow. "It is, I suppose, but it's an overlarge paperweight in comparison to some of the true projects Ironwood has us working on."

I found that rather hard to believe, but Jake had never been one to lie or exaggerate. We moved through the rest of the ship in silence, passing room after heavily-sealed room, until we came to a large bay door adorned with the number 5 in red paint.

"Here we are..." He keyed in a quick code on a keypad next to the door, the metal slabs sliding open with a hiss to reveal a sterile white room filled with monitors, trays of supplies, and different solutions, all with a white rubber-looking seat in the center of the room, with a strange machine situated above it.

"Umm..." I groaned, suddenly nervous. Jake pulled a vial from one of the trays, and slid it into a long injector, holding it out to me. _'Shit...' _"Is there going to be a surgeon present... or did you somehow obtain a doctorate in medicine while I was locked up, too?"

"Don't be stupid. I'm no surgeon..." my brother shrugged, before his watch lit up on it's own, a red light traveling from it's surface to one of the monitors. "But Allison is. Pull up the diagnostics from his collar!" he called out. Suddenly, the room was buzzing as monitors sprang to life, her voice emanating from the speakers as a screen similar to the one Goodwitch had on her Scroll, but much more detailed, spread out along the monitors. I felt at the collar around my neck. "How did you manage to break so many of my limiters?" he asked in amazement, staring at the chart. "The doctor's reports had details but... What did you do!? All that's left are the ones in your legs, and only because they're more durable! And these vitals, gods Joel what did the Red Hand...!?"

"Don't ask, please just make the adjustments. As for the limiters I overcharged them after running a full vial of purified Dust through my bloodstream, though I've done it before without any real problems," I answered, ignoring the dumbstruck look on his face that always made me feel like an idiot. "Thing is I...well, I sort of had to overcome them before they were done letting off energy. It was the only thing I could think of to save Yang's life during that Trapper attack."

"...I can appreciate what you did with your girlfriend, but I don't need to be a genius to know running Dust through your body like that repeatedly can shorten your life. There's a reason that's rarely done anymore, and why putting Dust in clothes was always the more popular option."

"Extreme circumstances required it, and I didn't have many better options," I shrugged lamely.

"Not as if your Semblance isn't bad enough for you as it is." He looked back to me with a sharp glare, before pointing to the injector in my hand. "That's a painkiller. Want Allison to do it for you, or have you grown a set since being in the Trappers?"

"Asshole..." I muttered under my breath, pressing the injector against my neck, and pushing the back button, hissing sharply as I felt needle break through skin. It had always been an issue with me. I could take bullets flying, bones breaking, and Grimm charging me down. But needles?... I shivered as I tossed it away, feeling squeamish, and noting that my heart rate had skyrocketed on one of the screens. "Why a painkiller? I don't remember being awake last time we did this."

"Your Semblance was far less developed and volatile when we first did this. We need you awake so you can manage your Aura, and keep it controlled. It also keeps you from healing until we want you to as we proceed. The painkillers are mixed to allow you to keep your senses while making it bearable, especially for someone with training like yours."

I nodded somberly, taking off my shirt with a sigh as I moved to the operating table, noticing his eyes linger on the web of scars along my upper body as I did so.

"Just three years, huh?" I commented, looking down at them as I laid down on the padded surface, only panicking slightly as restraints clamped over my arms and legs. "How about yours? I saw you limping..."

Jake tensed a bit, hand moving unconsciously to his neck, and tracing the burn scars. "Better, I suppose. " He nodded towards the screen as a signal to begin, the strange machine above me coming down, small arms tipped with scalpels and clamps; basically nightmare fuel on steroids. I tried to keep my mind focused on him, and less on the slight tugging I felt on my chest, keeping my eyes fixed on him. It hurt slightly, but less than I thought it would.

"The burns don't hurt much anymore unless I stress them... And the leg..." He glanced down, pulling at his trouser leg to reveal the shining metal limb underneath. "I recently had to adjust the height again. Bit of a pain to get used to, but I'm managing..." He looked back at me, shrugging. "I hear one of your teammates possesses something similar, yes?"

"Yeah. Ben Carson. Lost his arm shortly before coming to Beacon in an accident," I replied, activating my Aura as the machine told me to, closing up the new wound. "He doesn't talk about it much, aside from jokes. But it gets to him."

"Makes sense. Losing a limb like that... You don't really feel whole, afterwards."

I closed my eyes as a particularly painful shock rolled through me by accident, the machine having to stop a bit and let it pass. "S-sorry." I apologized to... Allison, I suppose. _'That takes some getting used to.'_

_"Please refrain from committing any sudden movements, and remain calm. The length of the procedure is estimated at approximately twenty-eight minutes and fifty-four seconds,"_ the electronically-filtered voice echoed from within the machine.

We spent the next few minutes in awkward silence, with only the occasional grunt of pain leaving my mouth, before I turned back to my brother. "So... Natalie was the one that convinced you I was okay to see?" I asked numbly, wishing I could scratch at an itch at the back of my neck.

"She did. Penny, too. You wouldn't believe how shocked I was to hear that, of all the people she could've met on her little excursion, that you were the person she ran into."

"Funnily enough, right after I tried calling you," I said, the itch along my arms getting steadily worse. I then paused when I realized who he mentioned. "Wait... You know_ Penny?_" Well, that certainly brought up some questions. The girl i n question had been nagging at the back of my mind for weeks. Unfortunately, the girl had disappeared soon after that incident with the White Fang on the docks before I could ask her anything further.

"It was an exciting day for her. Wandering around Vale during the festival setup, meeting up with another Mr. Ambrose, just like me, and stopping some mean people from hurting her new friends." The other Ambrose listed off on his fingers, grinning happily. "Impressive, isn't she? You did get to see her in action, right?"

"...What the hell is she?" I asked seriously, leaning my head up as my brother moved about the room, checking figures and whispering instructions to Allison.

"Ah, noticed something was up, did you? I'm impressed." He nodded towards me like a teacher applauding a student. "What tipped you off? Her mannerisms? I know she can come off as a bit strange to people who aren't used to it."

"That... And the fact she just felt different." I noticed the confused look on his face, grinning despite myself. "It took a few years to figure out, but my Semblance has more uses beyond just shocking people, especially when I'm using Dust to augment myself. I can disrupt electronics, project it at long range, and can even sense things with it like a radar if I try hard enough." A tool I'd use after Dusting up while still in the Red Hand to confirm kills. Nowhere near as precise as Reika's, for it only worked over short ranges. It was while I was still charged after using my Semblance on the White Fang airships, and trying to get a read on what was going on with everyone, that I noticed the oddity. "She didn't feel like a normal Human or Faunus when I was sensing her. Like she's insulated, or something."

"Electrical pulses... Interesting... Well, you are aren't wrong. One of my big requirements for anything I design is that it's at least you-proofed before shipping out."

"Design?... What do you...?"

"I mentioned before that we possessed projects and initiatives that _far_ outstripped the Paladin. The thing you know as 'Penny' is one of them." Jake pulled up a new page on one of the larger screens, a still image of the orange-haired Huntress staring blankly back at me, expression perfectly neutral. "She's the first artificial synthetic being capable of producing and sustaining its own Aura, similar to any other Huntsman. A product representing _years_ of intense research, paired with Atlas' advanced robotics, knowledge, and manufacturing."

I was expecting prototype armor. Maybe some device, or a specialized Semblance. But this...?

"A robot that can produce an Aura..." I muttered under my breath, numbly responding to the machine's prodding to heal a series of new incisions along my chest as it moved to my arms. "How is that even possible?... You gave a machine a soul?" All living things possessed Aura in some form. Trees, animals, Humans, Faunus. It was what bound us together. To actually grant it to something artificial...

The tall man shook his head, scratching at his hair as he glanced at the screen, frowning slightly. "Not me, no. The head of the project, her father, has never seen fit to share _exactly_ how he managed to pull it off, despite continued insistence from the rest of us, and anyone else who might know isn't telling. I was merely involved in her body's construction and weaponization." He pulled up a video that I recognized as footage from the docks weeks ago, Penny in the process of bringing down an airship with her strange blades. "I personally think the blades were a nice touch. Expensive, but I managed to convince our backers that they were well worth it." I could hear the smile in his voice as Penny sliced cleanly through multiple ships with her laser. "Always nice to be proven right."

"I knew Atlas was famed for a robotic army..." I muttered, machine retracting upwards as the clamps on my limbs released with a metallic click. "But now they're making robotic Huntsmen and Huntresses?" Glancing down at my chest and arms, I noticed only a few vivid white marks framed by dried blood, already fading against my pale skin as Aura coursed through me. Jake grabbed some towels, passing them to me with an excited look on his face. More so than I think I've ever seen.

"Why wouldn't they? Do you know how many Huntsmen and Huntresses are trained, and sent out from the various Huntsman Academies across Remnant? Haven, Beacon, Aegis...?"

"No, I don't," I admitted, wiping at the blood anxiously, wondering at what he was getting at. "A couple hundred, I suppose... From the major schools, at least."

"Indeed. In fact, the number we've been able to train has been rising steadily for years now, especially in this time of recent peace. Despite this, however, the Grimm have always held a numbers advantage. For every one killed, ten more takes its place, if not more." He removed his glasses, wiping at them furiously. "Meanwhile, we keep losing our best to injuries, old age, accidents, and our own _idiocy..._"

His face broke for a second, and I instantly knew to what he was referring to. _'Mom and Dad... Good people, killed by Faunus in a senseless act that benefited no one.'_

"And the Grimm keep coming, waiting for the day they can wipe us out. Every man, woman, and child. Faunus or Human."

"Jake..."

"Think about it, Joel. Look at what Penny did by herself." He gestured to the footage still playing behind him. "Foiling an entire White Fang operation in mere minutes, almost single-handedly, with barely any effort at all on her part; a feat I doubt any single Huntsman or Trapper alive could claim."

"I know. I was there, remember?... But still..."

"Then you should know better than anyone what she can accomplish on her own. I-imagine a team of synthetics just like her. An _army..._" He spread his arms wide as he turned to peer at the screen. "We could finally push back, rather than just delay the inevitable... For the first time, we'll be able to strike back against those monsters, and push them back since the discovery of Dust. Maybe _wipe them off_ the face of Remnant." He lowered his arms, tapping at his leg absently. "And better yet, no one has to die for it. No more Huntsmen or Huntresses need sacrifice themselves, you and your girlfriend included..."

It sounded too good to be true. An end to the fighting. True peace...

_'...No... This isn't right...'_

"Except for Penny and the rest of your robot army, that is..." I corrected him, pulling my shirt over my head. The new scar tissue was tender, but even that feeling faded. I brought my hand up and channeled my Semblance, satisfied to see sparks of electricity flow along my fingers in a controlled pattern. "What about them? What about the thousands that'll die in this war you have planned? What do _they_ want?"

"What _about_ them?" he asked, looking at me as if I'd said something silly, seemingly confused as to why I wasn't as elated as he was. "If one breaks, we can simply replace it. That's the nature of machines, Joel. You fix them if the break, and get a new one if you can't. Simple as that."

"They aren't just spares, Jake!" I stood up shakily, limbs sore from inactivity. "If they can produce an Aura, that means they have a _soul,_ and emotions, just like you or me!" The afternoon with Penny flashed through my mind. Her quirky manner, her excitement at learning something new, at having made a friend... "...Penny and the rest you plan on building are _alive._ She's not some toy soldier you can just switch out when some Grimm smashes it."

He made a sound, almost like a "tsk," before giving me a sharp glare. "You sound just like the professor, treating her like some child to be doted on, rather than what she is. Penny's 'emotions' are nothing more than programming and software put in place to propagate an Aura..." the boy standing across from me stated coldly, holding out his watch. "Just like Allison here, it's all artificial. Her 'soul' was formatted in a lab owned by General Ironwood, then placed in a body me and dozens of other specialists in various fields, with IQ's that far outclass yours, worked tirelessly to develop in a lab similar to this one." He waved a hand to the room at large. "She and the others will just be ones and zeroes, their thoughts based on what we program them to think, defending us from Mankind's enemies as its heroes and protectors in ways that organics _never_ could."

"And that makes it alright to send them into the slaughter!? Force them into a life of hellish violence and death, watching others just like them be torn apart, while we hide behind the Kingdoms!?" I put a hand on my chest, anger boiling inside at the very notion of what he was suggesting. "We Hunters may die, but at least we choose our own path! We knew the risks and accepted them in the hopes that we can protect others with our lives." It was a code instilled in every Huntsmen that wished to join Aegis. Yang described having learned a similar credo at Signal. While Huntsmen and Huntresses may have differing goals and desires, Yang being a thrill-seeker looking for adventure, while Weiss saw it as a duty, deep down they had to accept this solid fact, or one similar to it, if they wished to pursue this job. "That you would force souls without a choice into some slave army to fight and die, even for the sake of Remnant, isn't 'heroic...' It's twisted, monstrous, evil, and a slap to the face of every Huntsman and Huntress, both living, and those who laid down their lives before us!"

"And _you_ have _any_ right to judge me on actions that could be considered _evil!?_" he shouted back at me, limping over to me faster than I had expected, grabbing me by the front of my shirt and holding me fast. "I wasn't the one who left his brother behind after he'd just had his leg blown off, and his parents killed in front of him, to join some _terrorist cult._ _I wasn't the one_ who slaughtered _dozens_ in some _childish_ bid for revenge, doing the dirty work of those with a greater agenda and no morals!" His glasses slipped off, clattering to the floors, his blue eyes, only slightly grayer than my own, staring at me furiously, burning with barely-contained rage. "No, _I stayed behind,_ and gained a new purpose! With my help, the General will save millions across Remnant from the single greatest scourge of Mankind, with Penny leading the charge. _THAT_ is what people will remember the name Ambrose for! Not the _slayer,_ but the _savior!_"

My hand shot up fast as lightning, gripping at a pressure point in his wrist, numbing it. "Let..._ GO OF ME!_" I cried as I pushed him back across the room into the wall of monitors with Aura-enhanced force, size be damned.

'_So... That's really how he feels...' _I glared down at the man I called brother, now seeing none of the inquisitive, intelligent young man I'd once known. '_He could be blunt, and even logical... But **this...?**'_

"...I can't ask you to stop what you're doing..." I said with an air of finality, before walking towards the door while putting on my black short-sleeved hoodie, suddenly wanting nothing more than to be off this ship as soon as physically possible. "I lost the right to do that years ago when I joined the Red Hand... But that _doesn't_ mean I'll just sit back and let you do this." I stood in the doorway, taking one last deep breath. "Don't get me wrong. I agree that you've done an incredible thing... But you were smart enough not to follow me and Nat into the Red Hand... I would have thought that alone would make you realize how special she is... The _life_ that that you helped in giving... You're right; I don't have the right to judge you... But I honestly hoped you were better than this," I said in finality. "...It was good seeing you again, Jake... Take care of yourself."

"Joel!" he cried out, stopping me before I could leave. "Just so you know, what I've just told you about Penny is classified... If you go telling people about this... the General will be _well_ within his right to incarcerate you for crimes against the Kingdom of Atlas. You understand that, don't you?..."

"Don't bother with that," I cut off as I faced away from him. "I'm not going to say anything to spite you and Atlas... It would hurt Penny," I then left without looking back, door sliding shut behind me before the young scientist could do anything else.

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

_'Well, that seemed tense...' _I thought to myself, watching Joel leave the room from the small vent I'd managed to squeeze myself into. _'I wonder what that was all about?' _When I'd sensed Joel leaving the school surrounded by others, of course I'd been curious, slipping away while Ben and the others enjoyed their game. '_Then I find him handcuffed in the midst of a dozen guards, heading for this airship...'_At the time, it seemed I'd have to rescue our imprisoned leader, using my Semblance and the skills I'd gained working with Bill's crew to easily avoid detection, and hitch a ride in onto the next airship. _'Atlas. Always depending too much on technology_.' From there, it was just a matter of navigating the ship, whilst following Joel's signature, and the sound of arguing. It was easier than I thought it would be.

So the other boy's name is Jake... From what I could recall of scattered conversations, this boy lying on the ground must've been Ambrose's brother. I shook my head, angling myself around to catch up with my leader who was now, thankfully, free and obviously not in need of help.

_'Time to go...'_

_"**ALERT! PRESSURE SENSORS HAVE DETECTED UNKNOWN CONTACT!**" a_ synthesized voice called out of the room's speakers, freezing me in my tracks as I heard the boy scramble to his feet. _"**MOVING TO NEUTRALIZE THREAT! ANTI-PERSONNEL COUNTER-MEASURES ACTIVATED!**"_

_'**Damn it!**' _I flared my Aura, but it did little against the sudden discharge of electricity on all sides of the vents. My muscles screamed in agony, before I slumped against the hard metal, my body still twitching, and my eyes unfocused.

_"**TARGET INCAPACITATED! MOVING FOR RETRIEVAL!**"_

"Quiet down!" a loud voice called out as light poured into the vent as the cover was removed, a shadow moving in front of it, "Well... Not the kind of mouse I was expecting to catch with that little trick."

The last thing I was aware of was being pulled out of the tight space gingerly, before darkness took me.

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Allison - Bridget Hoffman

**A/N: Things may or may not have gotten AU there at least in regards to Atlas' plans for Penny but I thought it seems believable. "Can machines and AI have a soul and if so is it "real" or something fabricated?" popular question going around in movies recently and one worth debating. Anyway that bit of heaviness aside I would just like to say thanks for all the support and the messages you've given, it's definitely a boost to hear you guys are enjoying the story so far. I've been going through the story recently and correcting mistakes when I can. Joel's brother's name for example, it was originally going to be Connor but I switched it to Jacob later on and forgot to go back and correct it, so my bad on that. Hope to have another chapter for you all out soon.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Edited as of: (10/26/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

SCARRED

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'Nice try!' _I reacted the instant I sensed movement, dispatching my first robotic foe with a decapitating strike from _Circuit, _twisting with motion as I sent two knives hurtling through the air to strike at the pair of AKs trying to sneak up on me, burying them to the hilt in their chests. They had barely managed another awkward step before sparking wildly, overloading as I ran my _Conduction_ through them with a confident grin.

_'Everything seems to be working so far...' _I mused, snatching one of the robotic bladed limbs charging after me, flipping the owner onto the ground, before sending another quick shock to keep it down for good. _'Must be some kind of new model. It seems even easier than before to guide the current. Or maybe that's just me...' _I'd have to arrange more time to properly gauge my limits later, especially if with the new semester coming around.

Training, exercise, anything to calm me down right now, as I straightened up, signaling the staff member on duty, a very enthusiastic Professor Port, for another group. _'What the hell happened to you, Jake?'_I readied myself, twirling _Circuit_ in my hand as more drones were lifted into the arena, these sporting a combination of close and long range. _'Was this my fault, the Fang's... or did you **always** feel this way!?' _I split my staff into connected twin daggers, one blade clutched in my offhand, the other spinning in a circular pattern on my right side at the end of a long silver coil. _'If I'd stayed...'_

The spinning blade lashed out like a serpent as I leapt forward, piercing the closest AK through the faceplate in a shower of sparks. I halted as the others raised their arms, the blades affixed to their arms shifting into automatics. With a burst of Aura, I tugged the blade back along with the still-twitching remains of the drone, holding it up as an impromptu shield, and bracing behind it as the others lit up my position with a hail of stun rounds.

_'These things are getting better at coordinating. Atlas must've brought along upgraded software,'_ I noted, charging forward with a roar as round after round clattered against the drone shield. I crashed into my closest attacker with a crushing tackle, and tore my blade from the face plate in a hail of sparks as I sent both wrecks to the ground in a heap.

"That's two..." I spun around just as one moved to stab me in the back, catching the blade with the coil, using its own weight to bring it to the ground, where I finished it, grabbing it by the head, and twisting it off with my Semblance-enhanced grip. "Three..." The others fell within seconds, one with a charged blade through its chestpiece, and the other falling broken and sparking from a flurry of heavy Aura-fueled blows, limbs snapped at the joints. Satisfied with the workout, I took a deep breath, wiping sweat off my brow as I collapsed my weapon.

Looking around, I noticed my session had drawn a fair number of onlookers. Some were cheering for an encore, others just stood there intrigued, or nodding approvingly. Ever since the start of the new semester, I'd noticed a definite shift in attitude amongst other students, especially after the little media storm that had popped up in the wake of the Trapper attack. Even some of the Faunus students, much to Kaplan's chagrin, were coming up to me with words of thanks, or requests to train and share fighting techniques, which I was more than happy to provide. There were still dissenters, however, if less than before, and the popularity did have its fair share of drawbacks...

"Well, well, looks like you're feelin' better!" I glanced over my shoulder as Ben stepped up onto the arena, clapping his hands together loudly. "Glad to see you back at one hundred percent!..." He glanced around at the scattered mechanic remains. "Y'know the school's probably gonna start billin' us pretty soon, if you keep breakin' their stuff like this, right?"

"How many Scrolls have you and Max lost or broken between the two of you, again?" I shot back, trying to ignore a huddled group of girls whispering amongst themselves, shooting me, or parts of me, furtive glances. _'Not again...'_

"_Ooooh_, looks like Psycho's got himself a fan club," the sniper grinned, clapping me on the back. "I'd watch out. Blondie might get jealous." He winked at them, sending them into a fit of excited giggles. "Maybe train in your combat gear next time. Gives 'em less to ogle at." He gestured to the tank top and shorts I was sporting. I would've done just that if I still wasn't sore from the surgery, the incision marks only having just finished healing completely, but still tender to sudden contact.

"Probably should..." I muttered in annoyance, pushing past him on my way to the locker room. "But still, it's not as if Yang and I have been very subtle with what we're doing. Dinners in the cafeteria, dates to Vale... You'd think they'd get the hint and lay off."

"You're still the man who took down a big, scary Trapper, remember? Albeit with some help."

"A _lot_ of help," I corrected, stripping off my shirt, before dumping the contents of a water bottle over my head, savoring the feeling of cold water on irritated skin. "Yang's the real hero. I was just the last one standing after the fight, and barely at that."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you did win, and gained a bit of fame on the side. Add in that you're athletic, and not half-bad lookin' - friendly opinion on my part only - and it's _no wonder_ you have admirers." He shrugged as I shot him an angry scowl, stepping back over to the door to peer out at them. "If anything, datin' a girl like Blondie only makes ya seem more attractive to some of 'em. Feminine psychology's kinda weird like that..." he sighed, before looking back over his shoulder as I slipped on my school blazer. "So, on another less fun note, was it the Atlesians who fixed you up? We missed you in trainin' today."

"Sort of. Turns out my little brother's working closely with them on the security for the festival, among other... things. Seems he managed to pencil me into his busy schedule to fix up my limiters for me."

"Your _brother?_ I thought you said he was workin' with the SDC? Or at least in their buildin', anyway."

"Yeah, I did too. Turns out the good General Ironwood brought the whole party down from Atlas with him," I said in a mock cheery voice as we left the gym, trying to ignore the stares. "We had a _great_ time. We caught up, had some drinks; it was nice."

The sniper looked at me before shaking his head. "Ice Queen's right; you _do_ suck at sarcasm. So how'd it _really_ go?

"How do you _think?_" I replied bitterly, scratching at my hair in irritation. "Started off awkward as hell, and ended with us angrier than ever at each other. It's been months since I've seen him... Don't know why I expected anything to have improved." I flexed my arm, applying a bit more Aura to take the edge off.

"Sorry to bring it up. Reika ran off somewhere, and I thought she might've been lookin' for ya." A flash of worry crossed his face as I shook my head. "Oh well. Not like this isn't a favorite habit of hers. Probably just messin' around on the roof somewhere." He shrugged his shoulders before glancing back at me. "So your brother... You wanna talk about it?" Ben asked nervously, laughing awkwardly.

"Nope." I said simply, signaling an end to the topic. "Though, I do want to ask you..."

"The food fight?" he blurted out, chuckling to himself. "Right, that... Well, RWBY started it... Or maybe JNPR? Bit of a split on who to blame, exactly, but I can tell ya we didn't get involved. At least until your moody rage bomb of a partner took some soda to the face, and sent everything flyin'. Thankfully, the Witch sorted everything out before it got too out of hand, and no one got hurt. Nothin' they couldn't laugh off, anyway."

"That's nice to hear, but I was talking about earlier, when I asked you about the co-leader position."

"Oh, so it's a '_position_' now, and not just some dumb idea you had?" He picked up his pace, holding out his arm to stop me. "If you're plannin' on dyin' anytime soon, why not just make Bitch the leader? She actually seems to want the responsibility!"

This was just getting childish, and I was way too tired to put up with it. "Ben, we both know why that wouldn't work. Nothing against Max, but she's too hotheaded, and _definitely_ way too emotional. You, on the other hand, I could depend on to get both her and Reika out of trouble if something happened to me."

"If this is some of that 'you not wantin' the position makes you the most qualified' bullshit, I'm gonna deck you, Psycho. I really am!"

I groaned, running a hand down my face, before pushing my way past him. "No, actually. I'm choosing you _because_ you're the most qualified, dumbass..." He tried to speak up, but I shut him down with a harsh stare. "And you can bitch about it all you want, but contrary to what you seem to believe, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon. It's just prudent to have a back-up plan. Besides, Yang would never forgive me if I let something like that happen, after all the effort she spent getting us together."

I grinned, the blonde's smiling face fresh in my mind. _'Least now I don't have to worry about ruining he'rhair with just a hug...'_ I thought to myself, remembering one disastrous incident where Yang practically tackled me as I made my way out of class, causing me to shock her on reflex by accident. _'They're still patching things up from her rampage...' _I shivered despite myself.

"If you say so..." Ben groaned, scratching at his shoulder irritably. "But you're the one tellin' Max about this. Your choice, your responsibility if she blows up." I nodded blankly, before catching sight of Ruby sprinting her team's dorm room in a hurry on an intercept course for a trio of students in Haven uniforms. "Careful, Red!" my teammate cried out, darting forward with a burst of Aura and his Semblance, just managing to catch the girl before she crashed, the girl's legs a comically moving blur as the sniper held her at arms length. "I thought we talked about this? You need to look where you're runnin'!"

"Um, sorry..." the girl said awkwardly, looking at both us and the trio in surprise, before Ben plopped her back down on the floor. "Thanks for the save."

"Yes, thank you…" the mint green-haired girl Ruby would've bumped into spoke up, nodding her head towards Ben in thanks, before looking down at the hooded Huntress. "Your friend here's right. You should probably watch where you're running next time. Someone could get hurt." Ruby nodded apologetically.

For a moment, I felt something was off. I'd had a feeling I'd seen this girl somewhere before, heard her voice...

"Um, well, I'm Ruby! Are you new to Beacon?" she asked, trying to save face.

However, it was one of the girl's companions who answered her, causing us all to look back. It was a tall pale girl with long flowing dark hair, and eyes the color of flames that seemed to draw you in the longer you looked at them. I'd seen beauty before, looks that made your heart stop. _'But this girl takes that literally...' _I glanced out of the corner of my eye at Ben, who I noticed was similarly stunned and at a loss for words. _'That's a first...'_

"Visiting from Haven, actually," she said, stepping forward to face Ruby, who stared back at her blankly.

"_Ooh!_ You're here for the Festival!... But exchange students have their own dormitory," Ruby inquired, pointing off towards nowhere in particular.

"Y-yeah," I spoke up, trying to ignore the slight hiccup as I spoke when, that girl's eyes rested on me, flashing ominously in the dimly lit hallway. It as a strange feeling, as if she were looking not at my face, but at my soul, judging me. Even her smile unnerved me, too. Unlike Yang, who's smile lit up a room and made my heart swell, hers put me on edge, as if I were staring down a rabid Beowolf. _'Actually... I'd probably take the Beowolf at this point. At least that's something I know.'_

I couldn't resist the urge to slightly narrow my eyes. "Students here for the Festival are being housed in the dorm just east of here," I confirmed.

She nodded, while the third student, a boy a few inches shorter then me, with silvery-grey hair moved past her, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Thanks. We must've just been turned around," he said casually, cocking his head towards his friends. "Our mistake."

"Happens to everyone, right?" Ben said with a dry laugh.

The boy glanced over at him then down to his artificial arm with a sly smirk. _'The other girl was an unknown oddity... But this guy right here? Reads like a book. Bloodlust...' _I bristled under his touch, his hand jumping slightly as a small shock ran through it, causing him to look at me with a flash of anger and fearful confusion. '_He's dangerous.'_ I stared him down, narrowed eyes fixed on his, until he lowered his gaze.

"Thanks for your help. Maybe we'll see you all around," the beauty said as she moved past Ruby, nodding her head at the Huntress, before swaying her way down the hallway, followed by a scowling silver head. The other girl, however, had stepped in front of me, crimson red eyes examining my face closely.

"Uh... do you need something else?" I asked somewhat awkwardly as the girl leaned closer with a curious smile on her face.

"No, just wanted to get a measure of you. The news teams _definitely_ did not do you justice," she sighed, giggling at my expression as she skipped after her fellow students, waving back to us just as she rounded the corner out of sight.

"Well, that was... bracin'." Ben fell back against the wall, chuckling to himself as he scratched at his shoulder, before smirking back at me, "Now that there's a woman you don't wanna cross. Along with another one of your fans, Psycho. Aren't you popular nowadays?"

I couldn't help but join in the laughter, clutching at my side as I fought to get the shakes out of my system.

"Joel..." I paused, seeing Ruby staring at me, cheeks bright red and puffed up angrily. "You aren't thinking of cheating on Yang, are you? I saw the way you were looking at that other..." I burst out laughing even harder this time, ruffling the girl's hair much to her protest and waving arms, trying to bat my arm away, "J-Joel!? Ack, s-stop it! I'm seri- Ah!"

"Haha, sorry..." I said to the small girl, giving her a reassuring smile as I leaned down to her level. I'd always been on good terms with the diminutive Huntress as a fellow leader and friend, but since saving her sister and in light of our relationship, I'd started seeing the girl more and more as a little sister. '_Hopefully, I don't screw this one up, too...'_

I pushed the traitorous thought aside quickly. "Just because some random girls start showing interest, beauties included..." I winced as Ruby karate chopped me on the forehead with a muttered "hi-yah" for the joke, "they still have nothing on your big sis, and how she makes me feel."

Ruby nodded before patting me on the head, standing tall as her small frame would let her. "Well, that's great to hear, because if you _were_ thinking about it..." Her teeth flashed, forming a truly wicked grin for such an innocent face. "Then my sweetheart and I would need to have a little _chat_ with you. Understand?"

"Perfectly," I nodded, leaning back up quickly before I found myself minus a head. _'Huntress... Right. Sometimes it's way too easy to forget that.'_

"Great! Now, I need to run and grab my board game from the library before it closes. Then I had something important I wanted to talk about with your team..." She looked around the hallway, before whispering just loudly enough for us to hear. "It's about Torchwick..."

* * *

**_-Jacob Ambrose-_**

**(Frontier City of Bastion, Aegis Academy Induction Ceremony - Approximately 5 Years Ago)**

"Jake, sit up!"

I looked up wearily from the blue and green tiled floor of the auditorium, having spent the last hour absently trying to judge how many tiles of each color there were by the estimated size of the room and the dimensions of each square. _'Somehow that's more appealing than this speech could ever hope to be... Starting to think I'm pretty close to getting it right, actually.' _I turned to face my mother who sat next to me, already in the process of waking up Dad, who sat on my other side, from his stupor. "They're starting the ceremony. Joel will be up soon if they go by the usual order. Pay attention."

"They haven't even started?" I gaped at her, looking towards the ornate stage where an elderly councilman, Bastion's link to the other Kingdoms, stood droning on and on about honor, and the role of Huntsmen in modern society to the incoming students assembled at the front.

_'This is just annoying... Idle time is wasted time. You'd think a city famous for its Huntsmen would understand that,'_ I thought I could make out Brother sitting next to his friend, Natalie, her blue-streaked hair sticking out even from this distance. _'From the looks of it, he's not finding it much more entertaining than we are.' _Behind the councilman himself sat the assembled staff and dignitaries of the city. The recently elected Mayor Corbell, Natalie's father, and my grandfather, Kenneth Ambrose, stood out from the others. The mayor saw me looking his way, and waved subtly, flashing me a pained grin.

"He sure likes to hear himself talk."

"I'm not arguing that..." Father patted me on the shoulder, earning a stern look from his wife. "But it's important information if you look past all the long-winded bits. Your brother's taking a big step forward today."

_'Definitely a big step.' _I looked around the hall, taking in the sheer size of the massive structure. Joel had been wrapped up in Grandpa Ken's special brand of hell for the last few months, training in the city's outskirts in preparation for his chance at today. _'Attending one of the most renowned Huntsman Academies on the face of Remnant_. _The chance to gain fame and fortune by throwing himself against the monsters of the world. Who **wouldn't** want that?' _Any sane person, I would imagine. But Mom and Grandpa had been Huntsmen for years, decades in Grandpa's case, and they seemed content enough with the life. I sighed in relief as the councilman was finally dragged aside, with Grandfather took his place, the large man standing above us all, looking out at the sea of young faces beneath him.

"Thank you, Councilor, for that... _invigorating_ speech. Truly memorable." He nodded to the man as a round of scattered claps rose up from the more polite in the audience. "Now, on to why we're all truly here..." He waved an arm at the assembled students, as a woman pushing a cart laden with scrolls joined him at his side. "As Headmaster and commanding officer of the Aegis Huntsman Academy, and proud Huntsman of Bastion, let me be the first to welcome a new generation of Remnant's protectors. Huntsmen and Huntresses; future heroes all!" Cheers and applause roared up from the crowd at the words.

_'Short and to the point. Best speech ever.'_

"Please step forward... Aaron Agrona!" An enormous brick wall of a student got to his feet, and began making his way up to the stage. '_Wonder if he's the norm around here?' _I thought as I watched him and the Headmaster shake hands, standing almost at equal height with each other, before the next one made his way up. This one and many of the other new students had similar builds, all muscle and size. "Michelle Aldrich... Joel Ambrose..." Compared to the other students, Joel looked to be skin and bone, all lean muscles, and a head smaller than the first boy had been.

"That's him!" Mom was up on her feet now, cheering wildly, while Dad let out a loud whoop. The rest of the hall, however, had gone silent, as the now thoroughly embarrassed young man walked down his row and into the aisle. "We love you, honey!" He waved back at her, a nervous grin on his face, before quickening his pace, beaming as Grandfather presented him with a scroll and shook his hand.

"So that's the new Ambrose..." a gruff voice muttered behind me. "Scrawny one, ain't he? I swear, they'll let anyone that can swing a sword in these days."

"Well, what'd you expect? The line's been decaying for years now. Kenneth's son couldn't make the cut. You expect the scion of _THAT_ to be much better? Even with a woman like Patrice's genes, you can only go so far from nothing," another voice replied laughing.

I felt my fingers clench so hard it hurt, sneaking a look over my shoulder to see just who it was that was speaking. Two older men sitting a few rows back, Huntsmen, judging by the swords on their belts, and the haughty air of superiority practically wafting off of them and the way they spoke, not seeming to care who heard them. Bastion was advanced in many things, but a Frontier City was a Frontier City, and tradition put Huntsmen above the common man. _'Especially the wealthy and/or connected ones...' _I seethed angrily. Barbaric, most of them. No thought given to a person's merit beyond the strength of their Aura, and if they can fight worth a damn. _'Joel has as much, if not more natural Aura than any of them down there, so now they're picking over his size. **Real** mature.'_

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Mom shaking her head, a sad smile on her face, while Dad just stood there staring at Joel as he left the stage, practically glowing with pride, but a vein in his neck told a very different story.

"I heard Patrice had two sons. The younger one at least looks as if he has a bit of Kenneth in him. Is he in training?"

"Hardly. Didn't you hear? The boy's Aura was tested recently..." the second man laughed loudly. "Apparently it was pitiful; not even worth the trouble of cultivating for training at all. Useless."

I was shaking as my parents let out another loud cheer for Natalie, the small girl scrambling out of her seat, tripping slightly on her way up. _'Smart girl. Surprising that she wants to be a Huntress so badly.' _I suppose having the option, though... _'Not as if a small part of me doesn't wish the same...'_

"Just bear with it..." Mom whispered under her breath. "They're not worth the trouble."

"So that's one Huntsman, at least," the first one piped up again, slapping his knee loudly. These two must be important if no one had said anything yet. "And what a sight he is. More a toothpick for the beasts, than a proper meal. Little shit probably _begged_ Kenneth to cheat him into the system. How else do you explain it?"

"You know, it must be a real shame..." I said loudly with a shrug, drawing the eyes of everyone in the vicinity. "Having to resort to bad mouthing others with more potential than either of you've ever had, just to make yourselves feel superior in retirement. It's just sad to anyone with half a brain, really, though I guess that's asking too much."

"What did you say, you cur!?" one of them shouted, getting to his feet, staring down at me in a combination of anger and disbelief. "_What _did you say!?"

I felt Mom's hand tighten its grip on my shoulder, willing me to stop, but I was having the time of my life. Grandpa was just rattling off names, so obviously we weren't disturbing anything yet. "Huh? Are your senses dulling along with your brains in your old age? You two obviously heard what I said, or you wouldn't be angry in the first place, would you?"

"_You...!_" He put a hand of the handle of his sword, making to draw it, but froze, shivering as he looked over my shoulder, mouth open dumbly. His buddy wasn't doing to hot either, paling until he was white as a sheet. I followed their eyes, and saw both Mom and Grandpa were staring at them, eyes blazing. Suddenly, the entire room felt a few degrees colder, as the Huntsmen standing took a seat again, bowing his head apologetically. I grinned at him cheekily, until I was forced back into my seat, a vice on my shoulder.

"Ah, Mom!"

"Sit down; you've said quite enough!" she hissed, voice cold as I realized the entire hall was staring at us. "Continue please, Headmaster. I have the situation handled." Kenneth nodded back to her and went back to reciting names, attention slowly drifting away from us back to the other students. "Really, Jake... I expected better..."

"You heard what they were saying; how could I...!?" I started but a quick look from her was enough to make me lower my voice for fear of what would come. "They were talking about you, too... And Joel..."

"As they have every right to. What does it matter what they believe?" she said in a hushed tone, staring me full in the face. "It isn't your fault, or anything you or Joel have done. They're merely venting frustration at your grandfather by taking it out on the rest of us. The Ambrose name has never been a very popular one around the higher-ups, considering some of us are too outspoken for our own good." She stared at me pointedly, before pointing down to where Joel sat, shooting us nervous glances as he tried to split his attention between us and the ceremony. "This day, however, belongs to your brother. He earned his spot, and nothing those trumped-up monkeys say can change that. He chose to take their abuse when he chose to become a Huntsman, and worked his hardest every day to shove it back in their faces with every success. And this is only the beginning for him." She wrapped an arm around me, and ruffled my hair playfully. "But don't let yourself think everything else they said was true, either. Joel has his own path, and you have yours. You don't need to be Huntsman to help people, especially with a mind like yours." She tapped my forehead with her finger.

_'She's right...' _I realized, looking back at the Huntsman I'd just humiliated, his eyes drilling into my skull, filled with hate. '_I can help people, even if I can't use Aura. Police, military, they all get by...'_

"Get by..." Yes, that was the problem. Man had to depend on the Huntsmen to save them. The rest of us regular men and women could only act as glorified meat shields against the Grimm and "get by."

"...But I could stop that..." I murmured to myself, even as the entire room exploded into rounds of applause for the new students. "I'll could help create a world where anyone could defend themselves and their loved ones from danger, regardless of how much Aura you were born with... A world where everyone has a chance, and good Huntsmen like my mother and grandfather don't have to put themselves at risk, while bastards like this sit here lording over the rest of us over how great they used to be..."

"You could change the world, Jake. Just wait. Your time will come."

At those words, the world seemed to shift. The enormous room morphed into a smoking ballroom. Mom was in a tattered dress, hovering over me, glowing with Aura as she told me to stay awake, blood in my eyes. A dull thump and a heavy weight collapsed on my chest, while a man with horns stood above me with something smoking in his hand, followed an inhuman scream of rage splitting the air, as a large shadow tackled him...

* * *

**(Present)**

My eyes snapped open, jolting me back to reality as I raised my head up from my position at the foot of the infirmary bed. The girl I'd caught sneaking in the vents still laid there unconscious, but, thankfully, breathed steadily, it seemed. I quickly scrolled through the logs to check if anything new had come up. Thankfully, however, it seemed Allison had kept things going smoothly, and the new AKs would be ready for tomorrow after all.

_'Ironwood will be pleased. All they have to do is kick and pose.' _I'd been pulling near constant all-nighters for weeks now, making sure everything would go perfectly. It wast he reason why I've been passing out so easily lately every time I sat down, or leaned on something for too long. But at least it was done.

Unfortunately, now that left me time to dwell. It was never a good thing to let a brain like mine sit idle for too long.

_'I start dredging up the past again, and there's no good for anyone in doing that... Just time wasted on something frivolous, when it could've been spent doing something productive.'_

It was all Joel's fault. Just the thought of him was getting under my skin like a bad rash. "Idiotic..." I muttered, turning back as the girl began to stir slightly, eyes darting down to scan the personnel file Allison had retrieved from Beacon's records, before peering down at the ornate silver mask on the bedside table beside her. "Well, now isn't that a coincidence?"

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

Pain... That was the first thing I felt as awareness slowly came back to me. My muscles were sore, tensing with every slight movement despite the space beneath being surprisingly soft and comfortable...

_'A bed?... No. If I got caught, it's probably a cell...'_ My eyes opened into slits, soft lights beating down from above, air circulating steadily through the room, and leaving a slight chill on my face...

_'...Wait, my **face!**'_

Ignoring all thoughts of pain or discomfort, my limbs shot to my face, heart stopping as I realized it was bare, fingers worrying at the edges of the scars and soft pale skin. _'The mask! Where's...!"_

"Woah! Easy!" My eyes focused as I finally took note of where I was. I was lying in a bed, wearing a thick hospital gown in the middle of some kind of unfamiliar medical facility, deserted except for... "Look, I know this is probably disorienting, but you need to calm down. You're still not fully recov...!"

I didn't give him time to finish speaking, Joel's brother or not. I'd caught sight of my mask and lunged for it, pushing him aside like a rag doll as I quickly went to work on the straps. I breathed out a sigh of unbridled relief as I got it firmly back into place, heart rate dropping steadily, before pain shot through my limbs as the adrenaline went with it, leaving me gasping for breath against the edge of the bed.

"Tried to tell you..." Jacob groaned in annoyance before, staring more closely at the mask. "So it was an issue of comfort, after all." I tried to focus through the pain as the younger Ambrose picked himself up off the floor, adjusting his glasses. "The matron suggested keeping it close just in case. Good for me, it seems. The rest of your gear is in the other room. You can pick it up once you're cleared to go, and we've determined you haven't seen anything _too_ confidential, or left anything behind."

_'Cleared to go?' _I looked around the room, confused. _'But I snuck in here. I broke into a secure military airship, and they're just going to let me go?'_

"Reika Murasaki. Yes, we've already accessed and gone over your Beacon file. Member of Team AMBR, led by Joel Ambrose..." the tall man said holding up a watch, a small holographic screen springing to life just above its surface. "Not too much on record, but from what we can see, you aren't a threat to anyone currently on the ship, or our interests. Likely, you're here just looking out for your team's leader, correct?"

I hesitated slightly, but nodded. I wasn't sure if I was confessing to a crime, or answering a simple question.

"Well, you may or may not be aware of this, depending on how long you were listening in on our talk, but my name is Jacob Ambrose. I'm Joel's younger brother." He bowed his head towards me in greeting. "I hope we can get past the whole awkwardness of my assistant stunning you like that, earlier." He scratched at his head awkwardly, similar to how Joel would sometimes. "We've had assassination attempts in the past by White Fang agents, so tightening security measures was unavoidable. Can't afford the luxury of being too discerning in a situation like that." I tried to sit up again, but halted as my limbs screamed in protest. The large boy shook his head. "I'd take it slow at first. The electrical current you took would be strong enough to put my brother on his ass for a bit, and he's pretty resistant. That you were only out for a few hours, and not hurt worse is... actually pretty astonishing, to tell you the truth."

He looked at me expecting a response. _'I guess normally you would respond to an apology.' _I blushed underneath my mask, pointing to where my mouth would be, and shaking my head.

His eyebrows rose, before he took a closer look at my file, nodding in understanding moments later. "So it's like that, is it? My mistake..." he sighed, grabbing up his chair and sitting down with a weary groan. He really was massive, at least a head taller than Joel was, and bulky, rather than lean like his brother. "Terrible first impression, I know. I don't really spend a lot of time interacting with others much while I'm working, at least in person, anyway. I guess I must be a bit out of practice." He took out a small Scroll from his pocket and passed it to me. "Use this. Just type out any responses you might have... Or I suppose you could nod or shake your head, if that makes you more comfortable."

I stared down at the interface, a pit in my stomach. I'd gotten pretty good with grammar and writing since coming to Beacon, but I was hardly proficient to carry out a long conversation like this.

"So, now that we can communicate, I'd just like to say that, on behalf of myself and the medical staff, we're deeply sorry if we passed some sort of personal line with your mask and the scars." He gestured to my face with an apologetic expression. "Your breathing was pretty shallow when I brought you in, and the nurses said it could interfere with air flow. Despite it being for your health, however, it still wasn't fair to you."

I narrowed my eyes, drawing Aura away from the healing just long enough to read his own with my Semblance, looking for some sign of deceit. The results were shocking, to say the least. The boy barely registered to my senses. If I had closed my eyes and went by this sense alone, I was slightly ashamed to admit I probably might've overlooked him as some plant or small animal. The feeling was... disconcerting, but from what I could feel, the boy was truly sorry about what had been done.

_"Why?" _I typed out slowly, unfamiliar with the device. I had a Scroll of my own, but that was just a carry-around key to my room, or paperweight to me for the most part. I usually just followed my teammates, a teacher, or my Semblance if I needed to get somewhere or find someone, and the call and text features were understandably worthless, considering my communication issue with my voice and literacy.

"Why am I acting so sorry, you mean?" he looked down at the floor, taking a deep breath before looking back at me. "I think it's because I wouldn't want someone to see my own scars in a similar situation, though they are a bit easier to hide, I'll admit." He reached toward his collar, loosening the tie he wore and a few buttons, and pulling aside the top of the collared shirt to reveal a web of burned tissue and scarring extending from the right side of his neck, as well as down a good portion of his upper body. "The remnants of a White Fang terrorist bombing that went off a few feet away from me. Blew off my right leg, and put me in a coma for a month, along with leaving a little above forty percent of what remained like this." He sorted out his appearance, before giving his leg a hard tap on the knee, the sound of metal ringing out audibly. "Point is, I understand the feeling of wanting to hide it, as well as the looks some people give them."

I nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about. There was a reason I wasn't showing off my face to everyone, even around Ben. I gave him a sympathetic look, a relieved smile crossing his features before shifting back to brisk and businesslike, activating what looked to be a compact Scroll inside of his watch.

"Okay, now for the sake of security, I do have to ask you how much you heard of Joel and myself's conversation. Were you following us the whole way, or did you come in towards the end, just as he left?" I nodded my head at the latter. Ambrose nodded, letting out a sigh of relief as he typed out a small note, and sent it on its way, before getting to his feet. "Good. So, if there's nothing else..."

_"Why were you and Joel fighting?_" I typed out slowly, screwing up my face as I tried to sound out the word in my head, like I'd practiced with the Professor. I expected no reply, but instead he just frowned, seemingly debating how to answer.

"That's... a bit of a _sensitive_ topic at the moment. I can't go into any great detail with someone I'm not sure of. Aside from that, however, I guess it was, for the most part, stress and anger on my part, as well as a difference of opinion..." he responded, sitting down in the chair again, chin on one palm while the other tapped away at his leg. "Has Joel... mentioned me much to you and your team? You didn't seem surprised when I told you my name."

_"Not a lot," _I admitted, clearing the board quickly. _"He says you hate him,"_ I wrote awkwardly, avoiding meeting his gaze. His eyes were eerily similar to Joel's, only a bit darker.

Jacob raised an eyebrow, but said nothing at first, instead leaning back in the chair with a creak as he glanced at the ceiling. "Yeah... He probably _would_ say something like that... Not like I did much to dissuade the notion today." He looked back at me, smiling sadly, looking suddenly tired, exhausted even. "Well, I can tell you this: however it might have sounded to you, or what he thinks, I can't say I hate Joel. More like I was disappointed at first, and now... Now, I don't know what to make of him."

I could remember Joel shouting about life, some sort of army, the soul... _'What kind of argument were these two having?'_

"You have to understand that Joel and I, despite how things may look now, were actually quite close growing up. A byproduct of where we lived." I stared at him for a few seconds with a confused gaze, before he elaborated further. "Neither of us were 'social butterflies,' or had a lot of friends growing up for various reasons. Our grandfather was a big time hero where we grew up, and he was either hated or adored. The man was practically a legend in the Frontier, if a bit controversial for some of his views and policies. Joel and I were the legacy of his only son, who failed to become a Huntsman like his father, and a respected Huntress, who was too daft to get out while she could still find a decent match. That's how the city of Bastion, or at least the upper class that lived in it, viewed us." He said it so bitterly, face darkening as he clenched his hands into fists. "Completely _false,_ of course. Dad was a better man, by far, who acknowledged his limits, and joined the police afterwards so he could still help others. Mom met him while they were in Huntsman Academy, and married him even after he left, despite her 'friends' protesting that she could do better."

_"Why?" _I asked, confused as to why any of that would even matter, if their father wasn't a Huntsman. People quit all the time; it was a hard life, and not everyone could make the cut. _'If anything, that makes what he did afterwards even more admirable.'_

"Where we grew up, being a Huntsman meant you were a celebrity; a hero. One's skills could take him to the heights of a society, where legacy and the appearance of glorified 'honor' was paramount," he said sarcastically, his fingers resuming their rhythmic tempo on his leg. "It was different culture from the Kingdoms, by far. Normal citizens did the majority of the work, but it was the wealthy and the powerful, the Huntsmen, that ran the city, and they made sure you knew it. If you couldn't serve, or weren't from a some big family name or position, then you weren't as important. That our father, despite his upbringing, messed up was deemed a shame to them, and something they judged Joel and I harshly on when we were born. And man, did they have fuel to burn with that fire..." he chuckled darkly under his breath, holding up a finger between us. "First off, you have Joel, who, despite how he might look now, grew up small and sickly; hardly the image of the 'proud' and 'mighty' Huntsman the city tried to portray. The other kids sure took advantage of that..."

He held up another finger. "And then you have me, with barely any Aura to speak of. Plus, it didn't help any that I was literally the smartest person I knew growing up." He shrugged at the skeptic expression I gave him. "What? Being humble just ends up bringing more attention to it, and makes you sound even more like a tool in the end. Do you know many ten-year olds that knew more about the underlying physics of Dust use, and the applications of mechanical engineering, after a few months of studying their way through about half a library, and a few old research journals, than most experienced Huntsmen or engineers did, even going so far as to create a more Dust efficient battery, capable of powering electronics and small vehicles at the age of eleven for a school science project?"

As arrogant as the question sounded, there was not one trace of conceit in his voice. Rather, it merely sounded as if he were just listing off a simple fact. Even his face didn't change much, no smile or flash of pride in his eye. Still, I was surprised he wasn't winded from that long sentence.

"Suffice it to say that it didn't exactly go a long way towards making me popular with kids my own age, so a lot of the time it was just me and my brother looking out for each other. Even after we grew older and things changed, Joel found people that he could count on in his new life, and began making a name for himself as an Huntsman-in-training, while my ideas and designs began to find more and more acclaim after people started to realize they actually worked. Atlas, especially." He waved a hand at the room, before tugging at his uniform wistfully.

_"So what happened?"_

"The White Fang and their 'war for equality' happened..." the younger Ambrose spat out, even angrier than before. "They attacked a celebration honoring my father for taking down one of their smuggling rings. A pair of White Fang infiltrators set off a bomb in the middle of the dance floor, killing dozens, including Dad, and injuring me before going on a rampage, killing those that survived. Only reason I'm here today is because my mom used what she could of her Aura to keep me alive, at the cost of lowering her defenses... One of the Faunus saw what she was doing, and..." He made a shooting motion with his hand, a sad look in his eye. "Would've finished me off if Joel hadn't gotten him away from me... When I woke up, the nurses told me that Joel had activated his Semblance, and used it to kill the one he grabbed, before authorities busted into the room and shot down the other one... Hell of a thing to wake up to. Then, when Joel came to see me, he was... different."

_"I am sorry," _I keyed in, nodding my head towards him. He smiled a bit, before glancing at his watch as a message flashed across it. I thought I heard him mutter something under his breath, before pushing it off the screen.

"Don't be. Unlike my brother, I made my peace with it long ago. It was a stupid, senseless act of violence, that ended with the perpetrators' deaths. Joel was the one who took it too far. Though, I have to say, it does feel nice to talk about this with someone without any sort of degree..." he exclaimed, stretching out his arms as he cricked his back. "It's true what they say about filling the silence: it all just came out at once. Anyway, I'm certain you know how the rest of it went. Joel runs off with his friend Natalie to join the Red Hand, something I argued against _profusely,_ by the way, leaving me to fend for myself in a city of vultures, picking at the corpses of those that died for any bits of power they could. Didn't hear or see any sign of him until his trial years later, and by then, we had little else to say to one another."

_"And you never hated him for that?"_

"Of course not. Trapper, Terrorist, or Huntsman, he's still my brother, even if I have to do my part to rid our name of the mess he's caused it..." He got up and hobbled to the door, a bit shakily due to the leg or his own weariness, before pausing abruptly to look back at me. "...You've known him for a few months now, haven't you? Lived alongside him, and you're even willing to infiltrate the most dangerous ship in the Atlesian airfleet to have his back... Why?"

I thought about it for a moment. There were many viable answers to that question, after all. Joel was my team leader, and, more importantly, my teammate. It was my duty to look after him... I owed him for doing his part to help me adjust to Beacon and my new lifestyle... He'd probably do the same thing in a heartbeat, without even thinking...

_"He's my friend," _I answered, staring him full in the face, brilliant violet meeting dark blue.

Jacob stared at me for a few seconds, before nodding and grinning broadly. "My brother was always a strange one... Indecisive, sarcastic, and always down on himself..." he said slowly, crossing his arms as he leaned against the door frame. "But if the need arose, he would change in a heartbeat, and become this figure that could inspire and lead; someone you could depend on to be there for you... That was the Joel I used to know, before the White Fang and the Red Hand ripped him apart and spat back the terrorist he became... But if what I've heard and seen is true... then perhaps the brother I knew is back, after all..."

He bowed deeply to me before righting himself, a serious expression on his face. "Thank you for that, but when you see him again, could you do me a favor and pass on a message for me? He left before I could let him know."

I nodded hesitantly as I stretched my limbs, relieved to find that most of the aches and pains had disappeared for the most part, allowing me to stand up from the bed.

"Let him know that, whether or not he's changed, even if he's more Huntsman than Trapper now, if he attempts to get in the way of the world that I, General Ironwood, and the rest of Atlas is trying to build... he _will_ be crushed without mercy or remorse, even if he is my brother... A pleasure, Miss Murasaki. Truly." He left me alone in the room with that, metal door sliding behind him.

I couldn't help but feel a cold shiver run down my spine as I gathered my equipment, changing quickly as I felt _Strike Lotus' _comforting weight beside me. _'He's more like his brother then he even realizes...'_I thought to myself, remembering the determination I'd seen in his gaze, and how his Aura had felt at the statement. _'He meant what he said... Nothing will stop him...'_

To see such a will in someone probably only a few months younger than myself was terrifying. To feel the true weight of it using my Semblance was even more so.

_'Ambrose, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?'_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Kenneth Ambrose - Steve Downes

**_A/N: So I in no way had any idea this chapter would be this long, it started for the most part as an attempt to give Jake some reason for being the way he is but I'm not sure if I pulled it off the way I intended. Anyway sorry if it wasn't too exciting, this was more of a sort of build up chapter leading into the whole Vale bit which is definitely going to get a bit crazy to say the least given all the different perspectives and action I get to work with so look forward to that in the near future._**

**_To the guest reviewer: Yes I believe a soul is a soul as well despite where it comes from though I can understand the thoughts of those that PMed me giving their own opinions on the matter. Some of the discussions got very deep and I'm actually amazed at the split. (Though most everyone seemed to unanimously agree that if I hurt Penny I burn, real soul or not)_**

**_Also just a note for the story, I've gone back and added little codex segments at the end of my earlier chapters (1, 3, and 5 at the moment I believe) that have a bit of info about some OC bits of the world like Joel's home Bastion and the Badlands where Reika and Ben grew up. It's mostly just flavor bits and I'm still looking to see if I should add more._**

**_As always thanks for your support, the next chapter might be awhile with finals coming up but I'll do my best. - Mojo_**

**_EDIT 5/1/2015: Yeah so I realized I don't have LMNH, my other story, nearly as well planned out as I thought and am taking some time off to mull over ideas which means I'll likely be working on this one for the most part as it's where most of the drive is at the moment._**


	25. Chapter 25

**Edited as of: (10/26/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

UPSWING

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"So let me get this straight, Ambrose..." Max asked from behind the curtain while we waited for both her and Reika to change out of their uniforms. I was in the process of checking _Glory's_ barrel one last time, while Psycho worked over his new combat gear. "Rose and the rest of them are heading down to Vale to look for leads on this Torchwick asshole, and what he's up to?"

"And want us for back-up, yes..." Joel finished for her as he pulled at the finger-less gloves he wore, flexing his fingers slowly. "They'd have preferred to keep this inside RWBY, but Yang convinced them they could use our help, just in case."

The Faunus stuck her head out of the curtain, hair slightly mussed, a wild look on her face as she shot us a wide grin, ears twitching like they always did when she was excited. "In case of _what,_ exactly? Bad guys? Ooh, _please_ say bad guys! I haven't gotten to vent in _forever!_"

It was true enough, I supposed. We hadn't been sent any assignments involving Grimm since that debacle of a first mission. _'Honestly surprised the girl hasn't killed anyone, yet...'_

Psycho frowned slightly. "And you still won't. They don't expect fighting; this is strictly a recon mission for information." He shrugged his shoulders, before returning a wicked grin of his own. "But, hey. Whatever happens happens, right?"

The auburn-haired girl nodded a quick affirmative, before withdrawing her head, letting out a joyful squeal. _'Guess the big guy finally learned how to encourage her...'_

I chuckled at the girl's reaction, looking over at Psycho who groaned, scratching at his hair. "She's gonna be trouble. I just know it."

"Least she's motivated. That's somethin', right?" I gave him a thumbs-up, before looking over his new outfit.

Gone were the black jeans and sweatshirt he'd worn, those clothes damaged practically beyond salvaging during the Trapper fight. Instead, he now sported dark grey combat jeans, and a dark blue hooded short-sleeve shirt, with an intricate white lightning pattern emblazoned along the right arm, and the rim of the hood. For defense, he had a new set of light flak armor plates for his chest, knees, and elbows, these ones colored a dull silvery color. A blue and black crescent moon sigil was stamped over the heart of the chest piece, and a thin combat knife was strapped to his left shoulder to complement the dispensers at his belt, and the tube hanging from his waist. Thanks in great part to Ozpin, and an impassioned speech courtesy of Blondie about his need to be able to defend himself, our leader was now authorized to carry his weapons around again just as any other student was. Within reason, of course...

_'Apparently, the Witch made it perfectly clear what would happen if he abused this new privilege.'_

"Like the new gear. Blondie help with it?"

"She had input, yeah..." the Huntsman-in-training tugged at his sleeve. "The color scheme was my idea, though. Never thought black really looked good on me, anyway." He looked down at himself fully. "Think I'll keep it."

I nodded my head approvingly, leaning back in my chair as muffled swearing issued from the girl's side. Considering Torchdick knew at least Joel and Reika by sight, it made sense for them, as well as the rest of us, to change looks for the time being. I myself had only opted for replacing the poncho with a long brown leather coat concealing the bandolier underneath, along with a green colored bandanna around my neck, as well as putting a pair of lather cowboy boots on my feet for the day.

"Mind if I ask what your emblem is? I've never seen you wear it before." Most students had them. I had my cross hairs with a cracked deputy star at the center, Max had her dog face biting the skull, and Reika had her sakura flower... It was something encouraged by the faculty and the public, some emblems growing to be as famous as the names of the Huntsmen and Huntresses who bore them. They almost always held some meaning to the individual.

Joel glanced at his, a smile tugging at his lips as he tapped it with his fist. "It's the symbol of Aegis, the Huntsman Academy I trained at before I joined the Red Hand..." he explained somberly. "I didn't really have any ideas for an emblem, besides maybe a lightning bolt, but that just felt stupid and easy. So when Ozpin asked for one, I just put this as a default. Felt right at the time... You guys ready yet!?" he called out, glancing at his Scroll. "They're expecting us!"

Max stepped out from behind the curtain with her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, wearing a white t-shirt with a blood colored design of a dog with a skull in its mouth on the chest, along a red plaid miniskirt, torn black leggings, and combat boots, complete with her axe over her shoulder. _'Not bad...' _I gave her a once over, before shaking my head, remembering just who I was ogling, and choosing to keep my eyes safely in my skull. _'Wait... Are those **bombs** on her waist!?'_

"Then they can wait a few more minutes for us! Chill, Ambrose," his partner shrugged, glancing back to where Reika sat in her new yukata, this one black with a purple trim, floral vine designs running their way along the hem and chest. Her emblem stood out proudly on the back, along with a pair of dark metal gauntlets that ran up her forearms.

_'Someone's goin' for the fear factor...' _I thought, giving her a thumbs up, before compressing my rifle and stowing it over my shoulder.

"So what's the plan?" the Dog Faunus asked as we made our way towards RWBY's dorm room.

"RWBY's mission, so they're in charge..." he shot back as he raised his arm and knocked on the door. "Follow orders, but don't take any unnecessary risks."

"When do we ever?" I joked, earning a blow to the side from Reika, as Red opened the door, an excited smile on her face faltering somewhat when she saw me on my knees gasping for air.

"Uh... Hey, you guys... Is everything...?"

"He's fine, Rosie..." Max laughed as she moved into the room. "This idiot's a durable bastard."

I nodded in agreement as I lurched inside, giving the silver-eyed Huntress a friendly pat on the back as I went, noticing the rest of RWBY, each dressed in new gear themselves, looking up at us as we entered. I nodded approvingly at each of them, impressed with their choice of clothing for this rundown. Ice Queen wore an annoyed expression on her face, while Ninjette looked as if she was just relieved to finally be getting started.

"Oh, great. What're you two doing here!?" I noted Max glaring daggers at a certain pair of unexpected Haven students sitting in the corner near Blondie. Sun was munching on a candy bar, while Neptune seemed absorbed in attempting to chat up Yang.

_'Good luck, buddy.._.'

"Same thing as you; looking for something exciting to fill the time after classes," Muscles shrugged, while his blue-haired friend just shrugged, flipping back his hair before his eyes widened in surprise, as the brawler sidled her way over to Joel, planting a kiss on his cheek before whispering something in his ear. My leader's eyes narrowed dangerously for a fraction of a second as he glanced back at Sun's friend, Neptune I think his name was, before walking up to him slowly with a broad smile, hand outstretched in greeting.

"You must be Neptune. Yang and my team's already told me about you. Joel Ambrose. We didn't get the chance to meet yesterday in person." The Haven student smirked awkwardly, trying to look cool as he grasped the Huntsman's offered hand, and gave it a firm shake. His smile quickly shifted into a pained wince as his hand was crushed in his grasp. "Just know that any friend of Sun's a friend of mine, and if you need any help getting around here at Beacon..." Ambrose grinned with a sinister gleam in his eye, as sweat ran down Mr. Tryhard's brow. "Don't hesitate to ask... I _insist._" He broke off the hand shake, the other student stepping away quickly as he cradled his hand gingerly.

"Tried to warn ya, buddy," Muscles whispered to his friend, shooting him a sympathetic look.

_'Too bad, kid. Turns out the ex-Trappers are the protective types.'_

"Well, now that introductions are out of the way, let's get down to business, people!" Ruby exclaimed as she stood up on a chair, placing her slightly above the rest of us. "Let the investigation begin! Roles, everyone?"

Weiss stepped forward, all prim and poise with a confident smile on her face. "You and I will head to the CCT, and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."

_'So just bein' a Schnee gives you access to sensitive documents?' _I wondered to myself, amazed at how one of the largest, most influential organizations on the face of Remnant could allow for that sort of loophole.

I filed that little tidbit away for later, as Ninjette spoke up. "The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning."

Joel stiffened somewhat, but seemed to relax as Blondie gave his arm a comforting squeeze. "That's a pretty big risk..." he said with a grimace, scratching at the back of his head with a sigh. "Even if it's mostly civilians, the place will still probably be crawling with soldiers in response to what happened at the docks. Not to mention the Red Hand's attack on me'll probably put them even more on edge."

_'I suppose he would know more about that sort of thing...'_

"Which is why I was intending to bring Sun along as back-up," the Cat Faunus replied, glancing over her shoulder at Sun who gave her a thumbs up. "If I could bring Maxine as well...?"

"It's the ears, right Kitty?" the sadist growled angrily, shooting the raven-haired girl a dirty look as she scratched at said appendages. "You know what, why not? Never have been to a White Fang get-together before. They always sound so fun, whenever..." I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Belladonna would be regretting her decision pretty soon.

"Sounds good," Psycho cut her off, cocking his head towards his bristling partner. "Probably better to have more eyes and ears than not enough in a case like this. Besides, she's an unknown to anyone important, unlike you two. Might come in useful. In fact..." He looked over at Reika, who was at the moment staring off into space blankly, seemingly bored with the whole proceedings. "Might as well take Reika, too. Have her wait outside, and bust in if things get ugly."

"Now that that's all settled, I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard, especially with a bit of help." Yang punched her fist into her palm, shooting Joel a quick wink.

_'Guess we know who's taggin' along with her, then. Old friend, eh? Sounds interestin'...'_

"Sure..." the white-haired leader shrugged his shoulders in mock resignation. "It's a good chance to test _Thunder _out on the streets."

"Alright, so I'll go with Weiss; Sun, Max, and Reika will be going with Blake, and Neptune can go along with Yang and Joel to back you guys up," Red summed up, counting us off on her fingers before turning to me. "Ben?"

"Well, I was thinkin'..." I started, before Weiss interrupted me.

"Actually, Ruby... why don't you go with Yang? After all, she _is_ your sister," Weiss said, staring over at Sun's friend, who at the moment was giving Joel a wide berth.

"But, Weiss, who would go with you, then?"Ruby asked innocently, staring at the heiress as if she were talking nonsense. I couldn't help but snicker under my breath along with Max at the sight.

I ceased however, as the heiress gestured to Tryhard, a questioning note in her voice. "Well... I guess Neptune could..." At the sound of his name, the Haven student perked right up, shooting her a suave look.

"_As I was sayin'...!_" I cut in, pushing my way towards her, and sending Neptune crashing against Yang, who glared at him in annoyance as I wrapped both arms around Red and Ice Queen's shoulders. "I was thinkin' of hangin' out with you two today. Partners oughtta stick together, after all. And as for _YOU,_ Miss Schnee..." I shook the white-haired girl slightly as she tried to fight her way back to the blue-haired boy, but was stopped as I one-armed her over my shoulder. "I _distinctly_ recall surrenderin' the beautiful Kingdom of Mistral to your leadership for the pleasure of your company, today."

"But! But!" Weiss stammered, while Ruby cheered loudly as I walked us out of the room, giving my team one last wave as we departed.

_'Stay safe, guys... Stay safe.'_

* * *

"_WOW!_" Ruby sighed in amazement as she stared up at the massive Beacon Tower dominating the skyline. "I forgot how big the Transmit tower looks up close!"

I had to admit, it was quite a sight. The tallest building I'd seen aside from the Academy itself since coming to Vale.

"You should see the one in Atlas!" the heiress stated proudly, hands on her hips as she glanced up at the enormous structure. If I'd needed a clearer split to show the differences between the Kingdoms and the lands outside of them, I supposed I had to look no further than this miracle. Only the largest settlements in the Badlands possessed their own tower, and those were maybe only three or four stories high, unlike this monster, and much less advanced, having only enough power to piggyback an audio signal off the others in a sort of rigged relay system until it reached its destination, whereas something like this could do it directly and alone.

"Atlas developed the Cross Continental Transmit System to allow the Four Kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War," Schnee explained, gesturing to the space around her.

_'Near instant communication across Remnant, and a host of other incredible technologies...' _I thought, looking down at my arm somberly. _'Atlas' certainly done its part, I guess. Also helps that it means the other Kingdoms are almost entirely reliant on them for such advances... But oh well...'_

I was no politician; just another poor sod trying to get by. And admittedly, a lot of the stuff Atlas put out made that a hell of a lot easier, meaning they were just fine as far as I was concerned... With reservations, of course.

"'Oooh, look at me! My name's Weiss! I know facts! I'm rich!'" the smaller girl stated grandly, before snorting into her hands. I appreciated the joke, but the heiress in question seemed less amused, giving her partner a stern frown.

"Don't be a pest! Besides, the only reason we're here is because _YOU_ like the tower so much! We could have just as easily made a call from the library!"

"Can't deny the view, Ice Queen. You don't get that stuck up in the library." I pointed to the tower, taking a mental snapshot. "And in her defense, you _do_ sorta ask for that, sometimes." I smirked as she turned her head to face me, pale eyes blazing before she groaned into her hand.

"Don't you start, too! You're a bad enough influence as it is without encouraging her... And stop it with that 'Ice Queen' nonsense!" she snapped in annoyance as she watched her partner fumble with her Scroll while she attempted to take a picture. "Really? Just when I start to think you might be more than some blustering rogue..."

"Personally, I prefer the term 'dashin',' but that's just me," I shrugged, giving her a toothy grin to which she just sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. "As for the 'Ice Queen' bit, well..." I started, when Ruby let out a squeak, having managed to drop her Scroll at just the right angle to send it bouncing along the ground. "Uh oh." I moved forward after the redhead as she chased after the device.

Luckily for Red, the Scroll was intercepted, stopping at the feet of a very, _VERY_ familiar face, framed by a head of orange hair, one I remembered seeing in a pained daze after waking up from Torchwick's attack at the docks.

"_Penny!?_" Rose yelped in surprise, running up to the girl, a stunned look on her face as the girl in question wrung her hands together nervously after returning the Scroll. "Where have you been? We haven't seen you since that night at the docks!" She looked back at me as I nodded in agreement.

"S-sorry. I think the both of you have me confused for someone else," she stuttered, hiccuping slightly as she turned to walk away. "Uh... I've got to go!"

"Wait!" I called out, but she had already retreated down a set of stone steps, moving quickly away from us without looking back.

_'Well, that's unsettlin'... Definitely a far cry from how she was actin' a few weeks ago...' _The girl I remembered had been confident, peppy, and outgoing, at least. This time she just seemed scared...

"What was that about?" Weiss asked, running up to us.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," the younger girl said with a determined look on her face, sprinting off after her orange haired friend. "You go make your call, I'll meet up with you guys later!"

"Wait!" her partner called out, moving to follow after her, before pausing as I held out my right arm, shaking my head. "What are you...?"

"Sorry, I just have a feelin' it's better if we let her handle this on her own, like she said," I replied simply, gesturing to the hooded leader just as she caught up to Penny. "C'mon, let's just get this call over with."

The heiress looked as if she wanted to argue, but I stood firm, giving her a reassuring grin. "Fine," she sighed angrily as she stalked off towards the tower, muttering venomously under her breath as I followed, sparing one last look for the pair as we moved through the sliding double doors, and into a grand lobby, lined with terminals and other students, both Beacon and otherwise, going about their business. I was admittedly out of my element, gawking as we passed by what must've been a dumb AI attendant assisting someone, the holographic presence winking out suddenly, only to appear at the main desk a few feet away.

_'Definitely don't have those back home...' _I wondered in amazement, as we stepped into the closest elevator.

_"Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?" _a distinctly synthetic voice asked suddenly from out of nowhere, causing me to jump in surprise, glancing about warily, while Weiss chuckled in amusement as she went for her pocket.

_'Yeah, yeah, laugh it up at the bumpkin's expense while ya can. Won't be long before the machines revolt, seize control, and we're all stuck bein' used for batteries, or somethin'...' _I thought wryly, laughing despite myself at the thought. _'I should patent that. Might make a half decent movie, if this whole Huntsman thing doesn't pan out.'_

"We'd like to go to the communications room, please," she said calmly, removing her Scroll as a small panel lit up near the door, showing what I recognized as the district emblems of the Four Major Kingdoms.

_"Absolutely. Could you please place your Scroll on the terminal to verify your identity?"_ Weiss held up her Scroll to the door. A small beep sounded out shortly after, before the voice replied again._"Perfect! Thank you, Miss Schnee." _The elevator started into motion, moving upwards slowly as the girl took a deep breath, face shifting between serious to a few different variations of the same smile, as if trying to pick out the best one to wear.

"What?" she asked defensively when she noticed me staring.

"Sorry. I've just never seen anyone look as if they were practicin' how to smile before..." I said, holding both hands up as the doors opened into a reception area with terminals spaced in neat rows further in. A holographic secretary similar to those below appeared at the main desk, looking to be typing away at a keyboard I couldn't see. "It's a bit... disconcertin'."

"Well, keep your eyes to yourself!" she spat out, striding forward as I gave her a mock bow, a snide smile on my face as she scoffed.

"As you command, milady. Anythin' you require."

"You...!" she snarled before shaking her head, returning once again to that pleasant expression as she began conversing with the secretary, leaving me to stare about the room ,taking in the sights.

_'Really is a nice view from up here...' _From the window, you could just make out most of the campus, as well as a picturesque view of the Emerald Forest, and the ocean beyond. _'Maybe I can try and place a call to Dad, while I'm here?...'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_"How's she handling!?"_ Yang's voice called out over the radio I'd set up in my helmet as we rounded a corner, the blue motorcycle beneath me roaring as I cranked the throttle, speeding to catch up with_Bumblebee_ and its occupant. _"You're looking a little shaky!"_

"My bad! It's been a while!" I replied, struggling to balance out the bike, but finding it difficult as a pair of arms clutched at my waist in a deathgrip. "Plus, this guy isn't exactly helping... Oi! Will you ease up!? I need to breathe here!" Unfortunately, the only reply I got back was some fear-fueled whimpers that only escalated as we rounded another tight turn, my knees almost scraping the ground, sending up small sparks of Aura as I swerved to avoid a car passing by.

_'This is freakin' awesome!' _I grinned as I watched the blonde rider ahead of me wave back, a broad smile just visible through her visor. This was the first time we'd brought _Thunder, _Yang and Ruby's little side project for the break, generously provided by their Dad, into Vale, and the first time I'd gotten to actually test drive it personally. My Semblance and Dust-conductive batteries didn't exactly mix with the bike, all things considered, but I was sure Goodwitch would've appreciated me not blowing up a section of the school by accident, so all I'd been able to do was a bit of metalwork on the body, while the sisters handled the mechanics.

_"It should be right around... **here!**"_ Yang brought her bike to a halt unexpectedly, forcing me into a screeching halt. "Sorry," she said apologetically as she removed her helmet, shaking out her hair with a relieved sigh as I dismounted my own bike, leaving a stiff-backed Neptune perched in the seat, dazed shock seemingly having won out in favor of more screaming.

"Am I dead? Did we crash yet?" he murmured softly, shaking out his head as I waved a hand in front of his face. "This place is insane... Nothing like Haven..."

"Don't worry, you get used to it. Welcome to Beacon, pal..." I said, patting him on the back as I moved to join my girlfriend, who was at the moment staring up at a large building. Judging by the lightshow and the pounding thrum of music going off inside, I assumed it was some sort of nightclub.

_'A newly renovated nightclub.' _I noted some subtle differences between old and new materials in the building's exterior, and the fancy sign next to the large set of double doors advertising the club's grand reopening in a few days. _'Not sure how big of a turn out they hope to get in a neighborhood like this...'_

Two guards were stationed outside the door... at least they were until they saw Yang clearly. A look of pure, unbridled fear crossed their faces as they scrambled for the entrance.

"...Friend, huh? Do I even want to ask?" I cocked my head towards Yang, who shot me a mock hurt glare before scratching at her hair awkwardly. "_Yang..._" I said more sternly this time as one of the guards started shouting something to someone inside, his fellow shutting the door behind them in an attempt at locking us out.

"I never said we were exactly 'close friends,' did I?" she sighed, cracking her knuckles as she strode towards the door, humming a song under her breath as she went. "Well, friendly or not, always polite to knock, don't ya think?"

I shrugged, holding my hands against my ears as the brawler brought her fist back, launching it into the door with a deafening crash, and forcing them open as she walked forward through the dust into the club proper. She then struck a pose, hands outstretched with a confident smile to the now-faltering music track. "_Guess who's back!_" she called out, only to be met with eight very angry looking henchmen sticking guns in her face.

_'Uh oh...'_

Yang's smile disappeared as she glared up at the DJ, some thug in a bear mask, until he got the idea and switched off the music, leaving us all in an uncomfortable silence as my hand drifted towards one of the dispensers on my hip. I could probably take one out, maybe two, before the shooting started. Would rather not, but things were looking a bit tense at the moment.

"Yeah, so could you define 'friend' for me?" Neptune asked as he peered over our shoulders, staring at the guns nervously.

"Stop, stop! Nobody shoot!" a large man cried out in a panicked tone, forcing his way past the goons before straightening his tie, eyeing us fearfully, his eyes darting to my hand. "Blondie, you're here!... _Why?_"

The blonde in question grinned, grabbing the man by his shirt collar, dragging him across the dance floor to a well stocked bar on the other side. "You still owe me a drink!" I heard her say simply as a reply, practically throwing the man over the counter to the shocked amazement of the other thugs.

"_Whoa-ho-ho-ho..._ What a woman..." Neptune said, a love struck look on his face as he watched Yang move. I couldn't fault him on that sentiment. Of course, that didn't stop me from sending him face first down the steps with a quick motion, stretching my neck as he lay twitching on the dance floor feebly.

"Damn right, she is," I said to no one in particular, before turning to the pair of dark-haired girls in red and white dresses respectively standing beside me. Twins, judging by their identical features. _'And bodyguards, given their weapons...' _I assumed, glancing at the pair of blades affixed to the red one's arms and the white one's heels.

"Sorry about the mess..." I motioned to the blue-haired Haven student lying on the ground below, leaking blood onto the freshly polished dance floor. "I can clear that up right away."

"No need. Why do you think we have goons around. Obviously not for fighting, given how useless they seem to be," the white-dressed one shrugged, one of the thugs scrambling forward with a mop and bucket. "Want a drink? My sister and I managed to sneak a bottle past our boss over there."

"Sorry. Driving tonight," I declined, following them to a private booth situated near the back of the building. "So, I take it you guys have met my friend over there?"

"Oh, Blondie? Yeah, that's one way to put it," Red Dress admitted, giving Yang a dirty look before sitting next to her sister, pulling a fancy bottle from underneath the table. "I'd call it 'causing a scene, then blowing up half the club...' What? She didn't tell you?" She smirked at the look on my face as she passed a glass to her sister.

"No... She left that out," I growled, rubbing at my temple in exasperation. _'Why am I not surprised?'_

"Look, is there a reason you guys are here bothering us? We aren't exactly doing anything wrong, at the moment," the white-dressed one said haughtily, turning her nose up at me. _'Implying they will as soon as we leave.'_

"We're just here for information," I assured her. "We're looking for anything on a Roman Torchwick. I'm guessing you've heard of him? He's been all over the news."

The pair turned to one another, having a hastily whispered conversation, before turning back to me. "Yeah, we know him..." White Dress said in a measured tone, taking a quick swig from her glass. "In passing, at least. He used to come in a lot to discuss business with Junior. Even hired some of our men for some job awhile back. Thing is, no one came back, and we haven't seen him since. Way I heard it, he got beat up by some kid, and got the boys we sent with him arrested."

"How about telling him something useful, Melanie!?" a voice called out from across the dance floor... A very _familiar_ voice, I realized. One I hadn't heard in a long time, and honestly thought I'd never hear again.

The world seemed to slow down as I turned. A woman with long black hair, streaked with blue, pink-colored eyes watching me from behind a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles approached. "Like how Torchwick's in the Vale tonight, along with the White Fang and some serious hardware." She came to a stop next to the table, glaring down at me, eyes picking over every detail of my appearance. "Hello, Joel. Been a while, hasn't it?"

* * *

**(Several Months ago)**

"Trapper bastard! How dare you... _AH!_" the White Fang operative, some sort of fish type, judging by the gills, cried out in fear as I held him out over the edge of the railing overlooking the large shipping vessel that had once served as a transport for weapons, Dust, and all manner of supplies for the Fang. At least it _used to_ be, before myself and two other Trappers had cleared it out, and turned it into a floating tomb.

_'Now they're off fucking around with the techs, while I have to deal with interrogating this scumbag. Delightful...' _I seethed, as I delivered a heavy punch to his diaphragm, leaving him coughing and sputtering for breath, following up as I grabbed him by the neck, holding him in place upright as the storm raged around us, the ship itself lurching heavily as waves tossed it about.

"You'll pay for this... The White Fang won't stand... _AHHHHH!_" I cut him off, flaring my Semblance as I sent a sharp jolt of electricity coursing through his body. Not enough to kill, but just enough to be excruciating. It was always hard to pull off, especially given the mood I was in now, and the rain wasn't exactly helping.

**"Not sure if you realize this, but I don't give a _damn_ what the White Fang cares about, and at this point, neither should you,"** I told him calmly, just loud enough for him to hear me over the gale, voice distorted and practically demonic as it issued from behind my mask. **"Really, all you need to worry about is telling me what I want to know as quickly and clearly as possible. Understood?"**

"_Fuck you!_" the Faunus spat out defiantly, before letting out another keening wail as I activated my _Conduction_ yet again, slumping against the wall as I finally relented breathing heavily. "W-wait, please... No more."

**"Then give me something useful. White Fang bases, agents, supply and troop deployments..."**

"I don't..." he tried to speak but I cut him off, giving him another shock.

**"Don't lie to me. You were the captain of this ship, right? You visited a half dozen ports in the last few months, all with connections to White Fang operations inland. I don't know what that looks like to you, but to me, it means you definitely have to know _something._ _TALK!_"** I snarled, clutching at his throat even tighter than before, practically choking the fish man out as I held him out over the edge, his eyes darting to the deck a few dozen feet below. **"Long way down, isn't it?... Your Aura's pretty much drained at this point, so I doubt you'll be able to walk away from a drop like that..."** I told him slowly and clearly, pushing him out just a bit further for emphasis.

"I don't know anything, I swear! We compartmentalize information just in case we're caught!" my prisoner pleaded desperately, clutching at my arm with a scaled webbed hand. "I get orders by Scroll with coordinates, and I go! I don't know anything else... Please, I have a famil- _ACK!_" I silenced him using my free hand to grip at his fingers, snapping two with a sickening crack.

**"What did I say about lying?"** I asked him after waiting through the cries of pain and fevered sobbing. **"According to one of your men, you were transferred to command of this ship a few months ago, and got regular personal communications. And I know you don't have any family to speak of, nor are you not married or seeing anyone, so don't give me that 'girl back home' bull."**

"Alright, alright, I'll talk! I'll _talk!_" the Fish Faunus gasped, clutching at his hand as he gasped for breath.

_'About time. This weather isn't exactly comfortable...'_

"...But I need assurance. I've seen how you Red Hand operate. I talk, but you have to let me go. I'll disappear; you'll never see me again, I swear!"

**"Really? What would stop you from giving me false information?"**

"Hehe... Well, well? I suppose you Trappers must take a much lighter view on squealing than the Fang does... Trust me, even if I lie, my life with the Fang is over if I say a word."

**"Loyalty at it's finest..."** I shook my head, motioning for him to continue on. **"Well?... Out with it!"**

"No, you have to promise to let me go! Swear it!" the Faunus stared at me defiantly, eyes tinged with fear.

_'No way he's lying... Scared stiff...' _I let out a sigh, before nodding fitfully.

"Thema... You know of it?"

**"No. Am I supposed to?"** I growled, tone clear I wasn't in the mood for games.** "Enlighten me."**

"District Thema. Small posting in the Mantle Region somewhere west of Atlas. Sprung up around an airship manufacturing plant and military base as families moved in. I have an old squadmate handling shipping manifests for a White Fang base camp just south of the city. Pretty big set up. Perfect for nut jobs like you lot," the criminal finished with a wry grin. "Guy's an asshole, but he hooks me up whenever I need something I can't get at port. Passes it off as a special shipment and..." I tightened my grip again to shut him up.

**"Thema, huh?... Alright... I'll keep it in mind,"** I cut him off. Wasn't like I needed all the sordid little details of his underworld dealings. _'And seeing how I got the information, I'm basically assured a spot on the strike team... Not bad...'_

"So I'm free to go, right?" the smuggler asked, tensing suddenly as I held him out even further than before. "Wait! _PLEASE!_"

**"Yeah, you can go,"** I murmured, glancing over the railing to make sure the space below us was clear, before shaking my head. **"You know what?... I'm not that cliched,"** I decided, flaring my Aura yet again, ending the Faunus' life with one last brutal shock, his body spasming wildly before going limp, eyes rolled into the back of his skull as I let the freshly made-corpse slump against the railing. Shaking out my hand, I lifted my mask, taking my first fresh breath of non-filtered air in what seemed like ages.

"Joel..." I glanced over my shoulder as a familiar face stepped out onto the platform with her arms held up against the wind, her eyes glancing to the body with a look of fear and disgust.

_'Almost three years, and she still isn't used to this...' _I groaned mentally as she lowered a hand to her mouth, shuddering.

**"What are you doing here, Natalie? Since when do they let programmers out into the field?"** I asked, replacing my mask quickly as I leaned back against the railing.

"They do when command needs course routes, cargo lists, and anything else you can scrub off a hard drive before you scuttle the thing."

**"And that includes checking in on me, huh?"** I scratched at my head, an awkward feeling settling in the air before kicking at the dead Faunus captain. **"How much did you see?"**

"Enough," she replied, lowering her hand. "That was just cruel, Joel. Utterly, unmistakably cruel."

I held my arms out to my sides before letting them drop, eyes drifting to the roiling waves as the crashed into the hull beneath us. **"Personally, I saw it as a mercy killing. You probably know about this guy's past, right? Helped execute three families, and young kids. Plus, it wasn't as if he killed them quick. Real sick bastard, this one, and that's not the worst he did. Imagine what Briar would've done if she got a hold of him."**

"Oh, so you're keeping treats from her, now? Trouble in paradise? And here I thought you and that bitch were so close..." Natalie taunted me, crossing her arms tightly as she sought what shelter she could under a small overhang. "The old you would never have seen what you did as a mercy, or...!"

She flinched as I moved forward in an instant, towering over her, mask staring impassively down at her, though my face was anything but.** "First off, don't _ever_ talk about Liz like that in front of me again..."** I counted, raising my voice only slightly. **"And secondly, you have a lot of nerve telling me how horrible I am, when it was _your_ damn idea to join these guys in the first place, and dragged me along for the ride!"**

"We were hurt, scared, angry! They used us...!"

**"And now _I'm_ using _them!_"** I cut her off, shocking her into silence.** "I joined the Red Hand for you. To keep you safe! Then, after I do what you ask, and start accepting it, murdering the men and women who took our loved ones away, a few months in you say you can't bear to be near me because of it! So what do you want, Corbell!? _WHAT!?_"**

"_I want my friend back!_" she screamed at me, hand coming up faster than I thought possible, ripping the mask from my face roughly. "I want the boy I grew up with! The one I came to care for and admire, not this monster your becoming!"

"That boy died when he killed the man who murdered his mother... Or when I got shot running at him... Who can tell?" I snarled, hand pressing against the old bullet wound. "Hell, the Trapper training too, I suppose. I had to kill the boy pretty quick to survive that. Now, I get to get back at the Fang with people just like me. What a life..."

"I don't believe he's gone..." she murmured, dropping the mask to the wet deck with a clatter. "I _can't_ believe that," she added somberly, staring down at my chest as I moved past her, scooping my mask off the metal deck as I made for the door she had come from. "You're wrong, you know? About the Hand. They aren't just targeting White Fang anymore. More and more Faunus are being drawn in, especially innocent Faunus. Don't tell me you haven't noticed?"

"So... what? We're becoming more like them, and that's reason to stop? Because they won't back down, Nat!" I glanced back, catching sight of my best friend and former lover staring back at me sadly, a resigned expression on her face. "We _have_ to defend ourselves!"

"Just... remember what I'm saying, Ambrose... And think about whether or not we're truly doing the right thing... Whether we're 'defending' ourselves..." I shook my head, leaving the bespectacled girl alone as I descended the staircase to the deck, leaving a sizable dent in the bulkhead as I went.

* * *

**(District Thema, Mantle Region, Outskirts)**

_'Oh god, oh god, **oh god...**_' I repeated desperately in my mind, trying to stem the flow of blood from the young Bear Faunus girl's chest to no avail, her attacker lying in a pool of his own blood with a knife in his heart, while another body lay a few feet away.

_'Her father...' _I choked up, shivering despite the climate-controlled air, tearing my mask off as I emptied the contents of my stomach in a corner, staring down at the blood... All the blood...

* * *

**(Present Day)**

"Yeah... You're right... It really has, Corbell..." I said as the former Red Hand agent waved the twins away, snagging the bottle before giving the white dressed one a sharp glare as they tried to protest, before sitting herself down in the now vacant space as she stared at me over the tabletop. "Actually, on second thought, I think I will have a cup..." I sighed, pouring myself a glass and downing it in one go, the drink burning my throat like fire as it went down.

_'This is gonna be a **long** night...'_

-END

**_-CODEX-_**

**Frontier Communications-** Given the lack of resources and the near constant threat of airborne Grimm, CCT towers within the Frontier regions rarely exceed more than a few stories at the highest. This, coupled with unpredictable weather patterns, makes the long range communication on the level of towers within the Kingdoms difficult, and nearly impossible to copy. Messages are often "piggybacked" from tower to tower in a short relay setup, and are almost always text-based to conserve power.

**A/N: Hey all, sorry this chapter took so long to update, finals, work, and life have been taking up a lot of my time but school's finally done so that's one load off my back. The hope is that I'll be able to update more frequently (That's the hope anyway) now that Summer is upon us so hopefully I'll be talking to you all really soon. Also it seems Joel will be making an appearance in_The White Mask _by The Baz, it's a well done fic following a White Fang agent who isn't completely OP like how a lot of these Villain Story OCs get and I highly recommend it. Thanks for all the recent follows and favorites everyone and especially for the reviews and PMs, your input makes the story better. I know this one was sort of filler and mostly in canon but hopefully things pick up with the White Fang next chapter.**

**For the communications in the Frontier, think old fashioned telegraph system. You can see where I get a lot of inspiration for the frontier from...**

**P.S: Sorry for all the Neptune aimed abuse, Yang seems more annoyed than friendly in canon so I doubted Joel would respond to him any better.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Edited as of: (10/26/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

CATCHING UP

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Scratches, huh?" I muttered as Belladonna ran a hand along the stone wall of the alley after hours of walking around seemingly aimless along the side streets, tracing three recent cuts spaced evenly along its surface. "Bit secretive, don't you think? People might get the wrong idea, and think you lot were up to something you shouldn't be."

The Cat Faunus didn't seem very amused by the comment, shooting me a dirty look while Monkey Boy had a flash of a smile on his face, though it only lasted a second as he moved to support his crush. _'Sheesh, he wants her so bad. I can smell the hormones from here...' _I scowled, rubbing at my nose angrily.

"We used to use posters and flyers. Then people started attacking us. You can understand the need for discretion, can't you?" she asked sarcastically, before spying a horned couple being welcomed into a large warehouse by a bearded man that just _screamed_ shady. "This is it, alright."

"What, I could've told you that. Bunch of smelly, sweaty, very nervous Faunus in that building over there," I said matter-of-factly, shrugging as she turned to look at me again. "What? I have a nose, remember? Ever smell sweaty Boar Faunus B.O.? Fucking gross..."

"I'm just gonna take the former agent's word for it." Wukong piped in.

_'The thirst is **strong** with this one...'_

"Anyway, we know where they are. What now?"

"Now we go in. How many people are we expecting, Reika?" Blake asked the masked Huntress-in-training beside her, who was, at this point, staring off in the direction of Beacon.

_'Probably checking on Carson. His shadow must be nervous...' _The girl gave a start, eyes twisting in concentration, before shooting open wildly, the girl pointing at the building intently. "What is it?" the raven-haired Faunus asked, before remembering the issue at hand, turning to look at me expectantly.

"I don't speak mute; that's Carson's job. Don't know why Ambrose sent her with us, to be honest," I said truthfully, growling under my breath as the girl in question flipped me off and went for her Scroll, typing awkwardly before showing us the message.

"'Lots. Torchwick inside,'" Blake sounded off, before staring at the building in amazement. "Torchwick... He's here? In person?" The small girl nodded, placing her Scroll back in her pocket as she glared slightly off to the side, probably staring right at the orange-haired bastard through several feet of stone and steel. "Well, that changes things. Now we definitely have to get inside," the ninja said in a determined tone, removing her bow and leaving her cat ears in full view.

"Aren't we supposed to... y'know, call for back up?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Kitty Cat there trying to break the rules. "Why bother with the other shit when we know he's right here now?"

"Because the others might turn up something useful. We stick to the plan as long as we can, and radio in if we need help," Blake explained, Reika and Sun nodding in agreement while I narrowed my eyes.

_'Great. Call for help when we're already getting fucked. Nice strategy.'_

"Fine, this is your show. Let's get a move on then. Not like they're waiting for us," I exclaimed as RWBY's ninja ordered Murasaki up onto the roof to provide a lookout and call the others if it looked like we were in trouble.

_'Not the job I would've given to the girl who can't talk, but oh well.' _We moved towards the entrance, the bearded man letting Blake and Sun through without incident.

"That's a _mighty_ big weapon you got there for such a nice-looking girl..." he said as I made to follow, leaning in close to me as he eyed _Cerberus _among other things, a wide smirk on his face. "That must make for a sore back. Sure you don't need any 'help' with that?" He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, causing my two companions to look back fearfully.

_'Not sure what they're so worried about, though. I just found myself my first playmate for the evening.'_

I grinned, pressing my body against him intimately as I ran one hand up to his face, giving his cheek a gentle caress as my other hand went to my shoulder. "Oh, thanks for the offer, handsome, but I'm fine with this... Though, I _was_ just looking for someone to 'help' me with something else. There's an itch that I just can't seem to scratch, no matter how hard I try, that's been bothering me for _weeks_ now." A broad smile spread across the bouncer's face as he examined me more closely, eyes drifting to and fro. "Think you fit the bill?"

"Oh, _most definitely._ Frisky one, aren't you?" He gave me a sly wink as he leaned in even closer. "I'm on duty now, but after the meeting's done, I can help you scratch that itch of yours..."

_'Wow, nice pick up line... **Not!**' _I kept my face sultry and demure, however, letting a small smile play across my face as I gripped his hand tightly.

"Actually, you can help me right now. I'm sure it won't take long," I whispered in his ear softly, just loudly enough for him to hear me.

He frowned, looking taken aback as he leaned away slightly, confused. "What? Here? Now? Hey, that's mildly insulti... _ACK!_" He was cut off, letting out a high pitched cry of pain as I twisted his wrist hard, almost to the point of breaking it, before digging the thumb of the hand still on his face into a pressure point just below his ear near his jaw, the pain cutting off the cry before anyone could hear it from inside. His eyes widened in all-too real fear as a smile of my own, toothy and manic, crawled up my face as I began digging my finger into the point, while simultaneously applying more pressure to the arm. I almost shivered in delight as a small, pained groan escaped his lips.

_'Ahhhh...' _I sighed inwardly, as I felt his muscles twitch and spasm beneath my fingers. '_Freedom to play around, without Goodbitch stepping in to ruin my fun. God, I missed this...'_

"Sorry, but, regrettably, I _REALLY_ don't wanna be late to this meeting, so I won't be able to really get this out of my system and have my fun..." I explained, letting out a short "tsk" of annoyance as he tried to raise his arm to ward me off, only to have his legs kicked out from under him, his arm bent awkwardly behind his back and shoulder straining in its socket. "Now here's what I have to settle on: _YOU_ are going to apologize to me, and promise not to hit on any more innocent girls that might cross your path. They might not be as nice as me," I purred in his ear, sweat dripping down his brow. "If you don't, well…" I brought the pain factor to a whole new level, having to hold his mouth shut to prevent the scream issuing from my victim's throat. "I can always dislocate your jaw and your arm, before removing that _VERY_ little appendage down south with my _VERY_ big axe, so... What's it gonna be, handsome?" I questioned him before letting go, slightly disappointed when he begged my forgiveness, and promised to be a perfect gentlemen to all he met, how he'd change his life completely. "Get out of here!" I spat angrily, kicking him into a running head start, before turning to face Belladonna, and a now very pale Wukong with a flushed smile on my face. "There, I feel relieved. Anyone else feel relieved?"

The Cat Faunus shook her head in resignation, leading us down a long hallway where another Faunus, this one sporting a White Fang uniform, was handing out masks and issuing orders. "New recruits keep to the right!"

I held the mask up to my face, scratching at the two small slits. _'How the hell do you see out of this thing?'_

"I don't get it," Sun asked after a few moments as we got into the throng of civilians milling about the room, though even those numbers paled in comparison to the number of uniformed White Fang in attendance. "If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?" He turned to Blake with a questioning look, but it was I who answered. Couldn't resist.

"They do it 'cause they're too scared to show their faces to the public, striking from the shadows rather than stand tall in a real fight directly. One big scare tactic to throw the Humans off balance." Blake scowled, fists clenched, but she kept her eyes on the stage, as a man with a full-faced mask and tattoos strode along the stage, looking out at the crowd of onlookers.

"The masks are a symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters," she said through gritted teeth, ears twitching in a clear sign of anger or at least annoyance.

"And you dumb fucks just played along, didn't you?" I growled in response, laughing to myself when I noticed Kitty Cat stiffen. "I might not be the proudest Faunus out there, but I don't hide what I am. If they're going to hate me, let them hate _ME._ At least then I can tell them they're assholes straight to their faces. All you guys did was make monsters of us all." The barb was undisguised, and I knew Belladonna felt it as she stared at the mask in her hand.

_'And why shouldn't she? Acting as if these assholes are just misguided, and still deserve respect despite hiding those ears from the world. **Coward...**'_

"Either way, Grimm masks? Still a bit dark," Sun said, noticeably giving us both a wider berth as he picked up on the tension.

"So was the guy who started it," Blake said, slipping on her mask.

_'Sounds like a barrel of laughs, that one. Real charmer.'_

"Look, you mind laying off her?" I glanced over my shoulder as Sun leaned in to whisper in my ear. Thankfully, what happened to the last person who tried was still fresh in his mind, so he didn't get too close. "You're really getting to her with this. Not defending the Fang or anything, but these guys used to be her comrades; her family..."

"Yeah? Well, her 'family' made it a hell of a lot harder for people like us growing up!" I seethed, the venom in my tone making him take a wary step back. "If they wanted to start another war, they should've at least had the balls to be open about it, rather than dragging the rest of us down with them!"

To my relief, whatever reply he would've given was drowned out as the tattooed man on stage raised a hand, clearing his throat as he strode forward.

"Thank you all for coming," he started in a deep voice, easily carrying through the room. "For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"

I perked up, gritting my teeth in barely contained rage. '_Three guesses as to who that could be.'_

Sure enough, Roman Torchwick himself waltzed out onto the platform, twirling his cane in his hand as he went. As expected, the crowd didn't seem to pleased with a Human barging in on their anti-Human fan club they had going. Angry boos and cat calls filled the air as, Roman moved center stage, accompanied by a short girl with oddly-colored hair and mismatched eyes.

_'Wonder who's taller, her or Murasaki?' _I thought wryly as the big man himself thanked his audience, waving a hand to quiet them down.

"What's a Human doing here!?" a Deer Faunus just in front of us called out, pointing a quivering finger at Torchwick. Tattoo moved to respond, but the criminal waved him off, leaning on his cane, peering down at the Faunus who called him out.

"I'm glad you asked, 'Deery!' Now, I'll be the first to admit, Humans... are the worst." He gave a short bow and salute, obviously gesturing to himself. "Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!"

_'Well, isn't he melodramatic?'_

"So, is he going anywhere with this?" Sun asked leaning over to talk to Blake. Meanwhile, I gazed at Torchdick's bodyguard, the girl shooting me a sly wink.

_'How could she tell...!?'_

"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control. The people pulling the strings. The dirty, rotten Humans that run our Kingdoms!" The crowd actually started to seem as if they were agreeing with him now, whispers of assent building. "Government, military, even the schools. They're all to blame for your lot in life!"

_'Disputed...'_

"And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around... No offense to any rodents in the room." The smug bastard snapped his fingers, causing the curtain behind them to drop revealing...

_'**Hoooly** shit,' _I gaped, mouth wide open as a massive mech stood in all it's weaponized glory, to the cheering of the assembled Faunus. _'You could blow up the whole goddamned world with that thing!'_

Sun and Blake were similarly shocked, sharing hushed whispers as Torchwick clapped his hands together. "As some of you might have heard, this right here is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my 'employer,' we've managed to snag a few before they... uh, 'hit the shelves.' Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the Southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine... But if you're _truly_ ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?" Judging by the universal reaction, the master criminal, and damn good orator, had his answer.

"We need to get out of here, now," the ninja said urgently, and unfortunately I had to agree, however with the recent call for new recruits, it seemed as if the whole crowd was milling forward looking to join up.

"Not yet. We leave now, we'll be noticed, and we _definitely_ don't want that." I held out an arm to stop her, glaring at Torchwick as he looked over his fancy death machine. _'Besides, when the hell are we ever gonna get a better opportunity to get him, than right now?'_

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"I don't know!" Junior sighed in exasperation as he lowered his glass, glaring at me as I leaned in closer.

"How can you _not_ know!?"

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even _seen_ him since the night you first came in here." He gestured to the recent repairs before leaning in closer himself, putting a finger in my face. "He paid upfront, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. _Back._"

Unfortunately, my next question was interrupted as Neptune slid onto the counter, trying and failing at looking inquisitive. "But where did they _go?_" I almost punched him; could've put his head through a wall...

"What kind of stupid question is _that?_ They never came back!" He turned to glance at me, gesturing to the bumbling student. "Who is this guy?" I groaned, putting out a hand to send Neptune flying back away from the discussion. Judging by the commotion, I managed to drag a few goons into the crossfire.

"Don't worry about him; worry about _me..._" I pointed a thumb at myself, giving him my best death glare, "if I _don't_ find out what I want!"

"I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, which is something I can relate to!" he called out at his boys, one of whom managed to drop a very heavy crate on his foot, while the others just stared at him dumbly. "Idiots... Good help is so hard to find these days."

"I can relate," I muttered, looking over at where Neptune stood at attention.

The bearded man just shrugged, passing me a _Strawberry Sunrise. 'Aw, he remembered the umbrella...'_

He then motioned off towards the corner of the club. "Not sure about the blue-haired one, but your other friend over there has the right idea." I followed his eyes, catching sight of Joel sharing a drink, an actual drink judging by the bottle, with some girl with black, blue-streaked hair and glasses in a dress similar to the twin Malachites. but more reserved, less flashy, and colored silver. "_She_ actually might have information on what you want."

"Who is she?" I asked, trying to get a better look at her. She was very pretty, in a more reserved kind of way. What really bothered me was just how familiar Joel seemed to be with her, the two actually sharing a laugh as she showed him her Scroll. "I don't remember seeing her last time."

"Natalie Corbell. Not much of a fighter, so I doubt she would've been much help, even if she didn't have the night off when you showed up..." Junior cleaned some glasses, shooting an eye towards the young girl. "But what she doesn't have in brawn, she makes up for in brains. Picked her up only a few months ago, and my information network has pretty much tripled in size. Not to mention she's a wizard with evidence and police reports."

"Was wondering how you still weren't in jail, considering I leaked your business dealings last time we met." I noticed a vein twitch in his forehead, but he seemed to shrug it off, shooting me a sly roguish grin.

"Yep, that's all her. One phone call, and a few hours later, it appears all evidence in mine and my people's trial just disappeared into the woodwork. Was let off with minor property damage and repair fees."

"Natalie Corbell..." I sounded out the name. It sounded familiar for some reason, but where could I have heard it bef... My glass froze centimeters from my face as I stared at the programmer... no, former _Red Hand_ Data Analyst, the ex-girlfriend that Trapper, Alex, had taunted Joel about when they'd met weeks ago.

_'Well... this suddenly just got awkward.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Jake told me you were still in contact, but I had no idea you were around," I said as I glanced from the girl seated across from me to the club at large. "Though I take it he doesn't know where you are, either?"

"I've kept off the radar, doing odd jobs for Junior over there. Pays nice, and though it's not exactly clean, he has a decent set of ethics about how he does business," Natalie said, looking at her boss appraisingly.

"I'm happy for you. You seem to be adjusting well." I nodded to her, toasting her with my glass. "I have to admit, I was worried."

"Me adjusting aside, what about you? A few months in Beacon, and you're _already_ in the headlines. Should've seen how the press spun it: _Trapper against Trapper: Battle for Redemption in the Heart of Downtown Vale. _And that's one of the more _conservative_ ones."

"Also one of the more positive," I noted, remembering my own share of articles I'd read concerning the incident, some of them less than forgiving. "I've read or seen most of them around Beacon in the last few weeks. I just did what anyone else would do."

"Wow. So you manage to pick yourself up after both a hard fight and taking a full face blow from Capaneus' shield, pop your own elbow back into place, and throughout all that pain and punishment, still manage to burn holes through your limiters trying to save your friend over there, who was, according to accounts, almost clinically _dead_ at that point. And that's just what anyone else would do in your shoes. That about sum it up?" Natalie asked, leaning back with a look of sheer amazement on her face as she stared at me.

I shrugged, nodding as I took another swig. "Not as if you didn't know all that already with what you can do. This can't be the first time you're hearing about this, is it?"

"Witness testimony and word of mouth from the actual guy that pulled it off is very different, you know?" she said with a laugh, resting her head back against the plush seating. "You make it sound so... standard. Most people would call what you pulled off 'heroic,' or at worst, 'suicidal for your health.'"

"Not as if that's the first time I've had to pick myself up after something like this..." I grinned, patting my chest lightly. "It isn't exactly something to be proud of, but I used to make a habit of pushing myself past what people expect."

"And worrying the people that care about you," she pointed out sternly, a strict look on her face that would've made Glynda Goodwitch herself proud. "The explosion at that Dust refinery in Mistral, that little mix up with those weapon smugglers in Vacuo, and then there was that one time when you came back all cut up and broken after your fight with that White Fang agent a few months after you made Trapper. What was his name? Fido... Fide, something?"

"_Fidelis,_" I finished for her, pouring myself another glass as I recalled that particular incident. "Crazy masked son of a bitch with a big fan, control over the wind, and a death wish. Yeah, I remember."

"Incident" was a bit of an understatement, seeing as it was one of the only missions I'd truly felt I failed, as well as the first I'd ever felt I might actually die on an assignment, though certainly not the last. I'd met the Faunus maybe two years or so ago during a botched raid in some snowy mountain region. Hiei, or something. The guy already had a nasty reputation, at least by name, within the Hand, and I thought it more prudent to deal with him personally. Not the smartest move on my part, seeing as the resulting fight left me with a few broken ribs, cracked bones along my arm, and overcharged limiters after the fight forced me to Dust Up, not to mention the concussion I sustained after the force from our final clash sent me flying into a nearby forest. Thankfully, I managed to pick myself up before the cold could kill me, meet up with my surviving troops, and make my way to the extraction point about half a klick down the mountain, before passing out in the back of a Bullhead.

_'Even with Aura, it took weeks to recover fully and get back on active duty.' _The experience also left a few new scars, reminders of what being stupidly overconfident could get me. _'If only I'd learn...'_ I suspected my inability to finish him off was one of the main reasons I was considered for the Schnee posting, a few months of punishment for the screw up.

"So, you ever find out what happened to him?"

Corbell shook her head, looking more embarrassed than anything else. "Name comes up with nothing more than what's already there. And it's not as if you gave me much to work with, anyway. The guy wears a mask for a reason, after all."

"But I saw his face near the end. I gave you a description..."

"One that can apply to dozens of other Faunus across Remnant. Sorry, Joel, but the guy's a ghost, and damn smart about it, too. Very thorough. After he fought you off, he had half the Trappers and most of the Hand's assassins gunning for him, but he never turned up again for any of them, either. If you want me to try again...?"

"No, don't bother..." I waved her off, a small grin on my face as I swirled the contents of my glass around. "He's not exactly subtle, despite the mask, so we'll know if he tries something here in Vale. My guess is he's either terrorizing some poor sap somewhere, or dead... Not really sure which would make him happier?" I noticed the look she was giving me, and clarified. "Guy's not the type to die in some accident, or by a stray bullet. Hell, we blew a bunker buster off next to him just getting into the base, and it didn't even slow him down. If he's in the ground, then that means someone stronger put him there, and that he probably went down fighting, which is just the way he'd want to go out."

"You met him for only a few minutes, and most of it was with his or your fist in the other's face trying to kill each other," she said with an amused smile on her face. "Not sure if that qualifies you to make a statement like that."

"Some would argue against that, you know?" I pointed out. "My grandpa for example."

"And you?"

"Hell no. But that guy liked to talk, and that's just the feeling I got from him," I sighed, glancing over to where Yang sat interrogating Junior over a drink of her own. "Just let me know if he turns up, but don't go out of your way. I still owe him for last time."

"Joel..."

"What? I won't kill him, or at least try my best not to. I was going more for 'severely injure and subdue.' I take it the bounty still stands?" She nodded, checking her scroll yet again.

_'Might be something to consider...'_

"Look, enough about the past. You wanted Torchwick, right? Roman Torchwick?" I nodded, scooting myself closer as she brought up a holographic screen with the bastard's mugshot displayed in the corner. "Guy's been all over recently. Police, politicians, and even the Hand has a file on him now, given his contact with the White Fang."

"I'd imagine. This is the first time I've ever seen a Human collaborator with this much power over their rank and file."

"It's all connected. The White Fang, Torchwick, this string of Dust robberies across the Kingdom instigated by both sides..." She brought up a list of locations and files, the sheer number shocking enough.

_'He has enough Dust to run his own private **army.** How do people not know about this!?'_

Natalie noted my expression with a grim nod, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Joel... Have you ever heard of the Black Queen, or her agenda?"

I thought for a moment before shaking my head, the name drawing a blank. "No, doesn't ring a bell."

"No, I guess it wouldn't... It didn't really start garnering popularity until a few months ago, while you were still imprisoned," the programmer explained, bringing up an image of a Black Queen chess piece. "It's one of the biggest names in the underworld right now, but barely anyone seems to have any information of what it is, exactly. A political group, maybe? A person, or an organization? The only thing people are sure of, and this is a _very small_ group of people, I might add, is that whoever, or whatever the Black Queen is, they're the one's holding Roman and the Fang's leashes at the moment."

"That sounds like a conspiracy theory, Nat..."

"But it makes sense. How else do you explain the White Fang, _THE_ anti-Human White Fang, working with scum like Roman Torchwick? How the hell do you think Torchwick, some minor annoyance in the eyes of the Kingdoms, has suddenly become capable of organizing heists of this magnitude?" It sounded crazy, and I wanted to say it was, but it would clear some things up if it were true. "That's not all. Whoever they are, they also have the support of dozens, if not _hundreds_ of individuals across Remnant, from the Kingdoms to the Frontier."

"And the goal is?"

"No one knows for sure..." she said simply, causing me to pull a spit take, coughing lightly as I gazed back at her dumbstruck. "It's true. Anyone thought to be working with her is surprisingly tight-lipped. Despite criminal and political inquiry, no one's talking, yet it's still gaining support. The prevailing idea is that it's some sort of anti-government cause, seeking the dissolution of the Kingdoms in favor of something else. But that's just a theory, so who knows?"

"Look, I'm no big fan of everything the Kingdoms do, but even _I_ can see dissolving them's a bad idea," I said, staring at her intently. "Grouping together is the only way Man's lasted as long as it has. Take that unity away, and what do we have left?"

"Bastion and the other Frontier Cities, even those in the Badlands, seem to operate okay without Kingdom oversight. If anything, _they've_ depended on us for some resources."

"...Since when the hell did you start agreeing with Isolationist rhetoric? Nat, you seriously can't be entertaining this?"

The term "Isolationist" was a moniker used for those against Bastion's current policies that called for a coalition between the Four Kingdoms, specifically those enacted by my grandfather. They would always go around spouting things like "going back to Bastion's true roots," and "standing on our own, away from the Kingdoms." My grandfather, however, enacted those policies many years before, and had managed to maintain those policies through his sheer iron will. Those that supported him and his policies were called Coalitionists.

"It's just an idea. This thing's calling itself the 'Black Queen' for a reason, so maybe they intend to lead in the Council's place? Can't really argue with their qualifications, given that they managed to unite two bitter entities on opposite sides together, and inspire loyalty of this level. Hell, the only reason the Red Hand isn't wrapped up in this is the tension it would cause with the Faunus, but even with that, I know for a fact it has supporters in their ranks."

"So just because they bring criminals together, that makes them qualified? Nat, you _know_ that that's not gonna work. Not unless you want risk a large-scale Night of..." I stopped myself, looking away while taking a deep breath. I drummed my fingers against the table a few times, before looking back at her. "...I'm not here to discuss ideals. You're right in saying I came here for a reason."

Nat looked ready to argue, but just sighed wearily, placing her glass down on the table top as she began typing on her Scroll. "...You're in luck. Torchwick is actually in the city tonight, visiting a White Fang recruiting session. The only reason I took interest was because Jake mentioned a shipment coming up short, and he suspected outside involvement."

"What kind of shipment?"

"Atlesian Paladin-290s. A few of them were missing, according to the manifest."

Okay, _now_ I was worried. I still remembered my first time viewing the things yesterday. Giant war machines on par with a team of trained Huntsmen.

"Needless to say, Atlas is worried."

"_I'M_ worried! If Torchwick really got his hands on even a dozen of these things... Nat, he could do some _serious_ damage."

"Look, I tracked at least one of them to this warehouse, and tipped off authorities. I even have one of my friends with a live camera feed on the inside, filming the whole get-together for evidence. I'll bring it up." She began fiddling with her Scroll again, shooting a look down at my chest, before a small smile crossed her face. "Nice to see you're wearing the old emblem again. Your family would be proud with what you're doing."

"I can hope," I murmured, before a gasp from the young girl made me glance up in alarm. "What!?"

I stared at the screen. It was a bit out of focus, but Torchwick was definitely standing on a large stage in a crowded room. One of the Paladins stood in all its terrible glory behind him. What really drew my attention, however, was what was going on beside him. Two Faunus were struggling, held by White Fang thugs, while a third stood beside them, holding two large bladed submachine guns to their heads.

_'**WHAT THE HELL!?**'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

**(A Few Minutes Earlier)**

"Alright, new recruits please file forward for transport. Your skills will be measured, and your roles assigned upon arrival to our destination!" one of the Fang guards in charge called out to the flowing crowd, everyone seemingly eager to join up, leaving us no means of escape.

"What do we do!?" Sun whispered to Blake, leaving me alone with my thoughts as I tried to figure out the best way to get at the orange-haired criminal, who was talking with the tattooed soldier and his diminutive bodyguard.

"Improvise..." I muttered, trying to avoid getting trampled by the mob. "I don't see them letting out anyone who isn't interested. They've said too much."

"I'm thinking," I heard Blake mutter over the laughs and cheers around us.

_'Oh, you've got to be **shitting** me! He's **right there!** Let's grab him, and fight our way out!' _Unfortunately, Torchwick chose this moment to look around, eyes narrowing as he caught sight of Sun and Blake whispering to each other...

_'But not me...' _Mr. Torchdick, as Ben had called him, didn't know me. _No one_ knew me. I was just another loyal Faunus in the crowd. _'Improvise!'_

I saw Blake raise her weapon's pistol form before I struck, grabbing the weapon away from her, and throwing her to the ground, causing a part in the commotion as people turned to stare at us. Sun let out a yelp as he was grabbed before he could reach his staff by two soldiers, my boot on Kitty Cat's head.

"Traitors!" I called out to the crowd, gesturing to the two Faunus, who were staring at me in disbelief as their masks were pulled away. "This one tried to blow the circuit!"

"Oh, its the little kitty from Beacon. And you brought Monkey Boy, too. What a nice little reunion!" Torchwick clapped his hand together, another guard grabbing Belladonna, and dragging the two of them onto the stage as I followed along after Torchwick, who gave me a wink and a wave. "You two really should've called ahead! I would've gotten all dressed up and everything... Well, no, actually - I look amazing as is - but I would've done something more than this." He waved a hand at the room before glancing back at me. "And who are you, little lady? I'd like to know who just spared me a fair bit of trouble." He tapped his cane against Sun's leg, causing the Faunus to wince.

"Name's Maxi. Just came to check things out when I saw trouble. Very nice speech, by the way." I gestured to the giant robot standing above us. "Let me guess, the big toy made it easy?"

"I live to please. People tend to respond better to things they can see, like money or big guns, rather than empty promises and fancy words, though those do tend to do the job as well." He gave me a tip of the hat, and motioned towards the two captives. "Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Get rid of them, already!"

The two started to protest when I stopped them, stepping forward. "Wait!... Mind if I deal with them?" Roman glanced back at me with a raised eyebrow, looking me up and down. "Proof of loyalty and all that bull, y'know?"

"Bit eager, aren't you kid? Don't worry, things keep going as they are, you'll have all the chances you need to get some action."

"Sorry, you just seem like the guy to talk to; the one in charge..." I said with a shrug of the shoulders, ears twitching slightly as I heard Belladonna's breath hitch. "These guys caused you problems, so getting rid of them seems like a good way of getting on your good side!" I gave him my best smile, canines flashing in the dim light sending shivers down the spine of a few of the soldiers near me.

The criminal glanced from me to the captured prisoners, shooting me a roguish grin I usually associated with Ben, before nodding to his guards. "...Good head you got there, girl... You know what? Why not? I've always been one to encourage initiative, especially when it comes to people looking to please me." He waved a hand as a go ahead. "Have at it! Make it snappy, though; we're on a schedule, kid." I gave him a short bow before bringing _Cerberus_ over my shoulder one armed, to the amazement of the crowd and a few of the soldiers. "Hmm, flashy... But let's not get blood everywhere, okay?"

I nodded, giving him a pout before breaking the weapon down into sub-machine gun form, holding them to Sun and Blake's heads. "Play along" I mouthed to Blake before giving her a menacing smirk. "Bye, bye, Kitty Cat," I whispered, pulling the triggers.

-END

**A/N: So I'm amazed, I ended up with a day off and thought I might as well get some work done on this chapter and it all just seemed to write itself. Anyway hope you all enjoyed it, Fidelis is an OC from Baz's story _The White Mask, _really nice story that I highly recommend.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Edited as of: (10/26/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

HESITATION

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Get what we came for, Ice Queen?" I asked, leaning over the white-haired heiress' shoulder, trying to make sense of the veritable walls of text and complex graphs filling the screen. "Looks pretty important."

"It _IS_ important, you fool! And _VERY_ confidential company information for select eyes only!" she growled in annoyance, shoving me away roughly. "Where have you been, anyway? You walked off ages ago."

I dusted myself off, picking myself of the floor as I gestured back at the terminals near the back of the room with a grimace. "Spent some time tryin' to get a message to my dad out in the Badlands. Then I realized just how insanely_difficult_ that would be, considerin' I have no idea exactly where he is. Had to end up leavin' a recordin' at half a dozen towers along the major outposts, just in case he checks in, and even _that_ was a nightmare." I kicked at side of the terminal, swearing if I heard one more irritated receptionist, or overly-cheery dialtone greeting, I would have Max blow this place sky high, and spit on the ashes. "You know, I have to wonder, with all that money your company makes, why the hell hasn't more gone into modernizin' areas outside the fancy Kingdoms' walls? Your people could change a lotta lives if they wanted. Make things better for people over there."

I realized pretty fast that I was treading on thin ice with the girl already, but it was still a valid question in my book. "It's not as if we haven't tried in the past..." Schnee said pointedly, jabbing a finger at my chest before bringing up an old file. "The Schnee Dust Company has on multiple occasions offered its services in providing protection and technology to the Frontier, especially the Badlands, in exchange for mining rights..."

"Ah _ha!_ And _there's_ the kicker," I laughed, leaning over the top of the screen, a smug grin on my face as I watched her own heat up. "Let me guess: the good people didn't want to accept the SDC's very 'generous' offer, and chose to keep the land their parents and grandparents strove to cultivate in that hellhole? Y'know, rather than get pushed out like their neighbors do when the company finds Dust, or some other precious resource in their backyard?"

It wasn't exactly unheard of out in the less-developed areas of Remnant. Troubled souls took the handouts from the generous company overseers, only to find their land and rights stripped away from them in the legal fallout, and their children left in the cold with nowhere to go, but to the very company that had stolen everything. Sometimes they didn't even ask nicely, and just muscled their way in.

Weiss, however, didn't seem very amused by the observation, red-faced and fuming now as she glared up at me. "That is just propaganda, and slanderous, accusatory...!"

"From the mouths of the people affected themselves, and from the perspective of someone who's lived there, I can say otherwise," I cut her off, glancing at the article she'd brought up as an example, a picture of a white-suited executive shaking hands with a local farmer, who'd just 'sold' his property for an enormous sum.

_'Poor bastard's probably on the streets in some backwater town, right now, his money long gone... **if** he'd ever received any at all.'_

I tapped the Schnee Company logo proudly displayed in the corner with a metal finger, a cheeky smile on my face. "The SDC ain't exactly well-liked where I'm from. You really never wondered why your company's trains were a favorite target for people like me in those parts?"

"No. Why would I care what a bunch of criminals' motivation was? After the millions in Dust they were transporting, I would imagine. What else would drive you to...?"

"A lot of the personal possessions taken from a property, after the company seizes it, is transported on those trains. No idea where to, exactly. Probably some warehouse where it's stored away for a rainy day, or when some executive needs somethin' fancy to put in the livin' room of his third summer home, or wear to a fancy party," I said bitterly. "We'd take the Dust, sure, and we were by no means saints, but Dad would make it a point to return as much as he could to the people who lost out whenever he was able. Pictures, jewelry, lockboxes; that sort of thing."

"How magnanimous. And what happened to all of the items whose previous owners he _couldn't_ locate?" the Ice Queen inquired, a note of sarcastic amusement detectable in her voice now. "_Criminals..._"

"Hey, like I said, we weren't exactly saints. But at least we made an attempt, which is a _damn_ sight more than your father's suits ever did." Even if we couldn't locate people right away, we still made note of everything we took just in case. One of my earliest jobs with the gang, even when I was a just a kid, was simply to walk into town with a list, and ask the citizens if we'd picked up something of theirs, or a friend's.

"I have to say that most 'dates' I've been on are usually more entertaining than this, and the boy doesn't usually start _badmouthing_ my family's company," she said after a few seconds, turning back to her screen. "I have to deal with enough of that from Blake."

"Sorry to disappoint ya, Princess. As for Ninjette, maybe she's just tryin' to fill you in?" I sighed in defeat, resting my chin on top of the terminal as I glanced down, trying to meet her eye. "Wasn't sure if you were even aware of any of this stuff. Thought your father might've been keepin' it from ya, or coverin' up what really happened. You have to know by now...?"

"That my family... That my _father_ has done some questionable things at times to many since taking control of the company? That we've dealt with unsavory sources to further our own influence and goals? Yes, I do. I'm not as naive as you all seem to _think_ _I am!_" I was taken aback by the sudden outburst, jumping up with a start as she slammed a fist down on the console, drawing more than a few eyes from people at other stations.

"Look, Ice Queen..." I muttered, nervous as I felt the temperature skydive around the Huntress. A sudden, very noticeable drop occurring as I used the nickname. "Weiss... I-I didn't mean..."

"No? Then what _did_ you mean, exactly!?" she asked, icy stare back on me. "Maybe what you said is true. If so, then my family has even more to answer for than I thought..." Her eyes once again drifted to terminal, sifting through file after file as her eyes steadily narrowed. "And for what it's worth, I'm... _Sorry,_" she said quickly, getting to her feet and striding towards the elevator.

I stared open-mouthed at her fast retreating figure, before shaking my head slowly, moving to catch the elevator door before it could shut fully, sliding in next to her. "No... I am. You're not the one who should be apologizing," I said awkwardly, picking at my bandanna absently in the slightly-cramped space. "I didn't want to... Ah hell, I'm screwin' this up." The heiress raised an eyebrow at the admission. Funnily enough, self-depreciation wasn't exactly one of my strong suits, so this probably wasn't helping matters. "You might as well know that I had somewhat of an... _ulterior_ motive when I said I wanted a date. You don't really spend a lot of time around AMBR 'cause of your gripe with Psycho, and I've been wonderin' on that too, by the way." I groaned, punching my head lightly, wincing at the clunk of metal on flesh. "Regardless, your company, or your dad's or family's, whatever, has been responsible for a lot of bad things happenin' both to me, and people I know..." I meant, of course, that hell of a mission we were sent on, Bastet and all the others losing their lives when it could have all been prevented. "So when I heard I'd be studyin' alongside an heiress to that same company, I was curious just what sort of person you'd turn out to be."

"And?" she asked, picking at her skirt with a wondering expression on her face. "Was I everything you expected?"

"Pretty much. A rich, entitled, rude as hell know-it-all, thinkin' she was better than everyone else at everything, simply 'cause of who she was..." I chuckled, cringing slightly as her eyes fell back on me. "Which only gave rise to one simple question: why _are _you here?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why're you here at Beacon, trainin' for one of the most dangerous, if not _THE_ most dangerous profession in the world, when you could just as easily be in Atlas, workin' for your company, and livin' the high life? Why?" I admitted the life of a Huntsman was a noble calling that was to be respected, protecting Mankind from the monsters that lurk in the shadows.

_'That might work for heroes like Ambrose, or battle maniacs like Max, but unlike them, I didn't exactly choose to throw what's left of me to the Grimm. Beacon's basically community service, in my book.' _I'd probably have already scarpered, if it hadn't been for Reika taking to student life like a fish out of water.

Weiss looked at her company's insignia emblazoned on the elevator door for a few long seconds, before closing her eyes with a sigh. "You know... I've had many people ask me that since I came here, even more so before I left Atlas... Some people thought I was insane to put myself in such danger. For those, I would just tell them that it was my duty, just as anyone else's, to fight if they had the power to do so, and protect Humanity; even more so for my family's honor and dignity," she started, looking at my arm with a sad but determined look on her face. "The truth is, I know a lot about what my father's done with our family's power since he took over control, and I want to become a Huntress to show my that the Schnee name won't end with him. That I'm _NOT_ him. I want the world to see that my family and our name can still represent something good; something honorable."

I gaped at her for a good few seconds as she stood tall, doors opening before her, looking every bit the regal heiress people expected her to be, a grin tugging at my lips as I scratched at my cheek.

We stepped out into the fast-emptying lobby, dusk fast approaching as we neared the set of sliding double doors, the girl striding forward with me following close behind. Just as we exited the building, however, our Scrolls began to buzz loudly, followed by a shrill alarm that could only be a distress signal. An incoming call from Ninjette. We looked at each other before accepting the call, Blake's voice shouting over what sounded to be complete and utter chaos roaring through the speakers.

"_If you can hear me, we need back-...!"_

"**_HEEEELLLLP!_**_" _Muscles screamed in the background.

Weiss just rolled her eyes before looking at me expectantly. "Why do I have the feeling this is somehow you're team's doing?" she said with a groan, palming her face in exasperation.

"We like to stir up a bit of trouble whenever we get out together. Part of our charm, really," I smirked sarcastically, pulling off an exaggerated bow into the night air. "After you, milady."

She gave me a stern look, before the Ice Queen's frown warmed into a small smile. "There may be a gentleman under all that ego yet, Benjamin."

"Call me Ben, please. And no, Princess, I wouldn't count on it."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

**(****A Few Minutes Earlier)**

There was a keen second of silence throughout the room as the assembled Faunus and an eager Torchwick waited expectedly for a pair of loud bangs. Bangs that would never come as the guns clicked, an audible function I put in, signaling that the safety was still on for both weapons.

_'Knew there was a reason I put those pesky things in!' _I thought gleefully as I tapped into my Semblance, sending the two guards holding Wukong and Belladonna flying back against the wall. The two Faunus didn't waste any time, leaping into action as they fought their way off the stage, reclaiming their weapons in the struggle.

"Oh, silly me. Completely forgot about those..." I laughed, clicking off the safeties, as I brought one of the guns around on Torchwick, a flicker of surprise and fear finally breaking through the smug facade.

_'Hope you're ready, asshole!'_

...

...I don't know what happened. I'd pulled the trigger thousands of times before. Targets, droids, Grimm. I'd never had a problem ripping them to pieces in a hail of Dust-capped death, with an honest-to-god smile on my face. However, as I looked into the criminal's eyes, I hesitated, just long enough for his bodyguard to push him aside and knock me back with an unexpectedly heavy kick for someone her size.

_'What the hell!?'_

"Ooh, too slow, Maxi!" the orange-haired rogue laughed, patting himself in disbelief. "Froze up, huh? Sloppy, sloppy. Too bad for you, I suppose." He kicked up the end of his cane, a small cross hairs flipping out of the base as he fired a screaming flare that blew up just in front of me, blowing me off the stage into a couple of the Faunus below. "Hate dealing with pest control... Now for the other two annoyances..." he muttered darkly under his breath as he turned to the White Fang commander, pointing to where I lay with his cane, Faunus on all sides inching to see if I was still breathing. "Deal with her, will you? And watch it. Seems like girls in this town aren't exactly easy to...!"

I let out a howl of rage, Semblance blowing back a few unfortunate crowd members that had been too close with an unseen force, bringing the two guns in my hands back together to reform _Cerberus _in all its terrifying glory.

Roman whistled, patting the surprised warrior on the back, before making his way towards the Paladin, his strange-haired bodyguard making her way out of the building on her own through a side exit. "She's your problem, pal. Don't play too roughly, now!"

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

_'Wonder what's going on in there_?' I thought as I stared up at the warehouse from the roof of the next building over, boredom forgotten as I tried to discern what was going on. A loud explosion had just gone off a few seconds ago, and my _Sense_ had just detected a spike in Argus' Aura that could only have come from her using her powers. _'Mad dog, she's going to bring the building down on herself, if this keeps up!' _I thought, grimacing beneath the mask as I moved to stand up, just as Blake and Sun leapt from one of the windows in a shower of glass, rolling into a full sprint on top of another nearby building next to me.

_'What's going on!? Where's Argus!?' _I signed, before realizing they weren't even looking at me. _'Damn...'_

"Reika, run! Just run very fast!" the monkey-tailed boy called back at me, gesturing for me to follow. I would've tried to stop them, but a deafening crash drew my attention as a mech, the same that had been on the Atlesian airship, literally ran through the wall, sending mortar and dust flying everywhere. Thankfully, I was able to use my Aura to deflect the worst of it, drawing _Strike Lotus_ quickly to intercept one of the larger pieces rocketing towards my head, shattering it into a hundred tiny pieces in a cloud of debris and rock shards.

_'**What the!?**' _I coughed as dust clogged the filter in my mask, eyes watering as I stared after the fast-retreating back of the mech as it pursued both Faunus. I reached out with my Semblance, and was stunned to sense Torchwick himself piloting it, his Aura flaring with excitement. His wasn't the only one; several signatures of varying strengths surrounded Maxine's unique signature.

_'Figures. Leave it to that damn sadist to pick a fight in a situation like this!'_ I moved along the roof to get better view through the new doorway to the building's interior, catching sight of the axe-wielding bitch in the middle of a large crowd of Faunus, many of them sporting White Fang uniforms. Their weapons were drawn, with the overhead lights flickering every so often. It seemed they had the Huntress-in-training surrounded on all sides, and were coming after her in waves, attempting to wear her down.

"That all you got, you shits!?" Argus yelled, punching one of her attackers to the ground as she sliced straight through another's weapon, leaving a painfully deep furrow in his chest as his fellows pulled him back. "And here I thought the White Wang was supposed to be _terrifying!?_ C'mon; scream louder for me!"

_'Yes, harass them. **That'll** make things better...' _I sighed, examining the situation in full. My teammate seemed to be holding her own at the moment, but that would soon change. Her Aura was weakening slowly but surely, and her Semblance would only make it worse, forcing her to deal with her opponents the old fashioned way. Either way would leave her exhausted and defenseless in the end, easy pickings for her foes. Despite this, the Faunus seemed to be having the time of her life, laughing wildly as she put another soldier on the ground.

_'Crazy battle-mad maniac...' _I was about to move to assist her when I paused, the Dog Faunus raising a hand towards me, shaking her head fervently.

"I got this, Pipsqueak! Piss on my fun, and I rip you to shreds with the rest of these sorry fucks!" she screamed up at me loudly, face twisted in a manic grin. "Get the robot! I got this!"

I felt my eyes narrow as I looked back at her. _'She wants me to abandon her and go after Torchwick?' _It was stupid, foolhardy, and I soon realized it was everything I'd come to expect from my bunkmate. I was forced to duck as a few White Fang managed to work out where I was, letting loose a volley of gunfire near my position.

"Where are you idiots shooting!? Leave, Murasaki, or I'm coming up there and making you!" Max called out, a sudden spike in her Aura preceding a sudden uproar of screams and curses. I snuck a look, catching sight of the Faunus who'd been attacking me sprawled limply against a nearby wall.

_'Idiot, using your Semblance will only make things harder!' _I sighed, fist shattering cold stone in frustrated, Aura-fueled anger, before I drew my Scroll from my pocket, and activated the distress beacon with a sigh. Placing the device on the rooftop, I drew on all the power I could, watching violet wisps of energy begin to ignite across my skin, managing to shoot the laughing Dog Faunus one last challenging look, before leaping off in the direction of Torchwick, Sun, and Blake's Aura signatures.

It was not as if I needed to, given the path of destruction left in the madman's wake. _'You better not die like an idiot, Argus! Don't you **dare!**'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"What's going on!?" Yang called out to me as I scrambled up from the table, stumbling only slightly as I flared my Aura, shaking my head fiercely as I did my best to burn away the dizzying effects of the drink I'd consumed as much as possible. "Joel, what's happening?"

"Trouble on Blake's end. Some plan gone wrong, I can't tell," I said, looking back at Corbell as I practically ran for the club's entrance. "Nat, I'll be in touch; keep me posted on any changes!"

The girl looked stunned for a second, but soon nodded confidently, glancing back at her Scroll as Yang followed after me, dragging a confused Neptune by his shirt collar, practically throwing him onto _Bumblebee. _I grimaced as I pulled my helmet over head, using my Scroll to establish a connection between the receiver in the ear and Nat's own device, noting a distress beacon from Reika's Scroll pulsing in the corner.

_'Shit!'_

"Joel, talk to me!" Yang asked, a note of very real worry in her voice. "Is it bad? Is anyone...?"

Her voice was cut off as Blake's voice rang out, breathless and panicked. Yang's hands went to her pocket, so I could only assume this to be a group call. An easy sign that the situation was in shambles.

_"Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back..."_

_"**HEEEEEELP!**"_

I winced as Sun's voice exploded out from the background, along with a strange crashing sound. "_Big robot! And it's big! **Really** big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's like... controlling it or something!'"_

"Where are you guys?" Yang asked, my eyebrow twitching as I picked up the sound of something approaching. Something _big_.

I looked over my shoulder just in time to catch sight of the stolen Paladin charging through the nearby street, cratering pavement with every step as it doggedly pursued two of its targets. A few seconds after that, a familiar masked figure crash landed onto the street, giving me a curt nod, before leaping after the criminal with near explosive force.

_'Reika? What's she...?'_

"Uh... I think that was them," Neptune said awkwardly, shrinking under the shared look we gave him.

"Yeah, I got it..." Yang groaned, looking at me before leaping onto the bike and speeding off with me close behind.

We dodged past cars while trying to keep up with the mech. '_Least he's making himself easy to follow...' _I thought, banking hard to avoid a swerving car, while trying to push down the nauseous feeling in my stomach and my slightly aching head. Aura was an amazing thing, especially in a crisis. A Huntsman could drink their fill all night long, and still be ready in a moment's notice with only a small timespan, as the energy burned the alcohol out of their system... mostly.

_'Never fully manages to deal with the worst bits of a hangover, though...' _I thought regretfully as a loud car horn set a drum beating in my skull. Thankfully, in comparison to Nat and the twins, I was a lot bigger. Plus, I'd paced myself somewhat.

_"Joel..." _Natalie's voice rang out in my ear as I drew up beside Yang. _"My contact's still got eyes on your partner. She's currently in the middle of a horde of White Fang fighting, and... actually doing pretty darn well, all things considered." _I couldn't help but grin with pride upon hearing that. At both Max and Reika. The small girl managed to stay ahead of us, despite being on foot. _"That doesn't mean she can keep it up, though. There's at least a few dozen White Fang, and only one of her. Hell, the only reason they don't just shoot her is that they're probably afraid of hitting their own in the crossfire."_

"Got it. Guessing your friend's not exactly in the best position to help her?" I asked as Yang spoke a few words to Neptune, the blue-haired student nodding before reaching towards his back.

A disgruntled sigh told me all I needed to know on that point. _"Girl's a club dancer I room with. Even if she **did** have some combat training, I wouldn't ask her to go up against this many,"_ Nat explained, an apologetic note in her voice.

_"Max's in trouble!?"_ Yang asked, glancing towards me. I nodded an affirmative.

"I get it. We still can't... _OH CRAP!_" I swore as I ducked my head, Yang letting out a cry of warning as the mech swept a large "arm" along the highway, knocking a few of the incoming cars into the air towards us. I pushed the engine to full throttle, one of the cars screamed barely a foot overhead, while others forced me into a few dangerously sharp moves just to avoid a collision. Reika didn't even falter in the slightest, the mute Huntress navigating her way through the hellstorm of screaming metal and glass.

_'I'm guessing he saw us...' _I leaned up, thankful to catch sight of Yang and Neptune a few yards away. The Haven student was holding a strange-looking compact rifle to his shoulder, sighting down the scope. Out of nowhere, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, as a blue colored cartridge near the butte of the weapon sparked with what I realized to be a considerable charge of electricity, my Semblance reacting instinctively to the nearby energy source. He paused just long enough to shoot me a cocky grin, before launching a volley of what looked to be electrical energy bolts at the Paladin.

"Not enough," I growled as the machine kept running, its armor barely smoking after the attack, much to Neptune's surprise. "Electricity isn't going to work; trust me!" I shouted over the chaos, pointing towards Torchwick, inwardly cursing Jake and his damn grudge.

"Why wouldn't...!?" Neptune tried to ask, before Yang cut him off with an elbow to the stomach, leaving him doubled over wheezing.

_"Then you won't be much help here! Go get Max!"_ the brawler shouted, gesturing back towards the way we came. _"Get your partner's back; we got this!"_

"We do!?" Yang let loose another elbow, Neptune yelping in pain as he let off a few more shots just in time to cover Sun, the Monkey Faunus leaping atop a moving truck just as the Paladin flipped the car he'd been perched on.

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but closed it at the smile she gave me, all cocky recklessness and glowing confidence that put a smile on my lips. "Got it. Watch yourself, Sunshine." I pulled the bike closer, holding out a fist, the blonde letting out a laugh as she bumped it, then pushing me away quickly as a car crashed in between us.

_"You too, Sparky!"_ she cried, bike roaring beneath her as she sped forward, Neptune's weapon shifting into some sort of long spear with whirring energy along the blade, ready to attack in concert with his teammate, the Monkey Faunus glowing with a golden Aura, as two energy projections leapt out to face the oncoming war machine, while Reika managed to land on the back of the Paladin, gun-tonfas raining down blow after blow with the force of a juggernaut, leaving large dents in the outer shell. I gave them all one last fleeting look, before turning off the towards the edge of the highway, roaring down a nearby exit onto the main streets below, hand going back to my helmet.

"Nat, I'm back on. Come in."

_"What the hell happened, Joel? I'm looking at traffic cams, and it's just a complete **mess.** Are you...?"_

"I'm fine, don't worry," I replied with a determined edge to my voice, pulling my Scroll from my pocket and affixing it to the front of the bike. "I'm following a beacon my teammate left near the warehouse, and I have a plan to deal with the White Fang there. Thing is, I'm going to need your help with a few of the specifics."

_"Am I going to like this plan?"_ she asked, my Scroll letting out a ping as a map popped into view, along with a highlighted route with the least traffic and police presence.

"Doubt it. It's a bit of a dark classic."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"_Weak!_" I screamed, kicking a scaled soldier in the chest as he tried to crawl away, leaving him on the floor with more than a few broken ribs to join the others.

_'I deal with one, and another two just come running.' _I growled like a feral animal as I swung _Cerberus _in a wide arc, the closest soldiers backing away nervously, while a few in the civilian crowd actually let out cries of alarm. It was all a bluff though, for the most part. I was bleeding from a dozen cuts across my body, where a blade had come too close, and my faltering Aura hadn't been able to block the damage completely.

_'Can't keep this up forever... Need a way out...'_

I hesitated as the big man himself, the one in the full face mask, paced forward, hefting what looked like a giant chainsaw sword behind him.

"I must admit, child, I am impressed," he said grandly, glancing down at the defeated soldiers, most unconscious. The few that weren't were nursing injuries too severe that kept them from fighting. "That one so young could defeat so many of our soldiers is astonishing, to say the least."

"I'm amazing, you're all shit, blah, blah, blah!" I laughed away the attempted flattery, the commander seemed taken aback as I nudged a groaning soldier lying on the ground in front of me with the heel of my boot, applying a bit more pressure on his broken arm. "Thanks for telling me something I already know. Now, we gonna fight, or what!? With a mask like that, I bet you're some sort of big shot, huh?

The large man nodded, bringing his weapon to his shoulder. "Indeed. I command the White Fang posting in this region. These soldiers you see are mine." He waved a hand at the crowd. I nodded my head, glancing around at those assembled.

"I know, the one's we already established are shit compared to me, yes." Oh, I was hitting a nerve, I could just smell it. The way the muscles in his arms twitched, the shift in his scent, the slight hitch in his breathing.

_'Yeah, get pissed. It'll make you all the more fun to break.'_

One of the soldiers behind me tried to bull rush me from my blind spot, but I heard him coming from a mile off, flaring my Semblance as I tossed him overhead to land a few meters away, screaming as he cradled his arm. "Yep, not impressed."

"This power I've seen you wield, your skills in combat... Why do you fight us, sister?" the field commander asked imploringly, putting aside his anger in some vain attempt to sway me. "Why fight alongside traitors to our kind? Why betray our people? I will give you this last chance: join me and your peers in the White Fang. Use your gifts and talents to help secure a better world for us Faunus, and help us remove the heel that Humanity has placed above us!" He practically spat those last few words at me, holding out his hand towards me as if willing me to take it. "Join us, sister."

I didn't jump at his offer as he expected. I didn't even ready my weapon for the honorable duel some of the crowd wanted. No, I just laughed. Laughed so hard, it felt as if my sides were about to split open. I actually had to lean on my axe for support as I leaned forward, heaving. Chatter started to rise up from the surround onlookers, the big man himself cocking his head at me.

_'Probably think I've gone crazy,' _I mused as I straightened back up, wiping at the tears in my eyes, and shrugging my shoulders when he didn't immediately respond.

"What? I thought it was a funny joke. No one else?" I looked around the room, most of the cattle doing their best to avoid my gaze before staring back at the confused leader. "Sorry, it's just I've heard that bullshit before. That I need to help _OUR_ people stand up against the big, bad Humans oppressing us. Funnily enough, even though I've got these ears sticking out of my head, when I mention my _Human mother_, it's suddenly not _OUR_ people anymore, is it? Suddenly, I'm just some _freak,_ even if Humans treat me the same as the rest of you." Already, I heard disgusted mutterings from the crowd, gasps of shock. "Yep, _there_ it is. I'm treated like some abomination, just because my parents were proof Humans and Faunus could actually get along, and _coexist..._ Oops!" I gasped, putting a hand over my mouth in mock horror. "I said the 'C' word, didn't I? So sorry."

The large Faunus growled angrily, sword whirring loudly as he revved it up, chipping away at the concrete beneath him. "How dare you mock our cause... How _dare_ a creature like you...!"

"Aw, get off your soapbox, dumbass!" I interrupted him with a sneer, pointing my axe at him, a manic grin spreading across my face as I drew on what Aura I could. "And don't call me 'creature,' either! The name's _Maxine_ _Argus!_ The one that's going to make you her _bitch_ in just a moment!"

"...Argus?..." the muscled Faunus murmured in a surprised yet amused tone under his breath, cocking his head to one side as he examined me more closely. "...Could it be?... There _is_ a resemblance, and it would certainly explain the tenacity..."

"What are you...?" The crowd let out a roar, drowning me out as the chain sword wielding terrorist took a single step forward. That was when what lights still remaining died, leaving us only in moonlight for a few seconds. Many of those assembled who couldn't see in low light like I could cried out in alarm, or for friends. It didn't last long however, vision slowly returning in the form of emergency lights flashing red throughout the building.

_'What the…?'_

**"Vermin of the White Fang..." **a low, distorted voice sounded through the room's speakers, menace oozing from every syllable. Just the sound of it sent an involuntary chill down my spine. **"Animals striking from the shadows... Cowards hiding from the light of day, as they prey on those who cannot defend themselves in the name of equality..."** The commander was shouting now, trying to maintain order, but everyone was transfixed on the sound of the voice, venom audible in every word. **"Tonight the world will be cleansed of your filth, in the name of the _Red Hand!_"** And the powder keg exploded, screams and cries raging through the room as civilians and new recruits fell into a panic.

_'Not that I can blame them...' _I fought back a chill as I gripped the haft of my axe tightly.

**"Many of you are new to this war... Newly joined, hands yet to be filled with the blood Humanity... Your choice is made, however. Your blood will flow tonight. Run now, so that your lives might offer some form of entertainment to your executioners!"**

The lights began to pulse now, on and off as a haunting rhythm filled the air, punctuated by screams as the new recruits broke into a frenzied mob, punching, scratching, shoving, anything to vacate the building as fast as possible.

"Recruits, form up! Take positions and stand your ground. Show your courage!" the leader called, sword screaming as he raised it high, but even that was lost in the commotion, the voice reciting what sounded almost like a sick nursery rhyme.

**"They run, they flee, no place to hide,"**

**"And it was then, the animals knew,"**

**"No blades, no walls, nor mercy's cries,"**

**"The Trappers come for _you..._"**

At the end of the chilling verse, a deafening screech blared through the room unexpectedly, sending the majority of the Faunus present, me included, reeling as the sound assaulted our ears. It was like jagged nails being dragged down a chalkboard on steroids. I could barely think; it was so loud.

It was then I felt a hand grab hold my wrist firmly, my free hand lashing up in a wild attempt to knock whoever it was away. But that wrist, too, was caught. _'No Trapper asshole's taking me without a fight!'_

I opened my eyes, looking over to see Ambrose holding my arms tightly, my fist centimeters away from his face, half of which was concealed behind a Grimm mask like the rest of the crowd wore. His mouth was moving, forming sounds I could barely make out, forcing me to read his lips.

_"Come with me, Max! Come on!"_

He dragged me away, axe trailing behind me, pushing past civilian and soldier alike. Most were able to do little more than flail about wildly, some even vomiting from the disorientation as they fought amongst themselves, others screaming in fear. Finally, we managed to burst through a side door into the cool night air, the sound thankfully dulled, though my ears still rang. My sense of balance was off, combined with an overwhelming exhaustion, causing me to fall against the wall hard.

Meanwhile, Ambrose merely checked me over, removing a pair of plugs from his ears, his voice finally able to reach me. "Max? Max, are you...!?" I punched him full in the face. He reeled back with a hand up cradling his jaw, looking at me in shock. "What the hell are you...!?"

"Was that _you!?_" I shouted, gesturing back into the building, glaring at him intently. "Was that really _you!?_"

He nodded, glancing at the earplugs in his hand, before tossing them over his shoulder. "Yeah. Old Red Hand scare tactic. Sow chaos, then confusion. I thought it was a better alternative than fighting them all, so I did the next best thing, and snuck inside while everyone was in a panic over an attack that'll never come."

"That song... The words?"

"A short rhyme some of the other Trappers came up with. Messed up, I admit, but it does the intended job." He grimaced, pulling the mask from his face and staring down at it angrily, before tossing it away with a low curse. "The words, too... Think I can see why you punched me now. And then the 'Screecher.'" He patted one of his ears sympathetically. "Sorry about that, by the way. They used to test it on us Trappers as punishment whenever we stepped out of line, so I know how bad it can be." He pulled his Scroll from his pocket, speaking a few quick words into the ear piece, and receiving some in return. I could hardly care who it was, however. My head was still pounding as I licked at a long cut down my arm. "Alright. Understood. Thanks again for your help, Nat." My leader nodded, putting the away the Scroll as he gestured towards the main street. "C'mon. My bike's back there, and they'll have to be figuring out they got tricked pretty soon."

Unfortunately, at those words a trio of White Fang soldiers stumbled through the door we had just exited, swearing loudly and clutching at their ears.

"Screw the commander! If he wants to die at the hands of some Trapper, that's _his_ death wish! But I won't..." They looked around, catching sight of us, eyes widening in shock and rage. "It's that half-breed bitch and a Human! Take 'em out!" His comrades drew their weapons, while he hoisted a rifle to his shoulder. Joel was in motion within a second, unclipping his compressed staff from his belt he threw it overhand, metal casing smacking the gun toting Faunus in the nose, snapping his head back, and sending him crumpling to the ground. His buddies gaped in stunned shock, giving the Huntsman all the time he needed to take them out. Deftly plucking the weapon from the air, and using it to block a wild sword stroke from one of the remaining thugs.

"Way too slow," Ambrose growled, grinning slightly as he knocked the blade away, knocking the grunt out with a vicious back swing to the face, before ducking under the other's swing.

_'No, you're just way too fast,' _I corrected him, watching blankly, axe at my side, as the bottom of his foot blew out his last attacker's kneecap, sending him down to the ground screaming, before another heel to the side of his face mercifully knocked him out.

"We need to move _now._ Can you stand on your own?" He held out a hand that I swatted away with a grumbled curse, and returned _Cerberus _to its place on my back, following him out to the main street.

"How did you know where this place was?" I asked as we climbed onto the bike, awkwardly wrapping my arms around his waist as he took off down the road at full speed. "I didn't send up a signal, or anything!"

"You have Reika to thank for that. She left her Scroll as a beacon so we could pick you up. Actually ran into Weiss and Ben on the way here, as well, but I sent them off after Torchwick. Guessed the others needed more help with him than I needed with you. He seemed pretty worried!" he added, as he felt my muscles tense at the words, my ears catching the sound of his voice even over the howling wind. "You'd have just kicked his ass, anyway! Looked as if they've been sitting around while we've been doing all the hard work!"

"Hard work, huh?" I laughed, doing my best to avoid noticing how fast we were going, buildings and honking cars zooming by as we got onto the highway. "I smelled the booze on your breath when you showed up. I interrupt your date plans, or something?"

"Didn't exactly catch me at the best time! Was meeting with an old friend of mine, when she brought up a live feed of what was going on inside that warehouse!... On that note, the _fuck_ happened to 'strictly a recon mission,' Max!?" He looked over his shoulder at me, his eyes just visible through his helmet, staring angrily my way. "Were you seriously just winging it!? You could've gotten Blake or Sun killed! Maybe both, not to mention yourself!"

I felt my face burning angrily, as I looked away scowling. "Oh yeah!? Whatever happened to 'whatever happens happens!?' I saw an opportunity to deal with Torchdick, and I took it! Belladonna and Wukong played their part just fine! And it all would've worked out, if I hadn't..." I paused, mind thinking back to earlier, my finger freezing, unable to pull the trigger, and put down that conniving, bowler hat-wearing bastard.

"...You froze up, didn't you?" he asked, but it didn't sound like a question; it was just a statement. "You had the chance, but when it came down to it, you couldn't follow through."

"S-shut up! I-I just... I don't know why it happened! I wanted to, but...!" I shoved my face into his back just above the back of his chest piece, and let out a cry of rage. "I had him, but when I looked him in the eye...!"

"You hesitated, Max. You've never killed a person before, have you?" Ambrose said calmly, gauging my reaction, slowing down to work his way through a sea of wrecked cars. Some people were still working to pull others from the damaged husks. "A true Huntsman or Huntress should always hesitate to kill another soul, even in the most extreme of situations."

"Where'd you pick up that line from? A fortune cookie?" I asked, smirking as I felt his back stiffen noticeably.

"Nope. Oobleck. During one of my sessions with him, I asked his opinion on my fight with Alex, about me holding back. That's the line he gave me; said we as Huntsmen are meant to be protectors, not murderers."

"You do realize I get a rise off of trying to break bones, take limbs, and generally hurt people a lot, right?" I leaned over his shoulder nonchalantly. "I don't think I qualify as your typical Huntress. Besides, imagine how much easier things would be for us if I'd actually taken the shot..."

He just shrugged his shoulders, pushing me back onto the seat with a free hand. "Hurting someone and killing them are entirely separate things. Maybe this whole situation would've been better; maybe it wouldn't. Bottom line is you chose to preserve a life, rather than take it. And that shows something, Max. Something good, despite what you might tell yourself. To tell you the truth, I'd actually be afraid if you had taken him out, especially in that situation."

We spent a few moments in awkward silence, the only sound being the far off calls of aid teams, and a few distant explosions going off further ahead, signalling we must've been getting close, and that the fun was still going on.

"...Would you have done it?" I asked finally, gripping his waist tightly. "If you'd been in my shoes... Had the sort of chance I had..." I trailed off as Joel lowered his helmeted head for a few seconds, bringing the bike to a stop, deep in thought, before looking around at the wreckage around us.

"I don't know, Max... I really don't. Sad thing is I still have trouble deciding whether or not that's an improvement on how I used to be," he said somberly, shaking his head as he looked off towards the sound of fighting. "Take it from me on this, though. Don't be so eager to cross that line. Because once you do... there's no taking it back. _Especially_ when you have a choice."

I nodded, a grin spreading across my face, just before grabbing the Huntsman in a headlock just beneath the collar, laughing jovially as I gave him a few light shots to the ribs, considering he still had his helmet on. "Ah, _ack!_ Max? Ow,_quit it!_" he choked out, trying to get me off, threatening to tip the bike over in the struggle, before I finally let him go, coughing and spluttering as he pulled off his helmet, rubbing at his side as he looked over at me in utter confusion. "What the hell!?"

"How could I not, with you being so profound..." I replied, raising my hands in surrender as he glared at me. "Acting like some sort of old man. 'Take it from me on this!'" I imitated in a mock impression of his voice. "So lame. No idea how the hell you managed to score a babe like Xiao Long, or why we're still partners."

He looked back at me for a few seconds, before the corner of his mouth rose. "No idea, either. Believe me, I've asked her," he joked, rubbing at the back at his head sheepishly. "As for the second question, can you imagine anyone else putting up with you for so long?"

He had me there, I suppose. Things could've always been worse. For example, I learned later on, after we each reviewed the Initiation one-on-one with Goodbitch, that I'd actually landed pretty close to Winchester in that forest. _Too_close. Just the thought of being paired with that musclebound, racist prick was making me physically ill.

"Ready to go kick Torchwick's ass, and make him wish you shot him?" Ambrose asked, replacing his helmet as we began moving again, roaring down the highway as I noticed the criminal's fancy new ride being assaulted by the combined might of RWBY and half of AMBR, just underneath an upcoming overpass a few dozen feet below. Its armor was covered in dents and burn marks, but still managing to hold them back.

_'Damn, looks like I missed one hell of a party staying behind.' _No sign of Wukong or the blue-haired loser. Probably got knocked off somewhere further back.

"Hell yeah! Find us a way down there!" I cried back, drawing my axe, blade glinting beautifully in the moonlight. Unfortunately, I soon noticed a problem: a lack of ramps leading to the fight. Joel, however, wasn't slowing down. He was heading straight for the edge at full speed, in fact. "Um, Ambrose?... What are you doing?"

"Sorry, Max. I'm gonna need you to use your Semblance in a bit!" was his only reply as we moved ever closer to the steel guardrail.

_'He wouldn't... I mean, I know Carson calls him Psycho, but that's just a joke, right? He couldn't possibly be...'_

"_JOOOOOOEEEEEL!_" I screamed, flaring my Aura just before impact, the Huntsman's mad laughter the last thing I heard before closing my eyes tight.

"_HANG ON_!"

-END

**_A/N: Okay quick PSA, for this chapter Joel's driving around a lot. Yes he had some drinks, yes I made it so Aura can reduce the effects of that to almost nothing seeing as it seems to possess healing properties and alchohol is technically a poison. Not that I'm against having a few drinks with friends when the situation calls for it, I'm legal here in the U.S and I'm sure some of you are as well here or overseas, or have at least tried alcohol (not judging if you have or haven't) Just be aware that most people can't burn off alcohol in reality as easily as you can in a fanfic. DON'T DRIVE DRUNK KIDS! Even driving hungover isn't exactly preferable in most cases. Be safe._**

**_Okay sorry about all that but I know people who've gotten caught up in this on both sides so it does hit home, anyway thank you so much for reading and for your continued support of this story and others, you're all awesome. Big thanks to those of you who sent in poems and ideas including the one who posted this chapter's rhyme, gave me an entirely new aspect to add to an upcoming character so some of the others likely will appear in future chapters - Mojo_**


	28. Chapter 28

**Edited as of: (10/26/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_Red, on your left! Go low!_" I barked out before taking a deep breath, sighting down the crosshairs of my goggles and exhaling as I pulled the trigger just as the crimson-hooded student ducked to avoid an oncoming blow from a giant mechanical arm that was intent on sweeping her aside like an ant. _Glory_ kicked hard into my metal-plated shoulder, sending an 8.6mm of Dust-tipped slug flying through the cool night air, perfectly severing one of tubes that ran into the metal beast's, what Ruby had called a Paladin, right energy cannon in a cloud of super-cooled steam.

_'Nice!' _I grinned, before I was tackled to the side by Reika just in time to avoid a hail of rockets screaming towards me, sending me into a rough tumble as I tried to protect my delicate goggles from the cloud of dust and debris.

"Ow... Thanks for the save, Rei..." I winked at my partner, who only nodded in response, before leaping off to rejoin the fight.

All in all, we were doing quite well, considering the kind of firepower we were up against. Blondie and Reika made up the frontline with their raw power, with Red and Ninjette assisting where they could. All the while, Weiss and I acted as support, calling out incoming attacks, and covering wherever we could.

_'The only problem is we can't get an openin'...' _I grimaced as Reika was caught with the broad side of the mech's other arm, flying back dazed until Blondie thankfully managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Whoever had built this thing had covered their bases pretty well. The thing was a bitch to catch off guard, requiring hit and run strikes as we tried to overpower it. '_This is takin' too long! All we need is one good... The hell's that?' _I blinked, looking around as a loud roar split the night, drawing everyone's attention, even Torchwick's.

_'What the...!?' _I looked up, mouth gaping at sight playing out above us.

A motorbike was in the air, having leapt clear over the highway's railing, and was now falling towards us with two figures astride it. Ambrose looked as if he was calculating something, helmeted head twitching back and forth, taking in his surroundings, and had reached for his belt. Max, on the other hand...

"_OHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCK!_ **_SHIIIIIIIT!_**" She was screaming, expletives streaming from her mouth, her eyes shut tight, hair whipping about her head as the wind buffeted them. Strangely, though, they seemed to be falling a lot slower than they should've been, and a lot more controlled.

_'Psycho, ya crazy bastard...' _I grinned, noting the slight reddish light emanating from around the terrified Faunus. _'Using her Semblance for the landin'... Not bad.'_

The problem in their plan was Torchwick, however, laughing as he turned the Paladin around, firing off a few rockets towards them, intending to blow them out of the sky. Joel seemed to have another idea about that, however. He drew his staff and extending it in one hand, while holding out the other, palm towards the rockets. His legs and Max's arms were the only things keeping him on the bike. Suddenly, the rocket thrusters seemed to malfunction as his Aura flared across his body, going haywire as they spread out in various directions, probably pushed about by Max's powers until exploding behind them.

_"How did you...?!"_ Torchwick cried out in alarm, raising an arm to try and swat them away. Joel was too quick for him, however, angling the bike around using the arm as a runway, all the while bringing his bladed staff around to slice at more exposed wiring. _"**Brats!**"_ the criminal snarled, trying for another attempt, but the two were already past him, swerving for a few meters as they hit the ground. The Huntsman stabbed his weapon into the ground to slow them down, causing sparks to fly everywhere, and barely coming to a stop just next to me.

"Okay, that was pretty freaking awesome... But be honest..." Psycho asked breathlessly, turning his head towards me as he tossed his helmet to the ground, smiling broadly while the rest of us just stared. "Too much?"

"Maybe a bit... But it was still pretty fuckin' cool! That thing you did with your Semblance was a bit crazy, though!" I laughed, before a loud snarl chilled the blood in our veins. The next second, Joel let out a cry of pain as he was sent tumbling off the bike by Max, trying to get to his feet but failing, as Maxine's foot smashed his head into the ground, sending a spiderweb of cracks through the pavement. "Uh..."

"YOU _FUCKER!_" she screamed as she raised her foot, only to bring it down again, punctuating each word with a muffled cry of pain from the poor bastard beneath her. "Warn me next time you decide to do something so utterly, _fucking_, _SUICIDAL,_ you psychotic _ASSHOLE!_"

_'Right. Fear of heights...' _I realized with a start. _'Ah well. Funny as it is, it's probably better if I stop it before she ends up killin' him.' _I raised an arm to try and pull her off him, but Torchdick seemed to think aggravating her more would diffuse the situation.

_"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Puppy again to ruin my day. **Great,**"_ the criminal's voice issued through the robot's speakers again snidely. _"Figures those White Fang idiots screwed up again... Never send **dogs** to do a man's job, I suppose."_ Laser sights zeroed in on the Faunus' head. _"Well, you know what they say... If you want a job done right..."_

"Oi, Max! _Mo...!_" I tried to warn her, but froze when I caught a glimpse of her eyes as she slowly turned from her twitching leader to face the mech. A shiver ran down my spine, and made my throat go dry. "M-Max?..."

"The _fuck_ did you call me?..." she muttered through bared teeth, staring intently at the center of the Paladin, her hand moving slowly towards the handle of her axe.

_'**Yeaaaah,** she's pissed...' _I found myself inching away from her, shooting a sympathetic glance at Ambrose, who still had his face halfway in concrete. Blondie glanced over at my way, as if I could do something. _'Sorry, sweetie. I don't feel like dyin' today. Ambrose brought this on himself.'_

"_Rrrrrrrgh..._ I said... _WHAT THE **FUCK** DID YOU JUST **CALL** **ME!?**_" the air suddenly felt a lot lighter, a few pebbles rising into the air at the sudden lack of gravity.

_"...Was it something I said?"_ the criminal queried, red laser sights converging on the girl's forehead. _"Miss Puppy just sounds so adorable and nonthreatening. You really need to learn how to relax, not that you'll get much of a chance!"_

Ruby and the others cried out as the Gatling guns located on the lower sides of the arms lit up, showering Max, and consequently Joel, in a hail of gunfire, forcing me to leap away to avoid getting caught. The only thing I was capable of doing was just stare back in horror.

_"Hmm... Honestly thought that'd be harder..."_ The mech paused as the dust began to clear, turning the platform towards the others, who wore similar looks of horror to mine. Yang in particular looked mortified as she stared in the direction of the cloud._ "When they pulled off that little stunt, it just seemed like they'd put up more of a... Oh, you have got to be **KIDDING** me!"_

True enough, Max still stood where she had before, finally taking her heel off Joel's head, letting him notice the bullet hole mere inches from where his head had lain. Similar holes surrounded the two in a loose circle, shots fated to hit the ground and had thrown up the debris. The one's that would've been lethal, however, floated about a foot from the Faunus' face, which now resembled something from out of a nightmare.

"Ho, man, you done _screwed up,_ Torchdick..." I whispered under my breath as the girl let the rounds fall harmlessly to the ground with a clatter. "Say your prayers, friend." It had never been a contest. Roman over there had what was likely cutting-edge military technology. Maxine Argus, on the other hand, possessed power strong enough to push back a collapsing mountain when pressed.

_"What **is it** with kids, these days!?"_ Torchwick began to raise the mech's arms again, but let out a confused grunt when they paused, held down by some invisible force, metal groaning under the strain. Whatever it was Max was doing, it held fast. _"C'mon, you stupid piece of Atlesian...!"_

I let out a laugh that quickly died when I noticed Max swaying dangerously, sweat beading down her brow, ears flat against her head. "What are you idiots waiting for; an invitation!?" she gasped, falling forward on one knee, eyes quickly glazing over. "Kick that fucker's ass, already!"

RWBY glanced at the Dog Faunus, before nodding to each other, Red shouting orders to the rest of her teammates as they leapt into action.

"Man, I'm tired..." Max muttered, falling forward suddenly. I managed to get to her before she could hit the ground, cradling her in one arm. I placed a finger on her neck, and was relieved to find her pulse steady, if somewhat weak.

"Aura exhaustion." I looked back at Joel, the Huntsman-in-training finally getting to his feet. There was dust and pavement chips in his white hair, and a fresh cut on his forehead that was already in the process of healing. "My fault. I didn't expect her to fly off the handle like that."

"Really? You didn't expect Miss Bitch, herself, to freak out!?" I chided him, glancing down at the Faunus. _'Rough nights all around, I suppose.'_

"Guess I owe her some downtime after we finish this up," he sighed, dusting his armor off, before grabbing his staff off the ground, examining one of the end blades closely, before starting off towards the girls' battle with the war machine. Downtime with the Canine Faunus always meant something that was either full contact sparring matches, day trips in the Emerald Forest, etc.

"We've got to finish this fast! Reika, cover me!" the team leader shouted, sprinting ahead, followed closely by the mute Huntress. He ducked past Xiao Long as he slid between the enormous metal legs, firing one of the staff's blades off as a grappling line towards the mech's back. "_Hit him all at once!_" he cried out as he drew in the line, pulling himself on top of the robot. Torchwick let out a vicious snarl which was heard form the thing's speakers, trying desperately to throw the Boss off, but was quickly sent reeling back under the force of a combined attack from Red and the Princess.

_'Ice Queen might be a bit harsh...' _I supposed as Red moved faster than I could follow, scythe flashing in her wake, while Weiss covered her with her Dust magic, leaving thick ice formations with every successful hit. _'...We need one of those formation_ _things.' _Reika and I had some stuff figured out between the two of us, but team-wise...

With Red and Psycho working in tandem, both calling the shots, the battle soon turned in our favor. Unfortunately for the joyriding criminal, our teams had fought and trained together extensively. Blondie and Ambrose in particular were moving in near perfect synch. One minute, the white-haired Huntsman would strike from above with his staff or knives, the latter occasionally enhanced by one of the Princess' glyphs, severing some wires of important system, while the brawler struck for the legs, leaving twisted and burned metal in her wake, that made it harder for the criminal to maneuver. Soon enough, Torchwick was left in a dented, smoking mess, minus its rocket launchers and one of its gun turrets. The pair attacked together relentlessly, beating the poor mech into submission.

The criminal let out an angry cry as the pair managed to land a devastating blow that tore off one of the Paladin's arms in a cloud of steam and sparks. Even so, the criminal wasn't giving up. If anything, he fought back even harder, though Yang herself only seemed to be gaining more and more power as the fight wore on, her hair so hot it burned white.

_'Right, her Semblance gives her more strength the more damage she takes,' _I recalled to myself. Ruby shouted something similar to the rest of her teammates after her sister took a nasty hit. _'One hell of a gift, right there. Gets knocked down, comes back swingin' even harder.'_

A moan from Max drew my attention, as the girl in my arms regained consciousness, gazing up at me with surprise in her reddish brown eyes. "Carson...?"

"Howdy!" I said heartily, before a fist caught me in the face, the Faunus scrambling away from me shortly after. Not like she got very far, though; her legs gave out from under her before she could even stand up straight.

"Let go of me, you shit-faced creeper!" she spat out angrily, shaking herself out as she tried and failed to stand again. "The hell!?"

"Aura exhaustion..." I murmured through my new bloody nose, glaring at her. "Don't move too much, or you'll just end up hurtin' yourself." I gestured over to where the fight was still going on, likely coming close to the finish with the sort of damage the pair was inflicting. "You were gonna miss the fun."

"_Joel, move back!_" Ruby shouted, motioning for Blake to take over, the other team leader shooting Blondie a quick nod before leaping back to a safe distance.

"Bumblebee!" Blake ducked past Ambrose, throwing her _Gambol Shroud_ out for the blonde to catch in the midst of a running jump, the Feline Faunus using the leap's momentum to swing the now blazing girl around like an overlarge flail. Torchwick was faster than expected, however, just managing to guide the robot backwards just before the impact.

'_Still mobile... Gotta hand it to the brains in Atlas; they sure do know how to make an annoyin' machine,' _I cursed mentally, getting to my feet, Max still limp in my arms.

"We've gotta slow it down!" I cried out to the others, mind working furiously trying to determine how to do just that, eyes falling on the Princess and her hooded partner. "Maybe... Hey, Red!" She grinned broadly, having come to the same conclusion I had, lodging her scythe into the concrete.

"Iceflower!" Weiss raised her sword, a series of glyphs appearing in front of the small girl.

_'So just one of those can send you off like a bullet...' _I wondered, staring at the pair as the young Huntress pulled the lever on her weapon. _'Hmm... Could work.'_

Apparently even better than I thought. Each Dust-tipped shell drove into the mech with the force of a cannon, driving the ice effect deep into the Paladin's structure, leaving it completely immobilized from the inside out.

With a roar of triumph, Yang swung around again, smashing the now ice encrusted machine with a blow that shattered the the machine into tiny bits, blasting Torchdick to the ground with a disbelieving look on his he got shakily to is feet. "Just got this thing cleaned," he whined as he wiped dust off of his suit.

_'Torchy's durable, I'll give him that...' _I thought smugly, as the brawler got to her feet. Joel and Blake stepped forward on either side. Yang let out one final cry, sending a single shot hurtling towards the thug, who didn't even flinch, merely grinning wickedly as a girl with strangely-colored hair leapt down from out of nowhere, catching the shot with an ornate pink umbrella, shooting Blondie a teasing smile of her own.

"Ah there you are!" the criminal gave us all one last bow. "Ladies, Ice Queen, whatever the hell you're all supposed be." The last part he said as he waved a hand dismissively towards AMBR directly. "A pleasure, especially you, Maxi! Neo, if you would?"

The girl nodded, spinning her umbrella in her hand.

"_HEY!_"

Apparently Xiao Long wasn't amused, already prepping to launch herself forward, when Joel put a hand on her shoulder shaking his head. He then tossed one of his daggers lazily towards the duo, shattering their image like a mirror, revealing both already aboard a Bullhead screaming off into the night.

Reacting quickly, I got _Glory_ and aimed for one of its turbines. I only growled in frustration, unfortunately, as my goggles indicated that it was out of range.

Growling, I yelled out after him. "What's the matter, Torchdick!? You're always runnin' out on us right before we kick your ass!" Seeing as I got no response, I only cursed to myself. "Fuck!..."

"Hate tricks like those," my leader muttered angrily under his breath as he watched them go.

"So I guess he got himself a new henchmen..." his girlfriend added, pulling him into a one armed hug as they shared a fist bump. "Hate her already."

"Yeah, I guess she really made our plans... fall apart?" the heiress said with a smile, looking at the rest of us. It was a mixed bowl of reactions. Red seemed to find it funny enough, but the rest of us...

"No... Just no," Yang said, shaking her head along with Reika, while Joel and Blake walked away, talking amongst themselves.

"What!? But you do it too!" Weiss tried to defend herself, huffing as her face reddened visibly, stalking after the blonde.

"Time and place, Ice Queen!" Joel shouted before resuming his conversation. From what I could see, it was getting sort of heated.

Meanwhile, I moved beside Ruby, giving her a pat on the back, the force knocking the breath from the small girl but she quickly recovered, rounding on me with a childlike squeal of glee. "Good job out there."

"I know! It was awesome, right?" the hooded girl cried out as she tried to reenact the action with her hands, her Semblance sending her all over the place. "Joel was all '_hi-yah!_' While Yang was like..." She paused when she noticed the them arguing, a look of worry crossing her face. "I wonder what's going on?" she said, noting the angry looks on both sides faces, all with her sister standing in between them awkwardly.

"I think I have some idea," I told her, grimacing as I saw Ninjette point a finger at Max. The Dog Faunus looked ready to fight, but she was still having trouble moving from where she was. "This won't be good."

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

**(A few seconds earlier)**

"You okay?" I asked, looking at Blake as we walked off.

Sighing, her eyes then looked over to where Max was, a heated glare coming from her feline eyes. "I'm fine, for the most part... No thanks to your traitorous mutt of partner over there!"

"...The _fuck_ did you call me, Pussycat!?" Max growled out, but groaned, as she was still suffering from Aura exhaustion.

Dreading the argument that would ensue, I quickly raised my arms and intercepted Blake before she could approach my partner. "Okay, okay! Look, I'm not entirely cool with what she did, either. But I already talked to her about. There's no need for insults, Blake." She was about to speak again, when I shouted at Weiss' poor timing at a pun. "Time and place, Ice Queen!"

"Joel, Max almost got me and Sun killed. If she hadn't pulled that stunt, we would've gotten away on our own!"

"Yeah. And then we wouldn't have had the opportunity to get Torchdick!" Max snapped back.

"Funny. I thought the whole purpose of your 'plan' was to get him when he was vulnerable! Something you didn't follow through on!" Max only snarled at her, but looked away. "Why didn't you take him out when you had the chance?"

"Hey, hey, okay! I apologize for Max's reckless act, okay? However, I don't appreciate you chastising her for not killing Torchwick. I don't disagree with her choice."

"Don't disa... Joel, if she had done that, Torchwick wouldn't have gotten on the Paladin, and he wouldn't have caused as much damage as he did! Innocent Faunus wouldn't have needed to get hurt!"

Max scoffed. "Pfft, 'innocent?' They sure didn't sound innocent when they were cheering Torchwick when he said they'd kill Humans with the thing."

"There were civilians there!"

"And I only hurt those who were trying to hurt me, which were mostly the guys already with them!"

Sighing, I shook my head. "Look, Max's act aside, she wasn't wrong. If agents attacked, she had every right to defend herself."

The Feline Faunus growled at this. "You're just defending her because of your past with the White Fang."

At this statement, my self-imposed role of peacekeeper died completely. "_Excuse_ me!?"

"Blake!" Yang's voice cried. From the corner of my eye, I saw her looking between us, glancing at both of us warily and with concern.

Sighing, I looked Blake straight in the eye. "Look, I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that, alright? But back to what I was saying, think about it, Blake. Would someone like Torchwick _really_ be worth getting your hands dirty with blood?" I let the words sink in, and saw that she was seeing my point. "Right?"

"Besides, even if I had done it, it wouldn't have stopped one of those White Wang goons from hijacking it in his place! Or even that new girl!"

The Feline Faunus instantly snapped at the Canine Faunus. "You don't know anything, Argus!"

"_That's enough!_" I snapped, slowly starting to get frustrated. "Besides, Max brings up a good point. Even if we took out Torchwick, we would've only taken care of part of the problem."

She blinked, here eyes narrowing in both confusion and suspicion. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Blake. Somebody's been arming the White Fang. Even if we got rid of Torchwick, they would still be armed by whoever's working with him.

"All the more reason to find him, figure out who he's collaborating with, and stop them from arming them even further!" she reasoned.

"Not that I'm against it, but it would be fruitless. By the time we do, _if_ it happens, the White Fang would already be even more dangerous than they are now. You're missing the point, Blake!"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm not 'saying;' I'm _telling._ The reality of the situation, Blake, is that the White Fang are now armed enough to actually mount offensives, and challenge the Kingdoms. With that kind of weaponry, they could harm even more innocent people... I can't allow that to happen."

"So, what? You're going to go after the White Fang, again?"

"Blake, I'm sorry. I know that you wish that there was a part of the organization that you joined as a kid still there. But we need to face facts. The White Fang is now capable mounting a terrible offensives against Remnant. Their threat can't be ignored. Not by me, at least. They need to be stopped."

"They're just misguided!"

"They're _not_, Blake! They're perfectly aware of what they're doing, and will continue to hurt innocents if left unchecked! I'm sorry, Blake. I really am. But the White Fang, as it stands now, needs to be destroyed..."

"It's not their fault!" she cried. "They're being manipulated and corrupted by people like Torchwick! He's the real problem!"

"We've been over this. Even if we deal with him, we would still have to deal with them afterwards!"

"_You're letting your hatred for them cloud your judgement!_"

"_And you're letting your past with them cloud yours!_"

I could feel the eyes of everyone present on us, likely very wary of the tension surrounding us. Yang looked torn between us, something I internally chastised myself for. But Blake needed to hear this, regardless of how much it would hurt her.

To my annoyance, she merely scoffed with a snarl. "Fine. You do whatever you feel that you need to do. I'm going to stop the _real_ problem."

With that she walked past me, her elbow bumping against my own.

Frustrated, I turned around to look at her. "Blake, if you don't listen to what I'm trying to tell you, you're _will_ regret it later!" She didn't even acknowledge that she heard me. "_BLAKE!_"

Growling, I simply gave up, running my hand down my face.

"Forget her, Ambrose. We don't need that pussycat," Max snarled, glaring at Belladonna as she walked away.

"Max, stop," I sighed, hand still on my face.

"What? That girl's too stubborn to see...!"

Instantly sent a harsh glare to her. "_I SAID **ENOUGH!**_" I kept my glare at her, the Dog Faunus returning one in kind. Finally, she looked away, muttering curses to herself.

Groaning, I rubbed my temples, trying to reduce the headache I was currently having. From the corner of my eye, I saw Yang approach me. She didn't look mad, but she definitely seemed conflicted.

"Joel..." she murmured.

Sighing, I looked at her firmly. "That could have gone better..."

She sighed, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. "What now?..."

I shrugged, truly at a loss for what to do. "I don't know," I honestly replied, looking at the Cat Faunus as he walked away. "But I meant what I said... Regardless of how Blake feels about it, the White Fang, as it stands now, needs to be _stopped._"

* * *

**(A Few Days Later)**

"Break their legs, Pyrrha!" Nora shouted, cheering even more loudly as the Mistralian skilfully brought CRDL down one by one in a series of strikes, each more incredible than the last. She had her head held high as Professor Goodwitch halted the match, leaving the defeated bullies to pick themselves up off the floor and slink off.

"You see what I mean, Jaune?" I asked the knight as the teacher lauded over the redhead. To her credit, the champion seemed to be taking it all rather humbly. "She was able to overcome greater numbers through maneuverability, and not just brute force. Knowing where your opponent's going to strike, and properly moving to counter it, is the most effective way of bringing them down. Understand?"

"I-I think..." the blonde said in a nervous tone, leaving me sort of unconvinced. "Still, I doubt I could do all that. Especially that last move with Cardin, where she..." He tried to act it out, turning a bright red when Nora laughed in his face.

_'Seems Ruby's rubbing off on him.' _I sighed, turning back to the scene.

"Do you think you could show me how to do something like that? One of your cool grapple moves, or how to...?" he asked, tailing off with a disappointed look when I shook my head.

"Aw, look, Joel. Vomit Boy's a fan," Yang teased her fellow blonde, punching his arm lightly... well, Yang's version of lightly, anyway. "Sorry, Arc, but he's spoken for."

When Pyrrha had asked me to assist her in training Jaune, she had made it clear that I wasn't to teach Jaune anything too... "potentially lethal," as she put it. I could understand the sentiment, given my background.

"Look, Jaune, I'm not the one teaching you to fight; that's Pyrrha's job. And by the looks of it, you already have a fine teacher." I motioned towards the victorious Huntress, who smiled brightly, and waved back at us. "I'm just trying to focus on making sure you understand the basics, so she can advance you more quickly."

Jaune nodded in acceptance. _'He's a good kid. Talented, too, even if he can't see it.'_

"Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?... Ms. Belladonna?" Blake looked up from her book, a nervous expression on her face. I glanced down at my Scroll, shaking my head. It was a move not missed by Yang, who likely narrowed her eyes. "You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you...?"

"I'll do it!" I looked around, and saw the silver-haired student from the other day, the one from Haven that was with that scary girl raising his hand lazily.

"Alright, Mr... Black, was it? Who would you like to choose for your opponent?" the bespectacled professor asked, slightly hesitant.

Black tapped his chin as if deep in thought, looking about the room, inspecting everyone present. "I'll fight... her." He pointed to Pyrrha, a ripple of whispers spreading through the crowd, while the teacher's eyes widened.

_'Someone's feeling cheeky.'_

"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished a match. I suggest you find yourself another partner," Goodwitch said in a dangerously terse tone. "Suggest" might've been taking it too lightly. Pyrrha looked ready to volunteer herself, anyway, but Black spoke up again, shrugging his shoulders in defeat.

"Alright, then... How about Mr. Bigshot over there? The guy that was all over the news? No qualms about having me fight him, right?" I tensed, suddenly feeling the entire room staring at me as he had pointed me out. I'd never been asked to spar for the class before, always thinking that I was assigned to the class as an afterthought by Goodwitch, or another presiding professor, and even _then_ that was rare.

"Well? How about it, Mr. Trapper?" he gestured, making my eyes narrow slightly at the remark.

"Mr. Black, that's quite en...!?" the Huntress spoke up, but I cut her off by raising my hand, my eyes never leaving him. Getting to my feet slowly, I stretched my shoulders, bones slightly cracking in the oddly silent classroom.

"Sure. Why not?" I laughed, giving the boy a wicked smirk as I flexed my fingers. "Should be 'fun.'"

Black chuckled, making his way down towards the stairs that led to the locker rooms. Yang tugged at my shirt with a worried expression on her face.

"Sure you know what you're doing, big guy? Don't let him rile you up."

"Don't worry, Sunshine. I got this," I replied, giving her hand a firm squeeze, before looking down at a nervous Jaune. "Guess you get to see a practical demonstration, after all. Maybe you'll pick up something?" I left without waiting for the other leader to reply.

* * *

"Alright, I want a clean fight from both of you," the blonde professor said curtly to both of us, as we sized each other up.

The other student hadn't put on any extra armor, except for a bit more plating on his legs. _'Something similar to Yang, most likely, except with kicking.' _I'd faced his type before: fast, with good reach, and agile. _'Not a problem.'_

"The conditions for victory are to place your opponent's remaining Aura in the red, or to force a surrender. I will step in if I deem it appropriate." That last line was probably for me, my collar feeling just that little bit tighter. The Huntress then left the stage, leaving the two of us standing still as statues, waiting for her mark.

As soon as she made it off the stage, she turned to look at us intensely. "Begin!"

I made the first move, one he likely didn't expect. I took my staff and compressed it, before tossing it aside. I wasn't wearing my knives, them being deemed way too dangerous, even with my relaxed restrictions, to allow in a sparring match. Funny how that worked. I rolled my shoulders one last time, taking a low position, with my hands held loosely in front of me.

"Sure that's a good idea?" Black asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet as dark grey armor encompassed both them and the lower parts of both of his legs.

"Thought you might need the handicap," I replied, happy to see an angry grimace cross my opponent's face.

He then leaped forward suddenly, his force accelerated by a blast from his boots. _'Exactly like Yang!' _I sidestepped at the last possible second, as he drew closer in an attempt to catch me with a full force kick to the chest. My hand lashed out as I grabbed his leg and pulled upward, sending the boy tumbling past me in a rough tumble, though he did manage to recover.

"Ooh. Lucky for you, I wasn't serious," I said, letting a few stray sparks run down my arm. I could almost feel Goodwitch's eyes boring into me. I could care less, however. I needed to blow off steam anyway, what with the mood I'd been in. My eyes shifted to the Cat Faunus in the crowd, her face still pressed in her damn book.

The argument was still fresh in my mind. We had both admitted, after Torchwick's defeat, that Max had gone too far with her plan. _Way_ too far. Unfortunately, the Faunus had decided to add a few choice words that I didn't take too kindly to, especially when she started making a case for the White Fang, and how Max had hurt innocent Faunus without reason. Of course, that had just snowballed, and one comment had landed me in the hotseat, apparently "defending her actions because of my past." It was bad enough just being around her, and it hadn't helped things with Yang either, the blonde having to choose between her partner and her boyfriend, which I in no way wanted to force her into, but I still needed to get the point across that the White Fang, as it currently was, needed to be stopped. Unfortunately for me, she didn't listen, so I gave the ninja as much space as I could to keep things civil. Lo and behold, Blake had had a similar idea, except hers had extended to pretty much everyone, as she fell into a pretty obvious obsession with Torchwick. Add that to some rather disturbing information on Red Hand movements, or lack of, courtesy of Natalie, and it was easy to see how I could be a bit tense.

"_Watch out, Joel!_"

Yang's voice snapped me back to reality. I had to duck quickly, the other student having taken advantage of my distracted state to launch a surprise attack, sending a series of kicks, one after the other, my way, forcing me to dodge and weave my way across the stage.

"Daydreaming. _Seriously!?_" Black growled, sending me skidding back as one of his blows caught me in the chest, taking a sizable chunk out of my Aura. "That's just rude!" He angled upwards, this time striking for my neck, but I caught his leg yet again.

"Sorry," I muttered under my breath as I sent my own foot crashing into the back of his other leg, throwing him off balance, and tossing him to the ground. "You're right. I'll put some focus into this."

The Haven student snarled, launching off the ground in a spinning axe kick that I blocked with crossed arms. I then threw him back as I advanced forward, dodging or knocking away every attack he tried to throw, and responding with a punch, elbow, or knee in kind. I was slowly but surely whittling down his Aura. This guy was good. _Really_ good. And what was more, he had specialized training in fighting other people, not just Grimm, a rarity hat wasn't often taught, but learned. I didn't pride myself on my CQC for nothing, however, and soon enough, I tackled him, leg in my grasp as I had him pinned, landing an elbow in his face every few seconds.

"_Yield!_" I could give him a shock, but I doubted that would be okay with the staff.

The kickboxer struggled vainly for a bit longer before relaxing. I made a rookie mistake then, without truly realizing it. I relaxed my grip for a fraction of a second, and the bastard knew it. He twisted himself on the ground as he aimed a kick at the side of my head with his free leg, one that I only narrowly blocked. I realized too late that it was exactly what he'd wanted, judging by his grin.

"Gotcha!" he breathed, blasting off his boot while it was still pressed to my face.

The sound of the blast hit my ear like a sledgehammer, sending me reeling back clutching at my head as the sound echoed in my skull. I'd been trained to fight through the pain of someone attempting to use my senses against me. All Trappers had; it was a necessity. The unexpected assault still left me off balance for a few precious seconds, though, which was just enough time for the asshole to get free, landing a few heavy kicks against me that sent my Aura deep into the yellow, threatening red.

I was on one knee before I knew it, shaking out my head as the ringing slowly stopped to a dull hum, but the headache remained. "Looks like I found the chink in your armor..." he taunted, kicking his legs out a bit, before resuming his first stance. "Heard you Trappers had better sense than most, but I guess it's not all it's cracked up to be."

My head shot up, staring at the fighter in disbelief. _'How the hell...!?' _Trapper sensory training wasn't exactly a top secret, but the Red Hand had never openly advertised it. Just because we were trained to handle it, didn't mean we wanted to let our enemies know how much damage a well-thrown flashbang could do to our best troops.

"God, it must suck for your girl up there, huh? Seeing how her man is getting the...!"

I instantly saw red, as something in me, spurred by the pain, the stress, and everything else, just set me off. My teeth were bared as I leapt forward in an Aura-enhanced charge, landing in front of the boy before he could continue, fist lashing out towards his face that I now very much wanted to reduce to pulp. Unfortunately for me, my opponent caught the blow with one of his arms, cocky grin replaced by a flash of fear and surprise, as his arm went numb. Sparks ran across my body as I pushed voltage into every focused strike, numbing parts of his body that they came into contact with. Elbow to the side of the head, knee to the stomach, quick blow to the back of his knee...

It was tiring and brutal, but I didn't stop... Not until Goodwitch's voice cracked like a whip, my shoe pressed against the back of Black's skull.

"_**Enough,** Mr. Ambrose!_ Your opponent has been pushed into the red; stand down!"

The command snapped me out of whatever trance I'd been in, backing away quickly from my groaning opponent as I glanced at the teacher. I could hear nervous cheers from the onlookers, but that didn't stop me from noticing the grip the professor had on her riding crop. I raised my hands, giving Yang, who was staring at me as if she was having trouble believing what she was seeing, a sad look before walking from the stage.

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"Well, that was... scary," I said as we left the class. Goodwitch actually giving us no homework in her haste to rush off after Joel, probably to lecture him to no end.

_'And I think, this time, he might deserve it, too.' _That last bit when he'd just...

"I don't think I've ever seen him get like that in a fight... Not even when we fought the Trapper." Joel had always been a more cool-headed fighter than a hot-headed one. He was always determined and focused. Ice cold at the worst, but never the blazing hot rage I'd seen today.

"Well, it's there. Maybe you just overlooked it," Blake said hotly, stomping off, leaving us all in shock. "You know better than anyone what he was, and how he can be when you get involved."

Looking back at the entrance, I noted Sun standing with what must've been the rest of his team, looking at the retreating Faunus with a hurt and disappointed expression on his face.

_'Okay, that's it!' _Ruby let out a worried squeak as I moved forward, catching the raven haired Faunus by the wrist before she could do that disappearing thing that annoyed the hell out of me.

"What is you two's problem with each other, lately!?" I growled, my partner's eyes widening. "You say I overlook some things, but I'm not stupid! You guys are _friends!_ You were friends before even I met him! If this is about Max...!?"

Blake let out a growl, and for the first time, I could clearly make out dark circles under her eyes. _'She hasn't been sleeping... For a while, it looks like.'_

My grip weakened enough so my partner could tear her hand away. "I knew him maybe three or four hours before you; big deal! And I've already talked to him about his _sadist_ of a partner!"

"Then why!? You haven't been yourself; _neither_ of you have!"

"Look, Yang. I'm sorry, but if your boyfriend's acting strange, then that's your issue; not mine," she said venomously, eyes glancing towards the ground. "As for me, I've just realized that maybe he and I don't exactly _share_the same goals, anymore. Maybe we never did."

"Blake..."

"I've got work to do. Excuse me." And like that she was gone, rounding a corner while leaving the rest of us milling about awkwardly.

"She can't keep this up..." Ruby murmured under her breath. "Neither of them can. What happened?"

Weiss shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head. "It's not _that_ hard to understand. The two of them might seem similar, but if you think about what the two of them used to be, then conflict was only inevitable, I suppose." She raised her hands as I gave her a sharp glare, my eyes burning like coals. "I'm only telling the truth. I know how dedicated she can be, and Joel hasn't exactly been tight-lipped about his feelings for her former comrades."

"...I've got to fix this now," I said in a determined tone. _'Those two are friends... It's time to remind them of that.'_

"Yang?" The two of them looked at me, and then to each other with confused looks, before I grabbed them by their collars, and began dragging them with me. "_Yang!?_"

_'I still need to work out a plan with Blake. Joel I can work on, though, and I have the **perfect** person to ask for advice,' _I decided, marching us towards the airship station. "I need to speak to someone. You two are my back-up."

"Back-up!? What about class, you blonde brute!?" Weiss cried out, doing her best to wriggle out of my grasp to no success. "Ruby, speak some sense into her, you dolt!"

_'I'm going to put this right...' _I owed it to both of them, shutting out both girls' complaints as I practically threw them into the ship. _'I just hope they're still willing to listen.'_

* * *

**_-Mercury Black-_**

_'The world is **pain...**' _I groaned as I let my partner set my shoulder, hissing as I felt the joint pop back into place. _'And I just keep tempting it... Me and my big mouth.'_

I'd managed to play off the injuries long enough to avoid the infirmary. No use wasting time in a sickbed, especially considering the report we had to give to the boss tonight. _'Ooh, she's **not** gonna be happy...'_

"So I take it you realize this is all your own fault, right? Getting cocky," Emerald said as she applied more Aura to a particularly nasty burn on my stomach, the worst of a few nasty souvenirs from that white-haired prick's Semblance. "You're job was to observe Nikos, and report on her abilities. We already know enough from our contact about Ambrose. But _nooooo,_ you just _had_ to fight the former Trapper, didn't you? Despite the fact that you're probably the worst match-up for someone like him."

"Not in the mood for a lecture, Sustrai," I hissed as she pressed harder, sending a jolt of pain wracking its way up my chest.

_'That'll be the rib...'_

"We both know you were able to get a good enough read on Miss Invincible to see what she's capable of. More than enough for the boss, anyway. As for me, I got to see first-hand what the Human Bug Zapper's capable of, and confirm a few weaknesses on the side. That's what I'd call a 'win.'" I almost blacked out when my partner dug her finger into one of the burns. "Watch it, will ya!"

"Idiot! You could've screwed everything up," the thief growled, leaning back as she let me roll down my shirt. "There. You should be good to go in a day or two, if you push your Aura. That is if Cinder doesn't fry you alive for this little stunt, first."

"No worries, babe. Had enough of getting my ass kicked for one day." I let out a laugh as I gave her a thumbs-up, and leading us out of the small copse of trees we'd decided to hide out behind.

Along the way, I stopped to stare at a curious sight. Adorning the wall just next to the entrance of the building was an image of a vaguely man-shaped figure, its claws shrouded in black, with its head cratered in on itself, sending cracks along the wall. What really drew the eyes was how the subject seemed ready to jump out at you.

_'Creepy...' _I shivered despite myself, before following after my partner. _'Would hate to meet the mind behind that thing...'_

-END

**A/N: Hey all, sorry about the long wait, had serious writer's block for some reason regarding this chapter. Anyway I hope this all catches you at a good time and appreciate all the support you've given this story. Cheers!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Edited as of: (11/5/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

NIGHTMARES &amp; SCARS

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Okay, so, I ask again, how the _hell_ did we get stuck with this job?" I groaned, glancing up from the long shopping list towards the Faunus girl walking in front of me, my teammate sketching lazily with pencil in hand as she walked, jotting down storefronts and passersby in equal measure. "_Hellooo?_ Remnant to Argus?"

"Huh?" She snapped her head up in surprise, looking around her as if unaware of how she'd gotten there. Peering over her shoulder, I caught a glimpse of a real work in progress. Like looking through a window at a rough, gray scale copy of the street corner about an hour back with the funny name. Most of it was so detailed, even down to the fur pattern on a barking dog that had freaked her out, and the White Fang graffiti on the walls. I'd asked her on more than one occasion why and how she managed to draw and remember some of the things she drew, specifically all those little details no one but her ever seemed to notice. All she ever said to me was that it just "came to mind," and that she had no control over it.

_'Is selective photographic memory even a thing?...'_

"What do you mean? RWBY apparently needs help with this whole dance thing. They're down a member with Belladonna doing whatever the hell it is she thinks she's doing."

I grimaced darkly, shaking a stern finger at her. "Red got you with the eyes, didn't she?"

"Shut up! You know how she gets, all teary-eyed and clingy."

That was certainly true enough, I supposed. Blondie had her way with people, and Red had hers. Every time she wanted to see my arm, or procure a part that required "special" channels to obtain, she used those cursed puppy eyes.

_'Downright scary... Ambrose is the only one I trust to deal with those two, and he's been off in a funk all his own, lately. Speakin' of which...'_

"You fill Psycho in about this little side project you have us doin'?"

Judging by the awkward glance at the ground, and the shifty look on her face, I assumed that was a hard "no." "What's it matter? Not like he wouldn't say yes, anyway, considering his girl's got him whipped." I just shrugged, glancing at the list again. "Now what exactly are we looking for, again? I'm bored outta my mind."

"We gotta meet up with some caterin' company hired by the Princess, establish a few things on the food... and go over... Wow, how the hell's Ozpin affordin' this, again?" Max let out a grunt as we sat down on a nearby bench, resuming her doodling idly. "From there, we need to rent the sound system, fog machines... Lights?"

Were we putting on a dance, or a concert? CFVY had already set up the entertainment before their assignment, so I could only suppose Blondie was working to enhance where they left off.

"Well, I guess I can go meet the guys for the food. Maybe see if they've even heard of _half_ the stuff on this list Weiss gave me. Meanwhile, you can go pick up the tech, and have them send it up so the girls... You're doin' it again." I snapped a metallic finger in front of her face, the harsh sound perking her up immediately.

"Sorry, sorry!" She shook her head, kneading her forehead while I just sat back with a concerned look on my face. Maxine Argus apologizing like that?... Better check the temperature in Hell. "I've just been... distracted lately. Something's just been nagging at me."

"Do tell." I spread my arms wide. "Between you and Psycho's mood lately, and Reika runnin' off at every opportunity, tryin' to play catch up with lessons, teachers and students have actually started comin' to_me_ about our team. Requests for joint practices, lookin' for updates on work for classes, etc." I sighed, trying to remember if we were supposed to be helping OPAL out in Emerald Forest in two days, or if that was AZUR, and OPAL needed the training room tomorrow, and wanted Psycho to teach them some moves. "Look, you both oughtta know things aren't going well when _I_ have to be the responsible one around here."

That tugged at the corner of her mouth, a small smile forming on her face as she looked down. A rough sketch of Roman Torchwick's likeness stared back at her from the corner of the page. "Carson... Do you think I'm a good person?"

I stared at her for a few moments, before letting out an awkward laugh. She wasn't following along... _'Oh shit, she's actually serious...'_

"W-what brought this on?" I asked hesitantly, now very much alarmed. "Is this about Torchdick, and your move with Ninjette and Muscles? Psycho... He didn't say somethin' did he, or anyone else...?"

"No, Ambrose didn't say anything... Not really. But it does have something to do with what happened," she said quickly, turning to face me directly. "...If you had been in my place, and had Torchwick on the end of your crosshairs... would you have taken the shot?"

The question was a desperate one, and by the look on her face...

"...Are you askin' if you're a good person because you _didn't_ shoot Torchwick, or are you asking if you're a good person _in general?_" I said carefully, trying my best to wrap my head around this. _'Damn it.'_"Because in terms of the first option, most would say you are. On the other hand, you let a guy who very likely plans to cause a _lot_ of chaos, and hurt a _lot_ of people, live."

"That supposed to make me feel better?" she shot me a dark glare. Strange how I was actually more relieved to see that look on her face than anything else in the last hour. "You know, you're not exactly proving to be the best support, right now!"

"You're the one who went and asked me a question like that!" I said defensively, giving her a look of my own. "I gave you my opinion, like you requested. As to whether or not I think you're a good person... Well, let me think." I held up a hand, counting off fingers. "You're sorta a sadistic bitch... Who terrifies the hell out of me, sometimes... And genuinely seems to enjoy makin' things scream... Is generally snarky to most people she's around, even her friends... Aggressive as all hell..."

"Wow, asshole..." she deadpanned.

"_AND_ one of the few people I feel I can trust here at this damn school. You're nothin' if not loyal," I finished, looking away quickly from her shocked face. "Someone I can go to if I need somethin' told to me straight. A person that realizes who and what she is, and isn't afraid to be that person, even if others don't like it. Hell, you even joined Beacon in an attempt to channel your whole 'scary' side on the Grimm, rather than risk other people. That, and frankly, when you're not threatenin' to kick my ass, you're actually a pretty entertainin' person to be around, who knows how to have a good time." I fidgeted uncomfortably at the silence. "And if you need _one_ good deed to make you feel better, I suppose you may as well know that you're the reason I'm tryin' to quit smokin', now. But I still do reserve the rights to my alcohol, and other forms of stress...!"

I was cut off as the Faunus practically tackled me, crushing the air from my lungs in a tight embrace. "A-Argus...!?"

"Thanks," she muttered, face muffled in my shoulders as I patted her awkwardly on the back, before she pushed me off the bench and onto the ground in a heap, laughing as I massaged my aching head gingerly. "You're alright, Ben. You know that? Bit of a chatty prick sometimes, but alright," she said, flashing her teeth in a broad smile as she kicked her leg energetically.

"Thanks for the compliment," I grunted, letting my head fall back to the ground as I looked up at the setting sun. "Always aim to please."

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"So can I ask why you dragged me all the way to this part of Vale in the _middle_ of the _night_?" Joel asked as the cafe's waitress walked up, placing two steaming mugs in front of us with a smile. "Bit off the beaten path, isn't it?"

He had a point. _Hatter's House of Tea and Assorted Sundries _was a bit of a hole in the wall deep in the commercial district. A local favorite, but not really well known in the city. A suggestion from Natalie for what I was attempting.

I didn't rise to the bait, instead leaning forward with a mock pout. "What, a girl can't take her boyfriend out on a date anymore? When was the last time we got to be alone like this, without anyone else around? Besides, I thought you might need the downtime after the lecture Goodwitch gave you."

He shivered slightly, nodding his head, before we each toasted the other, taking a deep swig of our drinks. My drink was divine; somewhat minty with a nice little burn at the end of it. Joel's however...

"What's wrong? Don't like it?" I asked worriedly as he spluttered, coughing into his hand as he stared warily at the mug in front of him, as if it were going to explode any second. I was a bit worried now. The drink had been Corbell's suggestion, as well.

_'No wonder she was grinning like that...'_

"I'm not much of a tea person, but I don't think it's supposed to hurt like that, is it?" he said wide-eyed, thumping his chest lightly. One of the waitresses, a Faunus with small horns protruding from short brown hair, scrambled over with a glass of water, and a small yet stern smile on her face, placing it in front of the Huntsman. Looking over her shoulder, I noticed a few of the other workers glancing at us both with conspiratory grins on their faces. "Excuse me, but what's in this?"

"That'd be the diluted Death Stalker venom, hon..." She pointed to the mug, and then to the water, as my boyfriend's face paled slightly. "Burns on the way down, and tastes like old grease, but it leaves your blood pumping with enough energy to run a marathon like it was a morning jog. Real hit with couples, funnily enough." She gave the Huntsman an appreciating look, before flashing me a thumbs up. "I recommend pacing yourself, though. That stuffs pretty potent."

Joel's face flushed as I waved my hands wildly, my own face probably as red as Ruby's cloak. The waitress left with a knowing look on her face, while the white-haired Huntsman across from me just looked at me with an eyebrow raised expectantly.

"Well... You know you could've just asked, right?"

"I swear...!" I started, but paused as he burst out laughing, loud and uncontrolled, having to stifle it in his hands to avoid disturbing other guests. It was wonderfully infectious, and soon enough I was clutching my sides just trying to hold back. "I-I'm _so_ sorry!" I choked out as we finally managed to calm down, breathing heavily. "I swear, I had _no idea_ when I ordered it!"

"I know that, Sunshine. You're not exactly subtle, but this is a bit much, even for you." I shifted awkwardly as he sat back in his seat, swirling the mug cautiously, especially after a strange steam started to rise up from it, that smelled like the inside of a burnt out engine. "Wasn't aware you and Natalie had met up..." he said after a few more moments. "This sounds like something she'd do for kicks... Or revenge."

"Are you mad?"

Joel's eyes narrowed slightly, shaking his head in confusion. "Mad? Why would I be mad? To be honest, I intended to introduce you two days ago once I learned she was in the city. Probably would've done it, if Torchwick hadn't happened. She's been helping me out with some stuff, and I thought it might be nice... But stuff just seemed to keep coming up with her work last minute." He shrugged his shoulders casually. "Is it because we were... you know?" He trailed off, scratching at the back of his head sheepishly, like he always did when he was tense or nervous.

"Sort of..." I admitted, twirling a finger through my hair absently.

_'This was a lot less embarrassing when I imagined it walking in here."_

"I can't imagine most guys I've met would want their girlfriend and their ex anywhere near each other, let alone in the same room. Besides, I sort of went there because of you."

"Me?"

I took a deep breath before staring him in the eyes, determined lilac meeting uncertain blue. "Well..."

* * *

**(A Few Days Earlier)**

"My, this is a surprise..." the silver dressed girl stated blankly, not even bothering to look up from her Scroll as I took the seat in the booth across from her. "You know, I considered this might happen, but I never really thought I was worth the trip all the way from Beacon. Or do you have another reason for visiting the club this early?" She had a point. For the most part, the club was empty, except for a few regulars seated at tables or the bar, the dance floor being mostly deserted. "So, when do the fists come out?"

I shrugged, leaning back in my seat, trying my best to look nonchalant while my heart beat uncertainly. _'Get a hold of yourself, Yang! You can do this!'_

"Not today, unfortunately. This here is just a happy coincidence, really. I was craving a Strawberry Sunrise after classes let out, and Junior's does make the best." I gestured over my shoulder towards where I'd left my two teammates. "And in that case, why not just bring the team? Thought this would be as good a place as any to just have a night out with the girls, you know? Bond a little as a team."

"Really?... You seem to be missing one, and you might want to be a bit more careful with where you leave them?" I raised an eyebrow as she pointed, looking over personally to see Weiss situated between the Malachite twins a few booths down, practically throwing away lien to finance their own private party, while Ruby was glancing towards the strobe lit turntables with a scary gleam in her eyes.

_'Crap...'_

I got up to go rescue the two of them from themselves, but paused when I noticed the analyst shaking her head. "No need. Junior can watch out for those two while we talk about why you're _really_ here." I grimaced as the large informant had indeed set someone to watch Ruby and keep her out of trouble, while personally making his way towards the Malachites. "No need for that look. I know you and my boss have some... history, but I trust him. And Joel trusts me. Is that enough?"

_'That might just be the problem!' _I felt a familiar twinge at the corner of my eye.

"Thanks..." I said ruefully, sitting back down while trying to avoid the other woman's smug expression. "Don't suppose we could start this whole conversation over again, could we?"

Forget this cloak and dagger spy act. Time to be straightforward. I could do straightforward with the best of them.

She gave me a curt nod, closing down her Scroll properly for the first time as she folded her hands in front of her. "No problem, Yang. Can I call you Yang?"

"Sure." I returned the nod, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. The woman may be one of Joel's old allies, but she was still ex-Red Hand, a cyber-criminal, and someone with a lot more personal history with the man I cared for than I was sure I felt comfortable with.

_'Get a hold of yourself, Xiao Long! You sound like some fawning super fan!'_

"If I can call you Natalie, that is."

"Fair enough." She flagged down one of the goons, making a drinking motion before pointing from me to herself hurriedly. The glasses-sporting thug ran off towards the bar quickly, shooting a quick fearful glance at me from over the counter. "Strawberry Sunrise, right? Seems the boss, over there, set you up with a tab. First time I've ever seen him do that," she laughed under her breath as she looked over to the information broker, who currently had both twins scrubbing glasses, with Weiss standing nervously to the side. "So, am I right in assuming this has something to do with Joel? Like I said, I knew this was coming from the second he pointed you out to me the night of Torchwick's little 'get together.'" She cocked her head to the side. "So what is it you want to know? Favorite foods? Hobbies? Positions?... Or are you two not at that point yet? Not judging, I..."

"No, _nothing_ like that!" I practically shouted as I waved a hand to stop her, blushing furiously as more than a few other patrons turned to stare. "I mean... Something's wrong with him! He isn't acting like himself!" Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't respond, merely urging me on with a quick hand as two colorful drinks were set before us. The guy even made a show of adding the umbrella. "I-it's just that since he started talking to you again, he's been different. On edge." I gritted my teeth angrily, hand curling into tight fist on the table. "What kind of stuff have you been telling him?"

"Only ever what he asks of me," she said almost somberly, tapping at the table with a manicured nail. "In this case, it's the Red Hand's troop movements, more specifically the Trappers... or lack of them, that has him on edge."

"Lack of them?" Memories of that Mistralian asshole's attack were still fresh in my mind. Miraculously, no one had died as a result, but his actions still had put more than a few people, including Joel and I, in a hospital bed. "What, they just all up and vanished?"

"Yes, at least on all of my usual, and more than a few unusual, channels, which is strange in the extreme, and more than worrying." She sounded almost insulted by the very thought of missing something.

_'Guess she isn't too used to being in the dark.'_

"There's never been an abundance of Trapper operatives, and thank Dust for that, but for them all to just vanish without a trace implies that either they're all dead, and I assume you can understand why that's unlikely after having met two of them, or they're actively covering their tracks, which certainly means nothing good for anyone. Frankly, it scares the hell out of me." She paused, looking down at the table and taking a deep breath, exhaling in a ragged moan. "These people... They aren't just creepy masks, not that they all wear them, with some being a bit more eccentric than others. No... The scariest thing about them is their mindset. The drive that keeps them coming relentlessly. The will to keep fighting on beaten into them so hard, it broke them and built them back up again." She shivered slightly, forcing her finger to stop tapping as she adjusted her glasses. "No wonder Joel's stressed out. Enemies like that running around without him able to do anything more than wait, especially with you to protect..."

"I don't need protecting!" I growled angrily, earning a wary glance from a few of the other patrons and goons present. "He ought to know that I'm not some damsel he needs to coddle!"

"He can be a bit overprotective, I know. Men often can be, even if they don't mean to," Natalie laughed, frowning when I didn't copy her. "Though it's not as if he believes you're some child in need of protecting. Far from it. You should hear some of the things he says about you... Damn, if someone talked about me like that..."

"Then why not let me into the loop? Let all of us into the loop?" I motioned to my teammates, while trying to flog down the butterflies in my stomach. "We may not look like it, but we're strong. _Very_ strong." Atlesian Paladin? Ha! For all of us working together, that had been a cakewalk. "Why wouldn't he want us involved?"

"Short version: you died. Or almost did, anyway. _ONE_ of these guys did that, and Joel was practically helpless to stop him." She shrugged her shoulders, falling back into her seat, staring at her reflection in the spotless table. "He's worried because he knows exactly what these people are capable of, because he was one himself. He's worked alongside them, trained with them... Especially if someone like Briar..."

"Who _is_ that, exactly?" I cut her off, eyes narrowing slightly at the effort of remembering. "This Briar girl... The guy that attacked us, Alex? He said something about her having a fit if she ever saw me with Joel. From the way he made it sound, it seemed like they were... close." I tapped my index fingers together awkwardly as the ebony-haired girl sighed wearily, reactivating her Scroll, and making a few quick swipes and presses. "Not a friend of yours, I take it?"

"I'll make it simple... If I had a choice between fighting a Beowolf naked and unarmed, or meeting that bitch again, I'd probably start undressing right then and there. So no, not a friend." She tapped her nose, which I noticed for the first time was a little uneven, barely enough to be noticeable. "Elizabeth Briar. She was from our group, and was recruited to the Trappers just after Joel was. Used to live with her younger brother and father, a rather well-known reporter from Atlas who spoke out for Faunus rights in Solitas. Even helped expose the harsh working conditions at some of Schnee's mining sites."

"So her father helped Faunus?"

"Yes, and it meant a lot of trouble for both him and his children. But he wouldn't quit... At least until White Fang agents broke down his door and made him stop..." She noted my look of stunned confusion. "Seems their leaders didn't appreciate the message of unity he was spreading, and had the agents kill him. Then, if that wasn't enough, they tortured his son, a thirteen year old kid, into madness as a message to others, and made her watch. Kingdom authorities managed to get to them before either died, but..."

Hard to believe there's something as bad as the Grimm out there... But to actually hear a story... "T-that's horrible..." I murmured under my breath, feeling slightly ill as I examined the girl smiling mischievously in the picture.

She was pretty. Very pretty, with the high cheekbones and sharp flawless features that could turn heads without even trying and more than a few would kill to possess, framed by purple and black highlighted hair that contrasted with her pale tone, cut to about her chin on her right side, the rest hanging to her left shoulder and down the small of the back from what I could see. Piercing green eyes stared right back at me, cold and challenging.

"The one time I will _ever_ feel sorry for her," the analyst admitted dryly.

I shivered lightly, leaning in closer. "From the way she was described, I was expecting a mad Ursa. Not... _this._"

"No one ever does. That's what makes her so useful," the analyst explained, giving the picture a dirty look. "She's a master infiltrator. Understands how people think and feel, and uses it to get in just close enough to plant the knife before they even realize what's happening. The Hand likes to use her to deal with collaborators working with the Faunus. Smugglers, corrupt politicians, etc. The model example of a Trapper: fiercely loyal, dangerously effective, and generally a bit of a cold, murderous bitch."

"And they were _together?_" Natalie seemed nice enough, if a bit absorbed with her work. This girl, though... "How'd _that_ end up happening?"

Natalie shook her head, closing the screen with something akin to a growl. "Pretty sure only that big idiot knows. I chalk it up as one of his more less than intelligent decisions over the years, just behind following me into the Hand in the first place!" Wow. Okay, definitely sensing a bit of hostility there. "Those two were at odds the moment they met, and it only got worse after they were recruited. Command thought it was a good plan to set them up under the same mentor."

"Mentor?"

The girl smacked the side of her head. "Right, he probably wouldn't talk much about it. Stupid me... Technically, anyone who joins the Red Hand can work to become a Trapper agent. Even those without combat school training, considering the Hand usually handles Aura application in basic." Nat explained, watching as Junior had one of his boys monitor Ruby as the DJ showed her his setup. "Hopefuls, revenge seeking psychos, dedicated tryhards, etc... The first few weeks of processing usually washes them out with the rest of the plebs." Her eyelid twitched somewhat. If what even half of what Joel had divulged about this "processing" was true, then I could only imagine the sort of memories that evoked. "Once that's cleared a good number of trainees, the instructors take the best, and thin them out even more. They take those few remaining, and give them over to active agents for specialized weapon and Aura training. Mostly first generation ex-Huntsmen and Huntresses made up the initial group. Fun bunch. Anyway, Joel and Briar were assigned under the same teacher, and from what I gathered, fought like dogs the whole way. That was at least until a few weeks after we split up. Then the fighting turned into..."

"I get it," I stopped her, mind already filling in the blanks enough without having to hear it from her.

"And even now that he left, he _still_ can't help but think good of her, like she has a heart!" she spat angrily. "Sentimental idiot... Terrified to death of her, but sentimental all the same."

"So he's scared of his ex? Doesn't explain why he and Blake aren't talking..." I scratched at my head in annoyance, though at what in particular, it was hard to tell. "Weiss thinks it has something to do with their pasts, even though they've been friends for months now."

"So that's the reason she's not here, then? Well, sorry to disappoint, but Miss Schnee's right, I expect." My eyes shot up in stunned confusion as Natalie took a quick drink. "Yang, I know this is a bit sudden... but what's your honest opinion regarding the White Fang, what they stand for, and their methods? Your real, _personal_ thoughts?"

I was caught off guard by the sudden question for a few moments, but quickly regained my composure, thinking hard before responding. "Blake's told me a bit about them. Not much, but enough to know they were started for a good cause. The Faunus definitely needed an advocate. Even so, I can't forgive the fact that they've tried to hurt my friends, and people I care about. So while I can understand my partner's reasoning, and as much as I want to help her, I won't just stand by and let them keep terrorizing people," I said firmly, the girl's lip tugging into a small smile as she she toasted me, drink held aloft.

"An optimist, but a realist as well... I'm happy Joel's so taken with you. He needs someone like that in his life..." She bowed her head, making me feel a slight twinge of embarrassment as I raised my own. "Now for the point I was making..." she carried on, lowering the glass. "Blake Belladonna, your partner, left the White Fang because she feels they've become 'misguided' in their efforts; that they've become too focused on hurting Humanity than helping the Faunus. She grew up with them, and believes that, if properly reasoned with, the White Fang can once again be the symbol for unity it once was." I noticed the hand gripping her glass had tensed, shaking slightly. "Personally?... I think it's a sentimental attempt to justify their actions as if they were children who didn't know any better. But Joel, amazingly enough, wanted to entertain it, at least for a time, even if he didn't fully believe it himself... You lot up at Beacon must've _really_ made an impression on him to override years of conditioning."

I watched her, mind racing as she rubbed at her temples. _'Joel was willing to help the White Fang? Help Blake!?'_

"Unfortunately, that was before the White Fang gained enough power to threaten a Kingdom. Paladins and mechs, Dust, manpower. They're gearing up for something _big..._ And Belladonna can spend all the time she wants trying to patch a sinking ship, but in Joel's world and mine, even without the Red Hand or the Trappers, the White Fang, as it stands now, _cannot_ be allowed to continue... We've both lost _too much_ to these bastards."

"...Is that Joel's voice or yours?" I said without thinking, recalling that Joel had said similar things back when they first fought. I raised my eyebrow as the girl across from me tensed, mouth pursed tightly.

"...Both... But he wouldn't be opposed to helping her if she wants to try and build something new; try and improve how Humans and Faunus see each other. Thing is, he seems to be having a hard time getting that across to your partner. Not much of a talker, is she?"

"...No, she isn't. But I just don't see why they can't just hash it out? They're friends." Blake had known Joel before I had. Only by hours, admittedly, but those two had been pretty good friends. I'd actually asked her permission when I first told her about my feelings for Joel, thinking there might've been something between them. The Faunus had made it perfectly clear that, while she liked the white-haired Huntsman quite a bit, a surprise to her as well given his past, their feelings were platonic.

_'She even offered to help...'_

"The Joel Ambrose I know is many things; stubborn most of all. He can lead, or be led, but trying to make him do anything he really doesn't want to do, or give up on something he's focused on, is like moving a mountain. Something they both have in common, among other things. For example, they both seem to enjoy hiding their problems... A life in the shadows will do that for you, I suppose."

I sighed. This whole thing was making my head ache, or maybe it was the racket Ruby was making up in the sound booth in a swirl of rose petals, as she tried to set something up, Junior's man unable to keep a proper handle on her. "Joel seemed alright, though. I mean, this is the first time I've ever seen him act like this."

"Really? After all the stuff he's been through? A few months at Beacon with him, and you haven't noticed _any_ other times he's let something slip through?" Pink didn't seem a very threatening color, but somehow her eyes managed to pull it off, blazing as assuredly as mine did whenever I lost control.

"Well... There was this one time..." I admitted slowly, thoughts drifting back to the night after AMBR's first mission. We'd never really talked about it, even after we got together. Just a one-time hastily-muttered apology the morning after it happened from the Huntsman, and I'd never pushed the subject again. "He just seems so put together most of the time."

"He's damn good at faking it, I'll give him that," Natalie said somberly, adjusting her glasses as she looked around the club. "He acts invincible... Managed to live through enough that I almost believe it. But he bleeds and hurts like the rest of us. You just have to see him sleep, or with his shirt off to see that. He has a bunch of nightmares and scars..." She finished off the drink in one deep gulp, flagging down another in short order. "I only completed the first few weeks of the training and conditioning before I got pushed out of those monsters, and I _still_ feel it sometimes. Took months before I could even be around a Faunus without fidgeting. And all the while my best friend was with them for _years_ because of me." I opened my mouth as tears started to drip down her face, running through makeup, but she barely seemed to register it. "I could've convinced him at one point to leave, you know?... But instead I just ran off, and left him. Let those people turn the boy I loved into a monster!..."

"...If you know Joel as well as you say you do, then you know he doesn't blame you," I said comfortingly, placing my hand on hers. I still hadn't worked out my own feelings towards the girl, but I could feel some measure of pity for what she'd been through. Two young people pushed into a terrible situation by forces beyond either of them. The Huntsman had lost a lot at the hands of others, and had suffered pain that still haunted him...

_'And it_ s_eems he wasn't the only one.'_

Natalie finally seemed to collect herself after a minute, dabbing lightly at the streaks with a napkin and an annoyed huff, before smiling warmly at me. "I meant what I said before... About him needing someone like you in his life. Someone to pick him up when he falls down, and to break through to him when he shells up." She crossed her arms and puffed herself up. "You have my blessing, Yang Xiao Long. If anyone can get that big idiot of a man to shape up, it's you." I couldn't help but chuckle lightly at the grandiose tone she took, or the red tinging her cheeks from the drink, but suddenly I felt a surge of killing intent, looking up as her hand gripped the collar of my jacket and hauled me across the table so I was eye to eye. "Just know this... I'm no fighter. Never was, even with all the training at both Aegis and with the Hand. You could snap me like a toothpick..." She then motioned to her Scroll with a sinister smirk. "But if you hurt my friend, or if you don't stand with him, I will _personally_ make every facet of your life a living, digital hell... Understood? Someone needs to do better than I did."

I nodded my head quickly, more than a little relieved to see the girl settle back in her seat after releasing me, bobbing her head in time to the set Ruby was playing over the speakers, looking to be a hit, considering all the new dancers. "Good. In that case, I have the perfect place for you to take him and sort this whole thing out." She pulled a card from her purse and handed it to me. "Just let them know I sent you. Oh, and be sure to order the..."

* * *

**(Present)**

"So..." Joel sighed, running a hand down his face while he stared down at his drink. "She still felt that way, after all this time... Damn it, I told her not to blame herself. It was my decision, too." He looked up at me, a smile building across his face as he put his hand on mine, and gave it a firm squeeze. "Thanks for what you said, though."

"It was the truth, wasn't it?" I replied happily, shrugging my shoulders casually. "She's a nice girl. I can see why you like her. We should get together again sometime soon, all three of us. She tells the best stories when you get her talking."

"Yang..." he muttered dangerously, a nerve tensing over his eyebrow.

I grinned evilly. "So when was I going to hear about this family get-together? The way Nat tells it, your grandpa almost..."

"Yang, _please_ don't." He choked down the last of his tea, cheeks reddening furiously, murmuring under his breath. "She said she'd never tell a soul..."

"Personally, I think it's cute. Especially the part with the rabbits. How'd you even manage to fit all of them in one...?" I chuckled inwardly, his face somehow turning an even darker shade of crimson.

"Just _please_ don't tell anyone else, okay?" he pleaded, putting a hand over my mouth while he glanced around at the other guests. "I'm warning you, Xiao Long...!"

I pulled his hand off, and used it as leverage to pull him into a deep kiss. I winced, doing my best to ignore the catcalls from some of the servers and other customers, while very much enjoying the act. I leapt somewhat as a short tingle ran down my nerves. Strange, but not wholly unpleasant. We parted after a few moments. I couldn't help the satisfied grin on my face at the silly look on his.

_'Ought to catch him off guard more often.'_

"Wow..." he breathed breathlessly, falling back in his seat. "...What was that for?"

"Just a little reminder," I told him, curling a lock of long blonde hair between my fingers. "I know you're worried about the Red Hand, and what they might do..." he opened his mouth, but I shook my head, continuing on unabated. "And we _should_ be worried. I also know that some of the stuff you did before troubles you, and I want to help you through it. But you can't just focus on what happened on the past, or the future. You need to focus on the present, too. It's pretty nice."

He laughed at that, running a hand through his hair as a portly Faunus with rabbit ears poking through slicked back grey hair made his way towards us, bowing a head towards us both respectfully. From the way the staff stared, he must've been one of the managers.

"Excuse me, sir, miss. I hope you found your night with us enjoyable." His eyes fell on Joel's empty teacup with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, we did." The Huntsman went for his wallet, but stopped when he saw the Faunus wave a hand, shaking his head firmly.

"No need, sir. What you've done for myself, and the behalf of many of my staff and customers, more than covers it." He noted the looks of confusion on our face, tapping the long ears atop his head casually. "You are the ones, yes? The ones who defeated the Trapper during that unfortunate attack a few weeks ago?"

"Y-yes," I choked out nervously, not exactly expecting to be put on the spot with all these people around, many of them sporting admiring looks towards myself or Joel. The Huntsman seemed even more uncomfortable, shoulders slouched as he tried to disappear into his seat.

"Yang's the one you should be thanking. She took down the guy; I just helped her." He'd apologized unnecessarily for a week after those articles came out, many of which putting him in the spotlight. I'd understood and told him as much. _Trapper vs Trapper _flowed off the tongue more easily than _Huntsman vs Trapper_. Even so, he still felt I deserved the credit. "Besides... If you read those stories, you'd know I haven't done anything to deserve your thanks..."

I opened my mouth to tell him off, but it seems the manager had that covered, giving the young man a stern look.

"I'm well aware of your former profession, Mr. Ambrose, but whatever you were before, you acted the Huntsman that day; a hero safeguarding the lives of both your friend and Vale's citizens. Because of you, the Faunus of this city and across Remnant can breathe a little bit easier."

Joel's mouth hung open, speechless as the man shook his hand jovially, shooting furtive glances at me, glances I could only return with a smile, as some of the surrounding employees, Faunus and Human, milled around our table, giving quick bows or words of thanks, before the Hare Faunus could shoo them off.

The horned waitress from before gave Joel a quick peck on the cheek, a move that almost had my hair crackling after she leaned closer to my ear and whispered, "Keep a close eye on this one. The nice ones are always getting snatched up." She let out a giggle, flashing a "call me" sign to the man in question, before disappearing behind the counter.

And with that, we left, striding out into the cool night of downtown Vale, lights beating down around us from every angle, as I wrapped an arm around his waist, resting my head on his shoulder as we walked, with his arm relaxed over my own shoulders.

"So, what kind of stuff have you been saying about me to Natalie?" I asked innocently. He stiffened slightly as I looked up to see his cheeks flushed red, a stupid looking grin on his face. "What? What did you say to her?"

"Oh nothing. Just how lucky I am to have met you, how you're stronger than I could ever hope to be, and that, if it came down to it, I'd rather have you at my back than anyone else..." He glanced down at me, raising an eyebrow. "I can go on, but it gets a bit flowery. All 'more beautiful than a sunrise' and 'her smile makes my heart pound like a drum.' Poetic, sappy stuff like that." He laughed at my expression, stopping us outside a lit storefront to plant a kiss on my forehead. "Thanks, Yang. I needed this... I really did."

"N-no problem," I stammered, kicking myself at how flustered it sounded, yet loving it all the same. "Just remember that I'm there to kick you back into shape if you need me, Sparky." He held out a fist for me to tap, and I almost facepalmed, letting out a weary groan as I pulled him down for another kiss, needing to stand on tiptoes slightly to reach him, delighting in the thrill of the moment. It had been difficult during the few weeks his Semblance had been running rampant, the random shocks from kisses like this had led to more than a few bad hair days.

_'He's strangely good at this... **Too** good,' _I thought with a twinge of annoyance, before letting out a short moan as a hand clutched at my back, the other gently cupping my face. '_I'll allow it. It's being used for good, after all,'_ I decided, breaking away with a light sigh, giggling as he wiped at his face embarrassed, peering around at the nearly deserted street.

"I think I like spontaneous. More our style."

"Agreed," he laughed, eyes widening as he looked at his Scroll with a muttered curse. "Not to alarm you, but I think we just missed the last airship back to Beacon..."

I gave a start, peering down at my own, and realized he was right. "Well, darn... Guess the others will just have to get along without us, for a while," I said with a coy smile. "It _is_ a weekend, after all. No real need to end things here, is there?" I looked across the street, loud music blaring out the front of a small nightclub. Not as large or grand as Junior's, but the night was still young. "You're still pumped from the venom, right?"

"I... But... Aw, what the hell. Lead the way, Sunshine," he gave in, allowing me to drag him bodily with a raucous cheer that rang through the night.

_'Hope he can keep up...'_

* * *

**_-Emerald Sustrai-_**

"...and it seems the teams to look out for, at least for the first years anyway, are RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and AMBR," I listed off, sitting cross-legged on the floor while Cinder lounged on the bed, and Mercury brooded in the corner nearest the door. "RWBY and AMBR have already directly interfered twice in the last few months, and I suspect JNPR would leap to help them, given the chance. CRDL isn't even on the radar."

"Threats?"

"Ruby Rose has already proved to be quite a thorn in Torchwick's side. Plus, given the fact that Blake Belladonna is a former White Fang agent..."

"Bet that freak in the mask _loves_ this..." Mercury laughed, shutting up the second Cinder's eyes fell on him. "What? They were partners, after all. I bet he'd like to catch up, especially after that stunt in Vale."

"The Faunus have assured me they will see to that particular problem when they feel the time is right. We will leave it to them, and not interfere," the queen ordered, ending all further thought of the subject immediately and without question. "Carry on, Emerald."

I nodded, looking back to the Scroll. "Overall, RWBY is probably the most well-rounded of the group, and Ozpin's favorites, while JNPR's more defense-oriented, led by this Jaune Arc guy who's only real value seems to be his Aura." How the blonde knight had even managed to get into a school this prestigious was a mystery. One that would have to be solved later. "Nikos is definitely a threat, and the rest of the team is at least above average as well, which goes a long way towards making up for their leader's shortcomings. Finally, we have AMBR. They're the _real_ wildcards in the group." It was the truth by all accounts. The only thing the data could confirm was that they specialized in tracking and assault. "They lack in coordination, teamwork, and are excessively impulsive, according to Goodwitch and Ozpin's records. They're also the only first year team to have successfully completed a mission in the field, so far, the details of which we're having quite a time trying to dig up." It was strange just how little was in the system on their activities. Only vague mentions of an SDC Mining Site #1340, a place that, according to all of our inside sources at the company, did not exist.

"Impulsive often means unpredictable..." Cinder quoted, the corner of her mouth edging upwards slowly. "Keep a close watch on them, in any case. They could prove to be dangerous, or useful, depending on how circumstances develop."

**"Yes, boss,"** the two of us said in unison, glancing at each other.

"I still believe Pyrrha Nikos to be the major threat, at least from a combat standpoint..." I noted my opinion, picking at a dark spot in the carpet. "Ambrose, as well."

"Speaking of Miss Nikos, however, I understand I _explicitly_ ordered you to properly examine the abilities of _Pyrrha Nikos,_ and instead, you come to me with information on _Joel Ambrose,_" Cinder spoke dangerously as she laid back on her hands, somehow managing to make the bed upon which she sat seem a throne. "Is that correct, _Mercury?_" The way she stressed the name towards the end was telling.

_'She's peeved...'_

"Look, if I...!" he started, but choked down the rest of his retort as her eyes blazed suddenly. "I-I attempted to challenge Nikos to a spar, but the witch running the class wouldn't let me. I didn't want to seem suspicious by insisting I fight her, anyway," he carried on, this time bowing his head and speaking in a much more deferential tone. "And it wasn't a _complete_ waste of effort."

He glanced my way, obviously expecting me to save his dumb ass. "He's telling the truth, Cinder. We did learn a few things..." He gave me a grateful smirk, but I kept my face level, feeling the full weight of the boss' attention on me, which was usually a good thing, but not now. "We lack a _first-hand account_..." Black's face soured visibly at the jab, "but I was able to determine that Miss Nikos' Semblance is_Polarity,_ though you can't tell just by looking."

"She sparred with an entire team before my fight with the Sparkplug. They were trash, but not so bad that at least one of them shouldn't have been able to land a decent hit on her coming at her all at once. Miss Invincible uses her Semblance to avoid sure hits, but keeps it to slight adjustments. I doubt even the meatheads noticed."

"Just enough to make it look like she's untouchable. She doesn't broadcast her power, so it puts her opponent at a disadvantage," I added. Mercury could sulk all he wanted, but I was getting the credit for this.

The raven haired woman gave me a slight smile, before cocking her head to the Scroll in my hands. "Hmm... People assume that she's fated for victory, when she's really taking fate into her own hands. Interesting. Add her to the list." I made the appropriate adjustments, bringing up Beacon's latest roster, and highlighting her name, right next to Joel Ambrose and Ruby Rose.

"That's not all." I grimaced as the silver-haired idiot jumped on the silence.

_'Why she keeps him around, I'll never know,' _I thought angrily. _'How's he not on fire right now?'_

"I did manage to confirm a few weaknesses in our Trapper friend your 'contact' left out. Stuff I had to confirm for myself."

"Oh?"

"The blonde from RWBY, the older sister to that little red girl Torchy won't stop raving about, is bit of a touchy subject, and sets him off if you threaten her." Judging by the look on Cinder's face, that wasn't enough, and young thief knew it. "His Semblance also takes a lot out of him. He can't maintain it for long periods, or over long distances without those knives of his. Plus..." He grinned ruefully. "Just go for the ears. Your contact didn't mention that little tidbit, and it's such a fun one I had to pick out of rumor."

"That she mentioned anything at all is suspicious," I voiced without thinking, blushing when Cinder turned to look at me with a quizzical expression "I-it's just this girl and him were friends, right? Closer even. Cinder, how can we really trust anything she says?"

If anything, the Black Queen's smile only grew, the sight of it alone sent a chill shooting down my spine. _'I respect her. Would do anything for her...' _I told myself fervently. Respect was one thing. My fear of the woman in front of me, and what she could do to me, was another.

"Natalie is _fully_ invested in our goals, and what we are trying to accomplish. Her motivations, and her loyalty, are not in question."

_'Should've chosen your friends better, Ambrose,' _I mused as Cinder went on to discuss this weekend's plans, especially those for the upcoming dance. _'Trusting the wrong people can get you killed.'_

-END

**A/N: Sorry for the wait people, I know it's mostly filler but I haven't give Yang and Joel much time together and I wanted to fix that. Just have the dance ahead and then mission time. Hope it goes better for them than the last one...**

**I've also changed the rating of this story back to T as it was originally when I started. I wasn't sure where I was going to take this or how the sort of stuff I would include and wanted the freedom. Thing is I think I've established my limits pretty well, the steamy stuffs implied only (can't write a lemon to save my life as I've explained) and the violence isn't incredibly descriptive, no guts flying everywhere in steaming swathes of gore. If it's a big deal or I chose to include something more warranting then I'll change it back no prob but I think this is at most a T+ at the moment.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Edited as of: (11/5/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"...Well, this is new..." I said in genuine surprise as the world around me came into focus. I found that I was in a darkened room, bare steel walls on either side broken by what I knew was a thick sliding slab of a door, where the only source of light shone through a small gap near the floor for food, and a hard metal pallet jutting out of the wall across from it to sleep on. There would also be a patch of scratches and gouge marks slightly to the left of the opening, where the previous occupant must've tried to dig his way out, and the bed that leaned just slightly at an angle from a bad weld job.

_'Had plenty of time to look around, after all...'_

Looking down, I also noticed I was outfitted for a mission at Beacon, rather than my casual clothes. "Bloody riots, terrifying assignments, and the day my parents died... All from my point of view... But is this the first time I've gone and put myself back in here?" I was leaning back against the door, arms crossed as I looked about the room, before a distorted voice issued from the other side of the cell.

**"Miss the scenery that much, do you? Can't be the view, I expect."**

"No, that got old after the first few days... From there, I started working out, counting how many different guards worked a shift outside each day, or just plain talking to my own shadow. Was fun enough, I suppose... Anything to keep busy."

I turned to the only other occupant, who was currently seated on the "bed," staring back at me. A tall figure dressed in hooded, dark-colored armor that seemed to blend with the shadows of the room, making it difficult to follow his small movements, though even without much light, I could still make out the deep red hand print emblazoned across the face of the mask he wore. I knew who this was. He might've had his own face covered, but I knew that armor better than anyone alive. I knew that beneath that hood would be cropped white hair, and behind the mask a pair of light blue eyes.

"...And what are you supposed to be?" I asked the other me, voice surprisingly leveled considering the strangeness of the situation.

**"That depends... What do you think I am? It's your dream, after all,"** the Trapper queried, leaning back against the wall with his head cocked to the side wonderingly. **"Any opinions? 'Cause I'm all ears."**

It took a moment to think, finger tapping my chin as the the Trapper rested his chin on his knee. "You're no split personality, if that's what you're going for... And I know I'm not _that_ crazy..."

_'Yet...' _my mind finished traitorously before I could quell it..

**"Says the guy literally talking to himself,"** he countered. I could just hear the satisfied smirk in his voice. **"Well, if you insist... Though, I noticed you haven't really answered my question, have you?"** A thin knife appeared out of thin air in the armored figure's gloved hands, twisting and flitting it idly between his fingers in neat little flourishes. **"So...?"**

"I've always liked a bit of symbolism..." I said as I stood in the center of the room directly in front of him. "...If I had to take a guess... I'd say you're supposed to represent the part of me the Trappers helped cultivate. The itching part of me that wants to angle the path of a knife, or charge my _Conduction_ just enough to make it lethal. The instinctive part of me I tried to leave behind when I left for Beacon, hence this locale." I waved a hand idly at the cell. "At least I wanted to, anyway."

**"And this is the part where you come back and 'symbolically' put me aside for good, is it?"** The Trapper teased mockingly, though I noticed that the knife had stopped spinning, now sitting firmly gripped in his hand, tip pointed down, ready to lash out at the first opportunity. **"Least if I kill you, it's just a dream, right? Seeing as I'm just some feeling in your head that you gave a body to..."**

"Nope... This is where I tell this part of myself that I've stopped running, and come to accept it," I told casually, shrugging my shoulders with my arms held out at my sides. "I may not like what the Red Hand turned me into, but that doesn't disregard the fact that I'm stronger than I ever was before, or mean that I can't use it now to do some good. I need it."

I expected a lot of things, but not the Trapper's sudden outburst of laughter. It threw me off guard somewhat, the sound almost demonic due to it being issued through the mask's modulator. **"_Wow_."** He panted heavily, looking up at me. The mask was blank except for the two eye slits. It was tough enough to withstand an Aura-strengthened blow, and reflective so that all I could see was my own face staring back at me.

_'Really weird in a situation like this, knowing what's on the other side...'_

**"They turn you into a weapon, you spend months fighting it, and _NOW_ you want to come to terms with it? Make yourself some sort of guardian?"**

"'What is a Huntsman, but a weapon and shield for Mankind against the Grimm?'" I said, quoting words my grandfather had given me when I first started training. "At first it was just a proverb to me; a base description of what I was supposed to be. But now... I think I'm finally starting to get it."

**"You can make it sound as noble and pretty as you like. You need this part of yourself, killer."** He pointed a finger towards his chest. **"Must've really meant what you said to Max, didn't you? You wouldn't have known what you would've done if it had been you, instead of her, with a gun on Torchwick."** The last part was a statement, not a question.

I straightened up, doing my best to appear as confident as I could. If not to this shadow, than to myself. _'Or if he's me, then I'm already... Screw it.'_

"And I can accept that. Like I told her, it's probably a damn sight better than what the answer would've been before I ended up in here." I glanced down, noting with a short pause how I now wore armor similar to what the man wore himself. "But just because I don't like it, doesn't mean I can just forget or torture myself over what I was."

**"Even all the bad bits?"**

"_Especially _the bad..." I told him sternly with my face set grimly. "But it's time to stop running. I'm a Huntsman again, and it's time to start acting like it."

Gone was the armor, my combat gear returned to me, as the reflection tossed me the knife lazily with one last dark chuckle, vanishing like smoke as I snatched it deftly from the air, like he was never there to begin with.

_'He never was...'_ I reminded myself as the space around me began to dissolve again. _'Not really, anyway. It was always just me...' _I would choose my battles from now on, rather than have them chosen for me, and stand ready to do what I must, and what was within my power in order to protect and shield others. To protect her...

**"Next time, don't hesitate,"** my own voice spoke to me one last time, before my vision faded to white.

* * *

I opened my eyes slowly, wincing slightly at the light poured into the room from the large window of the hotel suite, showcasing an impressive view of Downtown Vale.

_'Thank you, Ben Carson, you amazing bastard.'_

The rogue seemed to have a suspiciously vast store of wealth at his disposal, and had been more than willing to spot me last night in return for "favors," as he put it, including a promise to get my act together, and start running AMBR properly again, along with a one time only "free pass" with me, usable in any situation, regardless of circumstance on my honor.

_'That last one's going to bite me in the ass, just wait.' _The honor bit was surprising, coming from him, and drawn straight from Bastion's culture. _'Weird to think he actually took the time to research a decent way of binding me to that promise. Definitely a bad idea, then.' _Propping myself up on the headboard, I felt a small grin tugging at my lips as I noticed the blonde figure curled up next to me in a mess of blankets, stirring slightly at the sudden motion. _'Totally worth it, though...'_

It was nice just lying there for awhile, enjoying the steady heat the Huntress' Aura let off. It was comforting, rather than oppressive. Like sitting next to a small campfire, or basking in a light ray of sun. Yang wasn't exactly a morning person, requiring a bit to wake up fully. Eventually, she let out a rather impressive yawn, before looking up at me blearily.

"Morning, Sunshine. Long night?"

"Awesome night..." She smiled warmly, her face falling into her pillow. "Checking out exciting venues... Meeting new and interesting people... Then beating them up in an awesome street fight..."

By the way she said it, we might've been out for a pleasant walk at the park, while I, on the other hand, remembered more than a few sirens and screams. _'Fun fight, I suppose. Last time I drink Death Stalker venom, though. Gives me some weird dreams...'_

"We do really need to work on anger management, I think," I sighed, running a hand through her hair gently. "Can't keep blowing up club fronts every time someone accidentally spills a drink on your hair. Ever try yoga? Great for stress relief, apparently."

"Where do you think the flexibility came from?" the blonde spoke up, hiding a wicked grin in her pillow as I choked up, blushing furiously. "Or maybe that was the CQC training at Signal? Either way, you seemed to enjoy it."

Give the girl an opening, and she pounces... "That bad, huh?" I raised an eyebrow, only to be met with a shock of golden colored hair and soft lips on mine.

She pulled back after a few seconds, laughing to herself in that way I could spend hours listening to. "Never said that, did I? Especially that trick with your Semblance you pulled off towards the end. It's just that you seemed sorta hesitant in the beginning, though, and it had me worried."

"Sorry 'bout that... Been a while." I scratched at my head nervously, trying not to think on how hot my face was. The girl leaning on my shoulder being clad only in a thin sheet was _definitely_ not helping.

_'Feels nice, though...' _No, stop that!

"Took a while, but I figured out loads of uses for what I can do, rather than just zapping people. Problem is, with the new implants, I just wanted to make sure... I've had a few problems with it in the past, and usually need to...!" I clamped my mouth shut, but it was too late. _Far_ too late.

_'You poor fool.'_

The smirk was back on my girlfriend's face even larger than before, building as she leaned in closer. "Oh my, 'a few?' No wonder, Joel..." she teased me. "You practiced that little trick... On who?"

"Shut up... You're making me sound like the main character in one of Blake's 'novels.' Yes, I've had... feedback." That really got her going, as she clutched at her sides, rolling over in a pile of blankets, tears in her eyes. "_What?_ You asked, okay? I didn't want to hurt you, so I took it slow!" Phrasing. Great. Add fuel to the wildfire.

"If anything..." The brawler gasped for breath, propping herself up on one elbow, the other twirling a lock of hair around one finger. "I'm the main character in those books. The naive young maiden, fallen prey to the seductive wiles of an experienced man with a mysterious past. Oh, be still my beating heart," she gasped in a dainty accented voice, clapping a hand to her forehead as she fell onto her back.

"You done?" I asked lamely when she finally seemed to calm down. "Or are you waiting for the part of the story where my dashing rival comes to sweep you off your feet?"

"...Yeah, I'm done. And for your information, I'm happy here. I am. And anyone that tries sweeping me is getting a fist to the face," she said happily, before giggling to herself. "Oh my god, '_practiced?_'" You aren't getting away from that one, Joel."

"Didn't think so. But that practice did help when it came to situations like this," I said simply, ignoring the girl's confused glance as I moved towards her, poking her gently in the side with a finger. "Vengeance."

Yang looked ready to say something clever, but was cut off by an involuntary squeak, as I sent a steady current along my arm. Not enough to feel uncomfortable, or hurt, but more than enough to tickle. She smacked me with a pillow playfully, and the ensuing 'struggle' after that, with legs, hands, and lips flying, left us both panting. Afterwards, Yang was tucked into the crook of my arm, her hand tracing a few of the more noticeable scars, the worst of which never even seemed to faze her, and me feeling more at peace than I had in... God, too long.

"I think teasing you just became my favorite hobby," she told me, her shining lilac eyes meeting my blue. "You always react in the best ways."

I merely chuckled at that, before sighing. "As much as I don't want to, you know we have to start thinking about heading back, right? Bit uncomfortable leaving the team alone, even with Weiss to watch them."_'**Especially** with her watching them...' _"Plus, you have a dance to plan, remember?"

"We do..." she whispered, nestling in closer. "But before all that, you need to have a heart-to-heart with a certain Faunus, and clear the air."

"I know." Admitting it was only the first step, and painful enough. Actually managing it would be another. "Though I'm not sure she'll even listen to me..."

"Which is why _I'm_ going to be there with you, dummy. I have my own ideas," the blonde chided, straining up to peck my cheek lightly. "I promised I'd help you, that whatever problems we faced, it would be together."

"...Together," I agreed with a nod, hugging her even closer, humming to myself and the Huntress as I took what time I could to enjoy the warmth.

* * *

_'Ah, damn it,' _I thought awkwardly, leaning back in the seat I had taken, while listening to Yang open up to Blake about the dangers of her obsession with Torchwick in an empty classroom we'd arranged. I'd known that Summer Rose had died while on a mission, supposedly, leaving the two sisters alone with a distraught father. However, this was the first time I'd heard about Yang's biological mother.

_'What kind of mom leaves a little girl, her own daughter, one barely more than an infant, without a word?...' _It was even worse listening to how Yang had desperately searched for any sign of the woman who'd birthed her, even traveling through Grimm-infested territory with a young Ruby in tow. A story I knew well enough. The girls had been saved by their uncle, Qrow, just as Jake and I had been by our own mother.

"My stubbornness should've gotten us killed that night," Yang finished somberly, staring at the blackboard so that her face was hidden from view. I wasn't fooled. I could see her clenched fist, and the way her voice shook just slightly. _'Whoever or wherever she is, that woman has a lot to answer for...'_

Blake, however, still wasn't convinced, shaking her head defiantly. "Yang... I'm sorry that happened to you, and I understand what you're trying to tell me. But this is different. I'm not a child, and this isn't just a search for answers! I can't just...!"

"Age doesn't have a thing to do with it!" I called out, propping my feet up on the desk in front of me, and drawing the raven haired Faunus' attention. "I was _fifteen_ when I joined the Trappers, and out of an obsession for vengeance... Don't act like that's what this is about!" I growled when she opened her mouth to argue. "I lashed out at others, pushed the people I loved away from me, and look how it all turned out." I gestured to the collar pointedly. "Foolish then, and foolish now. It's only by the grace of others that I'm not locked up as we speak, with more than a few willing to see just that. Didn't make any damn difference; it just made things worse!"

"I can't just let Torchwick run rampant! I have to find him, we have to prevent whatever it is that he's planning! That's why I can't st...!"

The brawler's fists clenched; a bad sign. "I _told_ you! We're not telling you to stop! I haven't! To this day, I _still _want to know what happened to my mother and why she left me. But I will never let that search_control_ me. We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake. But if we destroy ourselves in the process, what good are we?"

Words she needs to take to heart. As I said, I knew all too well where the path the Faunus took was heading. Different start, same end.

And still she didn't seem to get it. "You don't understand! I'm the only one who can do this!" she shot back, before letting out a shocked cry of protest, her partner spinning her around to grasp her arms tightly, blazing red eyes staring back at her like red hot coals.

_'Stupid... 'Only one who can do this?' As if the White Fang was her responsibility alone...'_

"No, _YOU_ don't understand!" Yang growled, tightening her grip on the struggling Faunus. "If Roman Torchwick walked through that door, right now, what would you do!?"

"I'd fight him!"

I let out a harsh bark of a laugh, shrugging when the girl looked back at me. "Bullshit. And I suppose you'd fight the White Fang, and whatever other goons he's got working for him, too? _Smart_ plan."

"You'd lose," the blonde said simply, pushing the Faunus away effortlessly.

I made to get to my feet, but a look from Yang put me right back in my spot, leaving me only with the option of watching warily, just in case this got out of hand. Wasn't expecting it, but...

"I can stop him!" Blake cried out, trying to push her back, but the other women wouldn't budge, Yang saying as much before shoving her even harder, sending her over the teacher's desk hard. I leapt down at the girl's side in an instant to help her to her feet, ignoring her feeble attempts at shrugging me off.

"Blake, we just want to help you..." I whispered as Yang stalked closer, eyes still blazing. This hadn't been part of the plan, but I knew the girl usually preferred to improvise. "Trust me on this. There's a _better_way; always is."

Yang stopped in front of us, and I could feel the Huntress beside me tense, but let out a gasp as Yang pulled her into a tight embrace, her eyes thankfully back to normal.

"I'm not asking you to stop. Just _please_ get some rest..." She pulled back, gesturing to me and then to herself. "Not just for you, but for the people you care about." She let go of a stunned Blake and walked away then, looking over her shoulder one last time, before leaving the room. "And if you feel like coming out, tomorrow, I'll save you a dance." The Huntress looked down at her feet, saying nothing, but I could see the small smile through her black hair from where I stood. "I'll see you later, Joel." She closed the door, leaving the two of us alone in an uncomfortable silence.

"...You should go after her..." Blake said quietly, rubbing at her arm awkwardly while I kicked at the ground. "She's going to need a shoulder, I think."

"And I will," I nodded, sitting on the large desk and patting the spot next to me. "Thing is, we still need to talk." For a second, it seemed she would refuse. But after a moment, she sat next to me, legs dangling over the side. "...I'm sorry."

"You don't have anything to apologize for, Joel. I took my anger at Maxine out on you, and said some things I shouldn't have."

"Yeah, but I didn't exactly make it any easier, did I?" We sat there for a while, staring at the drawing Yang had left on the board. Some sort of eye-like emblem. "I just wanted to tell you that... that I understand what you're trying to do with the Fang." She looked a me dangerously, eyes flashing, but I steamrolled on. "And I need you to know that I'm _willing_ to help you... But there needs to be a change."

"Oh? What brought on the change of heart?"

A I sighed. "A certain Huntress showed me that I could change for the better, and another impressed me, and gave me a reason to want to forgive." I clapped my hands together, and got up off the desk. "I still haven't changed my mind from before; I won't accept the White Fang as it is right now." I prodded the collar. "But... If _you_ were the one to change things, and reform it from the ground up..." I held out a hand to her. "Then you'd have my full support... If you'd have it."

The Cat Faunus looked at me, then down to my extended hand. She stared at it for a short while, making me nervous in the meantime. Finally, she looked at my face again, and smiled, before taking my hand and shaking it.

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

_'Ear-shattering loud music, and a large amount of people milling about in one place... All my **favorite** things...'_ I cringed, as a group of students cheered behind me as Team JNPR pulled of an encore performance. I did my best to disappear into the background, wishing I was back in the room, though between Joel and Ben, I wouldn't be surprised if I was bunking with RWBY tonight. _'Stupid purple frilly dress. Stupid blister-causing high heels. Stupid itchy mask. Stupid, stupid, **stupid!**'_

"Not a party person either, I take it?"

I jumped in my seat, the force of my knees crashing into the table almost snapping it in half. Wincing, I looked around to see Jacob Ambrose standing over me in a suit and red tie, adjusting his glasses awkwardly. The guy really was enormous. If I was standing, I would barely reach to his chest. Sitting down, I felt like a child.

"Jumpy, too. Mind if I take a seat?" I shook my head as he sat down, struggling slightly with his prosthetic. "Stupid thing... I usually don't wear such tight-fitting clothes," he apologized, though whether it was to me or himself, I wasn't sure. "Sorry about this. General Ironwood basically ordered me to 'spend time with people my own age.' But, seeing as the only two people I know are you and..." He pointed off to where I knew Joel was. He was out on the dance floor, laughing with Yang and Ruby. "Well, you get the idea."

_"Why not just dance?"_ I signed, before slapping my forehead, having to dumb down to simple gestures. '_Great job. Way to forget your Scroll, dummy.' _The younger Ambrose didn't seem to mind, merely frowning as he looked out at the throng of students moving about.

"Dancing was never really my thing. Besides, you've seen the leg." He tapped it with a metallic clank. "Bad thing about being tall is that, when you fall flat on your face, you fall a lot further to the ground than most... What about you? Get dragged along as well, or did you have a date?"

I nodded, then shook my head. _'Stupid Ben... Running off with his 'friends.' Can't even tell where the fool is in this group." _I could sift him out eventually, and find his signature, but it would take time and effort I really didn't feel like wasting, and it always left me with a bad headache the day after.

"Used to really hate things like this..." he said absently. "Social calls were big where I was born. You'd see people show off their status and whatnot to whoever cared. My dad was never really into them, either, but Mom and Joel did well enough."

_"But you didn't like them?" _I tried again, finally just settling for a pen he pulled from the pocket of his jacket and the side of a napkin. I was proud of myself, as my grammar was correct, and the letters looking only slightly like a child had scrawled them in. "_I don't like crouds."_

"Crowds," he corrected, adjusting the letter quickly, while I clenched a fist at the mistake. "It's alright; easy mistake." At least he was nice about it. Goodwitch was an incredible help, but she could be a bit heavy-handed when it came to this sort of thing. "So what is it? Your Semblance?" I nodded. "Makes sense. With all these people grouping together, it must be rough, especially with a sensory type like yours." Another nod.

This was okay. He talked, I listened. He asked simple questions, I answered. I can do this. It also helped that when I used my Semblance, he barely showed up at all. A tiny spark next to all the enormous flames around me.

"Personally, I hate all the noise. Makes it hard to think, or even string two thoughts together," he offered, scratching at his head. "I know that's supposed to be the point, but I never saw the appeal. My brother loves it, though. Used to zone out all the time."

_"You two are very different from each other." _It was a true enough statement. The two may have more than a few physical similarities, but that was only on the surface. Their Aura's for one; Joel's was plentiful and wild, barely contained beneath a thin veneer of order, while what I could tell of Jake's was solid as a stone, unyielding, except for the thin cover that he was using right now to socialize.

"We are, aren't we? But even with all that, despite all that's happened between us, I can still respect him for attempting to get his life back in order." He looked as if he wanted to say more, but shook his head, glancing at me, looking embarrassed. "Look at me doing all the talking..." he grimaced at the phrasing, and at the raised eyebrow I gave him. "Apologies. It just feels like I'm the one making you listen. Do... So, do you want to talk about something else? How's life here at Beacon?"

I looked him up and down, before grabbing all the napkins, and whatever else I could write on. '_It is a party, after all, and Ben **did** say to make friends.'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_Aww_, she's learnin,'" I muttered to myself, taking a sip from my punch as I watched Reika meddle around with her new friend. "Guy's a friggin' beast, though. What'd his mama feed him?" Shaking my head at apparent preferences my partner apparently possessed, I spared a glance for Ambrose, who was dancing with Blondie, and honestly making a fool out of himself alongside the blue-haired tryhard, Neptune.

"Looks like we finally found something he _can't_ do flawlessly." I peered over my shoulder, Maxine joining me on the balcony edge, looking over the party. She looked... different, her hair hanging in loose waves over her shoulders and down her back, sporting a carmine-colored dress with red trims that flowed to her knees, with gloved hands in dark silk that went up to her elbows. Her most noticeable feature was the makeup. Frankly, she looked damn good without it, and it wasn't as if she'd gone overboard with it. Still, the small touches just made her so...

"Of course, that's not the only thing. You should hear him humming in the shower. _Completely_ off tune every morning."

I laughed, keeping my eyes fixed on the white head of hair weaving about with Blondie in tow to try and distract myself. "The pain of sharper senses... And here I thought all you had to deal with was the smell."

"He isn't too bad on that front. Kinda like the air just before a rainstorm. Weird, but not unpleasant." She breathed in heavily, shivering slightly at what must've been the collective scent of most of the school. "It's a lot to take in sometimes, I'll tell you." She pointed towards the punch bowl, where a deeply-tanned Huntsman was talking to a ginger-haired huntress animatedly. "Those two are probably going to hook up soon, if not tonight..." She moved her hand towards a long-haired guy sitting in a chair a short ways away from the soon-to-be couple, looking sour. "That guy's jealous, but something's off. He's sick or something. Probably bad seafood." And finally, she pointed to Goodwitch, who was swaying slowly with General James Ironwood, himself. "And prim and proper Glynda, over there, is enjoying that dance a lot more than she thinks she should."

I gaped at her in utter amazement, leaning back against the balcony with metallic fingers drumming the railing. "You can tell all that just by smellin' them?"

"Uh huh..." she nodded, a toothy grin building on her face as she stared down at her partner. "You wouldn't _believe_ how awkward it was just being in a room with those two before they got together. Fucking sauna of hormones raging."

_'Wonder what I smell like most... Oh shit, that's a scary thought,' _I shivered, sneaking a peek at the Faunus as she bobbed her head to the music eyes closed, dog ears twitching every so often.

"So what've you been up to all night?"

She snickered evilly, already a bad sign, but on Max that could mean any number of things. "Let's see... Schnee got me the dress first. Apparently, if I'm to be seen in her presence, I must appear 'presentable...'" she declared mockingly in a very Weiss-like impression. "Spent God knows how much time fussing over me with scents and conditioners so strong, I couldn't even _breath..._" She shivered, tugging at a loose strand of hair. "And then when I get here, CRDL makes a big stink over something or another. Might've noticed they aren't around ruining everyone's night." I gave her a stern look. "What? They're assholes, but I didn't do anything _too_ permanent... Though the maintenance crews are gonna get a weird surprise when they check their supply closet tomorrow. From there, I just had to do a few last minute adjustments... And I had to warn Ambrose so he doesn't muck things up accidentally."

"Adjustments?... Ambrose? What'd you...?"

"Just watch..." she breathed, counting down with her fingers. "Three... Two... One...!"

A series of loud booms rang through the hall, sending up hailstorms of confetti, multi-colored foams and powders blasting through the room. Hundreds of screams and cries of alarm rose up, until everyone realized they weren't under attack.

_'How did she...!?' _I leapt for cover, dragging a cackling Max down with me as a blast went off behind us, barely dodging a thick stream of blue-colored suds that sailed over the railing.

"_**NOW** IT'S A PARTY!_" Music blasted through the hall from the pair of DJs, a rapid tone that quickly shifted the atmosphere from school dance to club, and soon had everyone cheering, even those lamenting ruined hair or clothes. I said most, because it looked as if Goodwitch was out for blood, barely held back by Ironwood as he chuckled to himself.

"You _didn't._" I glanced down at the Faunus beneath me, who was still giggling despite herself.

She calmed down somewhat as I picked myself off her, peeking over the railing towards where Goodwitch was situated, her eyes scanning the hall fiercely, crop in hand. "Ooh, I'm smelling anger. _Lots_ of anger," Max added, peeking over with me. "I think we should run."

"Party was getting borin', anyway," I agreed, pulling her out the back way, weaving through the mess the sadist's bombs had made of the guests as if our lives depended on it. Judging by the mood the Witch was in, they just might've been. We only stopped when we burst through the door onto the rooftop, falling against the lip of the edge next to a tarp-covered AC unit. Max was coughing and panting hard, but still somehow grinning broadly, looking prouder than I'd ever seen her.

"You're mad, y'know that!?" I told her, nudging her shoulder gently. "Right in front of Goodwitch herself, _tonight_ of all nights!"

"What better time is there!?" she shot back, gazing out to where the party still raged, even now. "You have to admit I could've done _way_ worse. Least with this, they only have to scrub a bit harder." She looked a bit troubled though. "Still... something's late. Must've botched the timing on the..."

She didn't have to say anymore, as streams of sparkling light sailed into the sky overhead, exploding in wide swaths of light that filled the air, and coalesced into lightning, icicles, firestorms...

_'Dust-filled fireworks... She really **is** insane.' _Looking at the Faunus girl in the light of those blasts, however, her face lit up in an open-mouthed smile, with the glow of the cracked moon and the blasts tinging her face, outlining her features while she squinted upwards.

"Enjoying the view?" she asked after a moment, cocking her head towards me.

"Definitely..." I said blankly, before realizing she probably meant the fireworks. "You've outdone yourself this time, Max," I added quickly, digging the finger of the metal hand into my thigh just hard enough for the pain to straighten my head.

Her face twitched slightly, as she shifted enough to lean back against the lip with me, glancing at her feet, which I just now noticed were bare. _'Of course runnin' in those things would've been a pain.' _I pulled at the tie around my neck, struggling with it, until I just said "Screw it," and ripped the thing off with a sharp tug, tossing it over the edge with a sigh.

"...So why aren't you in some dark corner of your own somewhere?" she asked after a few minutes, long after the last of the blasts had faded, and all that could be heard was the dull pounding of the music across the courtyard.

"'Scuse me?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Why aren't you off getting all handsy with Diana, Aurora, Cecily, or whatever Huntress you've been going at lately? Hell, you even showed up to the dance without one of 'em hanging off your arm, and singing your praises."

"They weren't interested," I countered, probably a bit faster than I should've.

"Bullshit, I saw you with some Huntress out of Haven practically _begging_ for a good time." She nudged me hard in the side with a sidelong grin. "Then there was that group when we first arrived..."

The Huntress out of Haven had been that black-haired beauty that Ambrose and I had met in the hallway, and Max definitely had been wrong on her attitude. I'd run into her after escaping a particularly aggressive little minx from Vacuo, wanting to check my arm's grip. Dust only knows what exactly she meant by that, and thought I'd at least say "hi." As my luck would have it, turns out she was on her way out of the dance, and looked more than ready to burn me alive for holding her up.

"You lose your balls all of a sudden?"

"_No!_" I glared at her angrily, temper flaring up, only to have it die when I looked at her. "N-no, it's just I'm calmin' down, alright? They were losin' interest, anyway, after the whole Trapper thing showed up, and I thought it better to just let things cool off, now that they've had their fun."

She stared at me quizzically for a moment, mouth open as if to comment, but thought better of it, slipping back into that semi silence.

"I just noticed something..." she said carefully, picking at the gravel and dust. "You haven't called me 'Bitch' in a while."

I shrugged, fingers tapping out a slow staccato on the stone edge. "Guess not."

"Why? Thought it was my nickname?" She brought her knees to her chest, her hair seemed slightly less orderly. Somehow, I liked that better. _'It's more like her.' _"I earned that shit."

I couldn't suppress the hearty laugh that bubbled up at that, though I could tell she was genuinely curious. "I don't know. Just didn't seem to fit anymore. Not really, anyway."

"You actually said my name earlier," she pointed out in a casual tone.

"Did I?" I got another punch, harder this time, that sent me doubling over with a wheeze. "O-okay... Maybe I did," I admitted painfully, the Canine Faunus easing back into her crouch, eyes seeming more red than brown in the near darkness. "...You ever wonder why I don't have a nickname for Reika?"

"Not particularly," she replied. It was a lie, judging by the twitch of her ears. But hey, the violent aloof thing just seemed to be her default. "You have a reason?"

"I use the nicknames so I don't have to get too close to people," I told her, fingers starting to leave little indents in the rooftop. "Bad stuff used to happen in the gang all the time. Wasn't old Bennet who ran into a Death Stalker, and was ripped apart before we could get to him; it was just clumsy Slackjaw. Made things easier for me. People around me either left or died while I was growin' up, so I got used to it. Not for everyone, though. Joel's alright, but you've seen half the shit he pulls sometimes when he fights, so the name sticks."

"But not mine? What's that mean?"

"...Means nothin's ever gonna happen to you, 'cause I won't let it happen," I said simply, staring down at the dull silver-colored appendage without really seeing it. "I can afford to get close."

I hadn't meant for it to come out like that. Something calmer, maybe. Something that wouldn't have her thinking I'm some...

"...Damn it."

I moved my head to see what was the matter, when she crashed into me, pushing me into the block with a clang, lips crashed against mine hungrily, her hands gripping the front of my shirt roughly, her scent filling my...

_'Ack!' _She withdrew, licking her lips free of the bit of blood that had just stained them. I reached up, feeling out the small cut her incisor had made on the inside of my lip, Aura already in the process of closing it. _'Always thought she might be a biter.' _I would've laughed at the thought, if the weight of the situation didn't press down like a vice, heart beating like a drum. '_She just... **Max** just…'_

"It's strong," she murmured softly to herself, voice strangely... light somehow. "Gunpowder, metal, and... apples?" she finished unsurely, leaning in close to my neck to take another breath. "I can't believe I never noticed..."

"Max... I think I..."

She clapped a hand over my mouth with a firm hand, eyes flashing up at me hazily. "Don't speak. Not right now... Please."

It was instinct after that, my arm ripping the tarp from the unit to lay it out beneath us, unsteady hands removing my jacket so fast, it tore. The sound of her dress sliding down her shoulders, her voice breathing my name into my ear...

Nothing else mattered in that moment. Nothing but her.

-END

**A/N: Joel's alright with himself, Reika's got a friend, and Max/Ben lived happily ever after...maybe, either way a lot of you probably saw this relationship coming, maybe it'll play out like you think it will, maybe it won't but I thought at least this scene worked for the two of them. We're officially entering OC territory for AMBR's mission people, no they aren't going to get stuck following after RWBY or hung up at Beacon waiting for the inevitable breach. My hope is you'll enjoy it and as always I look forward to whatever feedback you guys provide. - Mojo**


	31. Chapter 31

**Edited as of: (11/5/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**_A/N: So heads up I've done what I can to change around certain bits and pieces of this whole arc. Some stuff wasn't adding up, things seeming a bit unrealistic characterwise. This is my attempt to rectify that meaning certain events and characters will be changed, better detailed, or added entirely. Here's hoping it turns out well._**

SPIRE POINT

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

It was the hefty smack of rough fabric on concrete next to my head that startled me wake. _'Too bright...' _my sleep-addled mind thought blearily, my arm already rising to block my eyes from the brilliant light burning high above. _'Who's blastin' the electric bill?...'_

Awareness, along with memories of the last few hours, and who I spent them with, slammed to the forefront of my mind like a hammer blow, along with the realization of a distinct lack of warmth that I remembered lying next to me the night before.

"_Wha!?_" I sat up so fast, my vision went blurry for a few seconds; the coat I'd used for a blanket, thankfully, was settling across my waist. "M-Max?..."

"Finally decided to get off your ass?" I looked to the side where the Faunus girl stood with her back to me. She was dressed not in the dress she'd worn the night before, but in her school uniform, with a duffel bag lying at her feet. "I snuck down to grab our spare uniforms from the lockers without anyone seeing me. Your stuff's in there." She heeled the bag closer to me. Looking inside, I saw that my own uniform, minus that silly blazer she knew I hated, was shoved haphazardly inside.

"Knowin' your track record, I'm guessin' my locker doesn't close so well anymore, does it?" I asked in mock annoyance, giving her a sly smirk. "What'd you use to get it open. A Dust charge?"

"It's called your Scroll, asshole. You tossed it along with your pants in the heat of the moment."

I coughed weakly, scratching at my chest like an idiot. _'Guess I'm not used to actually talkin' in situations like this... Usually just play it by ear.' _Of course, that was with no-name Huntresses. Maxine Argus, however... I wish she'd at least turn around. _'Wait, why am I so nervous all of a sudden?'_

I couldn't exactly read Auras like Reika could, but my teammate's, or lover's... This would take some getting used to... Her whole being just seemed... colder. Way more frigid than it had been last night, anyway; off center.

_'I still can't believe we... Together...' _A few of the half-healed claw marks on my back and chest ached, but I'd dealt with worse. Max hadn't been the first, or even the most playful in that regard. _'Still...'_

"So... About what happened..." I asked hesitantly, pulling my pants on quickly, and doing my best to avoid staring her in the eye. Or was it her doing most of the work? _'What's wrong with her? Did I do somethin' wrong?...'_

"What about it?"

The blankness in her response threw me off like a slap to the face. "Well, we... We did... _Y'know..._ I wanna know what last night was. Are we...? Well, what do we do?How do we tell Psycho, or Reika?" I couldn't really formulate the words, my mind in complete shambles in a situation like this.

_'What it was... I don't even have a clue.'_

"Forget it." I froze, hand falling limply to my side as I stared at Maxine's back. "Just forget it happened, or do whatever it is you do with those other girls. Just let it go."

She crossed her arms, trembling slightly, though she still stood tall, resolutely not looking in my direction. "_Excuse_ _me?_" I got to my feet quickly, using the conditioning block as support. "...You want me to_what,_ now?"

"Look... There was a mutual attraction. You were interested, I was interested. Curiosity sated," she murmured acidly, fingers digging into the sleeves of her blazer. "It shouldn't have happened. It was a moment of weakness, and I... I apologize."

"_Bullshit!_" I stumbled slightly as I spun her around to face me finally, my arm having ripped away a good section of the unit accidentally. If anything, it just fueled the hurt. "So you just _used me_ last night; is that it!?... Well!? At least have the decency to say it to my face, if that's what you mean!"

"We used _each other_. Shit, what do you want me to say, Carson!"

Back to "Carson" were we? Never hated the sound of own my name so much before.

"How about the truth!? We weren't just 'usin' each other!' I know _exactly_ what that's like, thank you, and that _wasn't_ what we did! You don't whisper like that to someone you 'use!' You don't hold them like... like _THAT!_"

"Carson... _Ben._" She faltered under the stare I gave her, eyes drifting back to the ground with a sad chuckle. "Fine... You want me to explain how this, whatever _THIS_ was, wouldn't have ended well for either of us? Hmm? Be it my _charming_ personality, the fact we're on the same team together, or maybe the ears that always seem to get people riled, and what they'll do for you!?"

"You actually think I still care about you bein' a Faunus, after all this time!? You still think any of those things matter to me!? Who gives a _damn_ what anyone else says!?"

"Not you, which is what makes this so _goddamn_ hard!" She barked out another fake laugh, pushing me away roughly. "But for every decent person like you, there're a thousand other bastards like Winchester, the Red Hand, or the White fucking Fang, themselves, that can't forget about them! Whether it's because they're racists pricks to Humans or Faunus, jealous because they don't have them, or just assholes in general, they _still_ give a damn! The world isn't fair, and I don't want you to have to deal with that!... Or me."

She started walking for the hatch that lead back into the building, stopping me with what must've been her Semblance when I tried to follow, my legs feeling as if they were clapped in irons, unable to move._'Maybe it's just me, after all...' _"Damn it, Max, I..."

"_Don't!_" I flinched at the force in her voice, the Huntress spinning around to face me, ears flat against her head. "You told me last night that you say my name now because nothing's ever going to happen to me, right? Well what if something happened to _you,_ dumbass!?"

There were actual tears falling down her face. This look was just... wrong; unnatural. It was a look I hadn't seen in months, and had hoped I never would again. She was supposed to be fiery, angry, joyful, and living life her way... Not _THIS._

"Well, what about Psycho and Blondie, huh!? What makes them so different that we can't at least try to...!"

"You _don't_ understand!... People that get close to me always seem to wind up getting hurt protecting me!" She looked down at her hands, loose bits of gravel floating off the ground around her. "My mom... My mom was killed a few years ago by some drunks that saw us walking together one night... She told me to run... But I didn't... It happened right in _front_ of me..."

"...Max, I'm... I'm so... Rrgh, sorry doesn't even begin to..." The worst thing was that she wasn't done, counting off on her fingers bitterly.

"After that, Dad just broke down, and shipped me off to combat school when he noticed what I was turning into, and before I hurt someone. After that, he just vanished off the face of Remnant entirely. Then there's my cousin..." She took a deep steadying breath, wiping at her face furiously. "The girl from the hospital, remember? Some of the other students at my old school tried to show the uppity Faunus her place... Took down half a building when I lost control..."

Stones rattled around us, as well as the screeching whine of metal as the unit twisted in on itself, the fans grinding to a screeching halt.

"Sonia was sticking up for _me_, and got caught in the middle." She finally looked me full in the face again, lips tugged into forced smile. "Even Ambrose got hurt trying to help me while I was stuck with those Grimm and their nightmare... We're already training to throw ourselves against the world's monsters, Ben, so why bother tempting fate more than we already are? I know what I am, and who I am: I hurt people, and my own _fucked up_ nature makes sure I enjoy the hell out of _every sadistic_ second of it."

"So don't even bother tryin'. _That's_ your solution? I _MIGHT_ get hurt if I care about you!?" I asked, unable to keep the pleading edge out of my voice now. "Sure, some things about you terrify the hell outta me, but others make me feel more alive than ever before! The way you take the world, the way you saw me last night... You _can't_ just ask me to forget how I feel, and act like it doesn't matter to me! The woman I fell for is _braver_ than that!"

Well, there it was, out in the open. When the hell did I get this... _vulnerable?_ No, that wasn't a good word for it. I wracked my brain, trying to predict how she would react; to find a way to make this right._'C'mon... **C'mon!**'_

"...Well, I guess you didn't know me as well as you thought you did." The debris around her fell to the ground with a clatter as she wrenched open the hatch before I could move to stop her, giving me one last parting glance and a smile. "...See you later, Carson."

And then she was gone. Just... _gone_.

I stood there for a few seconds, just staring at the hatch, before slumping back, arms hanging limply at my sides, feeling the same sort of emptiness I'd felt when I'd woken up after the accident, only to find metal and wires where my right arm should've been. It felt numb.

The hurt, I learned, would come later...

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'This can't be good... Never is when **HE'S** involved...' _I thought to myself nervously as the whole of Team AMBR stood in front of the Headmaster's desk, though I let none of it show on my face. It certainly didn't help that Professor Goodwitch stood straight up and frowning to the right of Ozpin, glaring at each of us, though seeming to focus on Max and Ben in particular. General James Ironwood himself was situated on his left, giving me a friendly nod.

_'Great contrast. Makes this even **more** unsettling than it already is. Maybe something about the dance?...'_

The Huntress had been spitting fire the entire rest of the night searching for a culprit, and all the more furious for having come up empty. The grey-haired Huntsman himself was sifting through piles of papers, folders, and notes, likely either relating to the other teams' missions, or possibly whoever that mysterious figure Ruby had fought with in the CCT had been, organizing them neatly on the desk, before glancing up at us for the first time since we'd entered.

"Now, I suppose you all must be wondering why I called you up here, aren't you?" he asked in that calmly placid voice of his.

"The thought had crossed my mind; yes..." I stepped forward before one of the others could add something worse. "Especially seeing as we're supposed to be selecting our 'first' mission assignment right now with the _other_ teams."

The General raised a curious eyebrow at the stress I put towards the end there, while an audible grinding sound issued from between Goodwitch's teeth. Ozpin merely nodded his head sagely. _'Sure, I can be respectful, definitely. I'm just reminding him that I haven't forgotten last time.'_

"That means either we get a free pass, which I doubt, or you're giving us another one of your little 'assignments,' right? Because that worked out oh _so well_ for us the last time." My teammates tensed behind me, and I couldn't exactly blame them. That experience was not exactly an easy one to forget... "I told you what would happen if you tried to use us like this again..."

"Still difficult as ever, I see," Ironwood laughed, though he did shoot Ozpin a inquiring look. If I had to guess, I would say that he wasn't privy to the details surrounding our first little outing.

_'Surprised Schnee actually managed to cover his ass as well as he did...'_

The Headmaster had made it clear in the past that I was a resource for the Kingdoms and the Council. One that he had power over, but didn't exactly own. I scratched at a sudden itch building just beneath the collar. Always nice to feel owned...

The blonde Huntress' eyes, by comparison, turned to slits, as her fists tightened hard enough to creak, glaring at me in astonished disbelief. "Mr. Ambrose, are you actually _threatening_ your...!" I noticed she had her ever-present Scroll in her other hand, a pulsing bio-metric displayed in the corner, along with another few shifting figures that I would've bet anything represented my vitals and Aura output, just in case I tried anything. Ozpin raised a hand, his eyes fixed on me. The instructor peered at him once in surprise, before backing down, if somewhat reluctantly. "Sir, you can't just allow such behavior to...!"

"I _do_ recall the conversation we had upon your arrival back on campus, Mr. Ambrose..." he cut her off, touching the side of his face. The bruise had long faded with time, but the memory was still fresh in my mind, looking forward to a repeat performance despite the obvious consequences. "Though I remember you weren't too specific on what it was you'd do exactly. Something about it being worse than any Grimm I could ever imagine, I recall..." I gritted my teeth, trying and failing to keep the spark of anger from raging any further, small sparks leaping off my fingers that, thankfully, went unnoticed by all but Reika, who stiffened in anticipation. At least if I snapped, I might have backup, for what it was worth. "But thankfully for me, it seems I won't have to test you."

"Oh, that's rich. Found a little loophole, did ya?" Ben growled derisively, before sobering up at the glowering look the bespectacled Huntress sent his way. Max, on the other hand, just gave a dismissive huff, ears twitching irritably.

Ozpin fought his fellow teacher's anger down with another swift hand motion, sighing as he nodded to Ironwood, who in turn withdrew a small bound folder from inside his jacket. An official-looking seal displaying the Atlas insignia was embossed on the front.

"I suppose he has, in a way. This is _my_ assignment, rather than _his._ Professor Ozpin merely gave the go-ahead," the General explained, handing me the folder gingerly. "Inside is information detailing the simple, but vitally important task of shepherding a highly-sensitive figure and her research from the Vacuoan border to Vale safely." I opened the file, finding a picture of a mousy-looking, chestnut-haired women in her thirties inside, staring back at me from the first page. Further details, beyond a general description that is, were almost entirely blacked out. "Doctor Marie Faraday. An acquaintance of your brother's, actually, who stands as one of today's leading minds in Dust research and application, and has, up until a week ago, been serving as a researcher at one of our testing labs in the region." I turned the page, surprised to see a map of the train system that connected the two Kingdoms across the continent. There was a highlighted route, likely the one we were taking, which ran straight through...

"You're bringing her through the _Badlands?_" Ben and Reika both perked up at that, moving closer to try and catch a glimpse past me. "It's a straight shot... But I have to ask why you don't just fly her over on your big warship, if it's so important to keep her safe? Probably a lot faster, too, and would save you some trouble besides."

Sure, taking this particular track was the fastest route between the two Kingdoms by train, the other lines going well out of their way to avoid the region altogether. But with its own fair share of dangers, from Grimm to bandits and who knew what else, it was certainly a risky move.

"I was of a similar opinion myself, though it seems the good Doctor held misgivings with air travel, thus this particular route. Thankfully, both she and her assigned guard detail have completed most of the journey already without too much trouble, meaning you and your team would only be required for the last leg of the trip. It would be about two, three days at most, with the only real danger being boredom."

"But then why send us at all?" Max grumbled, ears flattening against her head as Ironwood glanced her way, fidgeting slightly, though still managing to look him in the eye. "I mean, if they got through most of the way already, why waste time and hold them up by sending us if it's so damn important she gets here quickly?"

It was a fair question. Crudely asked, but fair. Why even bother with, or waste a team like ours on a guard detail? That was more JNPR's specialty than ours.

_'Though, in all honesty, it's probably the sort of work I would've chosen for us, or any other simple mission like clearing out a small Beowolf pack for some village.'_

The way he presented it, though, just felt off...

The large man, unexpectedly, just shrugged his broad shoulders, giving us all a cheery smile. "Why not? Both myself and your Headmaster thought it an excellent opportunity for you all. That, and the fact that your skills come highly-recommended by both Jacob Ambrose and by one of the Huntsmen assigned to the operation itself. One William Carson." His eyes fell on Ben, who stared back in numb disbelief and shock. "If anything, you should see it as a family reunion of sorts. A chance to relax and unwind after all of the work your team has put in over the last few weeks. Not to mention an excellent opportunity to gain experience working alongside members of the Armed Forces, and senior Huntsmen."

_'As much a vacation in one of the most hostile regions on the face of Remnant could be, I suppose.' _I'd never been there, but I had heard stories from Ben and Reika, as well as offhand gossip. Hell, the name "Badlands" was telling enough on its own merits alone. The place rivaled the Frontier, which was an ocean away at least, in terms of natural dangers.

"M-my _dad?... He's_ involved in this!?" The rogue snatched the folder from me roughly, rifling through it manically. "You're puttin' him on guard details now!?"

"Indeed. You'd be proud to know that Mr. Carson has come a long way towards serving his sentence in the short months he's been acting in my service. Highly effective, if somewhat erratic. Something both he and your team have in common, I hear." He chuckled to himself as if that was supposed to be funny. Reika had her fist tightening as she glanced from the corner of her eye at the blonde sniper, his face a vacant unreadable mask.

"Your airship will be departing in two hours. I suggest you say your goodbyes, and take stock of anything you might need." Ozpin swiveled in his chair to look out through the massive window at far-off Vale and the students milling about in the courtyard below. "Any questions you have, or further details needed, can all be relayed through Professor Goodwitch's Scroll, or by your superiors when you arrive. Trust in your teammates, and remember your training... Good luck."

I thought I detected maybe a hint of guilt in his tone, but I couldn't be sure.

_'Maybe the old man **is** regretful after all.'_

Repentant or not, if that hadn't been a dismissal, then I had no idea what was. I snapped off a lazy salute, and gave the man one last hard look, before striding towards the elevator, the others following after me hurriedly, as eager to leave the space as I was.

"That... wasn't what I was expecting," I sighed in an attempt to break the silence as we began our descent, the atmosphere inside the cramped space suddenly feeling unbearably awkward. "Another mission, with your father supervising on Ironwood's orders... I thought you said he'd been operating in the region full-time?"

"No, I said I _THOUGHT_ he was there, because that's what it seemed like, judging by the two letters he's sent! The last of which I got before I even arrived at Beacon..." he shot back icily, arms crossed, with his metallic fingers beating a steady tempo on his elbow. "Could've been dead for all the notices I get!... Working for Ironwood; the hell's he...?" He trailed off, muttering darkly under his breath. It was quick, but I noticed Reika glance at the floor, hair falling over her face in an attempt to conceal the motion, but it had been there.

"Either way, we know what we're doing and when. Not as if we have much choice in the matter," I said loudly, overriding the sniper's little rant. "Ben, I want recommendations on gear for the region. Even if we're going to be stuck on a train, it's better to be prepared, just in case." He nodded fitfully, still tapping way. "Aside from that, you all know what you need. Wheel's up in two hours, so make it quick."

They filed out the second the door opened, without another word, in different directions, finally giving me the chance to exhale a breath I hadn't even noticed I'd been holding.

"The hell's wrong with them?" I wondered, feeling a weight building in the pit of my stomach tugging at me the whole way to my locker.

* * *

"...And remember to stick to the shade, alright? I hear it gets pretty sunny out there, and with your skin..." I grimaced as the blonde fussed over me for what must've been the fourth or fifth time now, patting my gear, checking the bag slung over my shoulder to make sure I had everything. "And water. Drink _plenty_ of water, and don't forget to..."

This was starting to get embarrassing as other students snickered as they passed us. Not to her face, of course, but she wasn't exactly focused on them, Mama Bear mode in full terrifying effect.

_'My sympathies, Ruby. I now know your pain.'_

It wasn't as if I could blame her for being somewhat fearful, though, especially considering the state I'd been in after the first mission... I pushed the memories aside, fully intent on the beautiful girl in front of me. "I know, Mom. I know." I pecked her forehead playfully with a wink at the red tinging her cheeks. It just felt so much more relaxing being around her, letting the edge dull without a care. "I'll be fine. Ironwood was practically endorsing how dull the mission will be, so the worst I'll have to deal with is Max going stir crazy," I reassured her, before a frown crossed my face. "I'm more worried about your guy's mission, what with Ozpin sending you off to go hunt down Torchwick for him now."

Torchwick was quickly becoming synonymous with White Fang, along whatever else he had up his sleeve. That strange glass user from the CCT that Ruby encountered was more than likely included.

"I have a bad feeling about it, Yang. It's too risky for first years; even Ozpin said..."

"It's not like we're going to be _completely_ on our own, you know... We'll have a trained Huntsman watching our backs," she shrugged, wrapping an arm around my waist as I did the same for her shoulders, making our way through the halls together, the excitement in the air throughout the school almost palpable. "Everything'll work out. You'll see. It's only a few days, tops, and then we can all go out to celebrate. RWBY, AMBR, JNPR, all of us in one big party."

I opened my mouth to argue further, but all of my will died with the beaming look she gave me, shutting it firmly as we passed at the Academy steps overlooking the long path to the airship platforms.

"I think I'll hold you to that, Sunshine," I murmured in her ear, giving her one last kiss and a hug, pulling away to start off down the steps. "Try and call me tonight if you can to let me know how things are going. And don't do anything I wouldn't do!" She raised an eyebrow at that, looking ready to say more, but her eyes widened in amusement.

I was just about to ask her what she thought was so funny, when a sudden pull on the hood of my sweatshirt caught me by surprise, and dragged me along, cutting off my air supply with a strangled yelp.

_'Never could focus clearly around her...'_

"C'mon, lover boy, we got a ride to catch, remember?" Ben's voice issued from behind me as I struggled with the metallic grip. "Don't you worry, Blondie! We'll have him back in your arms safe and sound in no time! My guarantee!" Yang's cheeks reddened slightly, but she waved us off all the same, playfully calling back that she'd have his head if he didn't... Or at least it sounded playful to anyone who didn't know the woman. "Real firebrand you got watchin' out for ya, Psycho..." he laughed, finally letting go of me once we'd made it far enough out of earshot. "She's not lyin' about that threat, is she?"

I shook my head as I staggered into step with him, fixing a loose strap on my chest plate. "Probably not. Wouldn't want to test her, though."

"About fuckin' time, losers! The hell kept ya?" Max was leaning against a tree off the path, Reika sitting cross-legged a few feet away, looking sour as before.

_'I really have to find a way for those two to at least be civil around each other. Or at least pretend to...'_

Ben's reaction was more surprising by far, however. No witty remark, or even a comeback aimed towards the Faunus, as the grin he wore vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by brooding scowl. He didn't even seem to acknowledge her presence, and just kept walking towards the platforms without sparing even a glance, with a frantic Reika scrambling to follow, looking just as confused as I felt.

"Damn it..." My partner kicked at the tree angrily, cursing as she hopped back, clutching her foot. "_Damn it!_ Stupid, stupid, _STUPID_!"

I moved in an instant to calm her down, or at least be ready if she did something drastic. Things didn't tend to stay grounded when she freaked out, and I could already see the beginnings of a glow tinging her skin.

"_Breathe_, Max," I said clearly and calmly, putting a hand on my partner's shoulder, until she seemed to settle down, the tree only creaking slightly, and sporting a couple of new cracks along the trunk. "Good. Now what the hell's going on between you an...?"

I let the question go with a frustrated groan as she shook me off and stalked off after our teammates, the look on her face a clear signal to shut up if I knew what was good for me.

_'Damn it... First she stays out all night, then this...' _I ran to catch up with her, joining with the roving crowd of students. _'And people actually **want** to be a leader?'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"No..." I said firmly as we stood staring at the battered-looking airship parked before us, painfully familiar, as was its shaggy, dark-haired pilot, who stood waving at us from the canopy with his helmet snug under his arm. _"Hell no!_"

"'Sup, kiddos!?" he called out, leaping off the VTOL and striding towards us, shooting us all a winning smile. He really wasn't much older than us, now that I got a good look at his face. Three, maybe four years at the most. _'Explains a hell of a lot.' _"Looks like we've got the old gang back together again, huh?"

"Anyone else think this looks a bit too familiar?" Ambrose muttered darkly, moving to meet the pilot halfway. "Jude, was it?" he asked the pilot, who nodded, shaking his hand gingerly. He was smelling a bit wary, but I supposed that only made sense, seeing as the team leader had been the one to deck his boss the last time he'd seen him.

_'Maybe we'll get to see a repeat after all.'_

"R-right! Jude Redgrave, at your service, sir. The Headmaster must've thought we worked well together, and has charged me with being Team AMBR's personal chauffeur to the best of Remnant's scenic hotspots, ala Air Beacon." Just the thought sent a clear shiver down my spine, my lungs feeling like they'd been dipped in ice. "Uh... Your friend alright there?" He pointed to me, flinching back with a start as I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster, while simultaneously doing my best to avoid throwing up right there.

_'Makes no goddamn sense. Beowolves are my bitch, but put me any higher than three stories, and I freeze up! What sense does that make!?' _A fear I'd had as long as I could remember, that I couldn't seem to conquer except... _'I was fine last night on the roof, right up along the edge with...'_

_"...Means nothin's ever gonna happen to you, because I won't let it happen.'_

I seared the words as quickly as it had come, and buried it away securely at the far reaches of my mind. _'You made the best choice, Argus. Live with it._'

"I'm not flying on that flying piece of scrap!" I was barely okay riding one of those huge airships back and forth to Vale. At least with those, they were big enough to fool myself into thinking I was in a fixed building with my eyes closed. A big, vibrating building that soared hundreds of feet over... _DAMN!_ "Get another ship, or at least another pilot! Or both; I don't really give a shit! You can't make me get back on that thing!"

Redgrave looked as if I'd just insulted his mother, while Joel tried and failed to make me see reason. "Look, I know it might not be _ideal_, but..."

"Forgive me if I don't feel like going down in a ball of flames and screaming metal! I mean, look at that thing! It looks even worse than the last time!" A new paintjob couldn't hide the scrapes and dents that littered the hull, or the wires hanging loosely in the passenger area overhead. That, and the whole thing just smelled old. That was the only way I could describe it, like the way some of the closed-off rooms in Aunt Carmen's mansion had reeked.

"Hey, cut that talk out!... She doesn't mean it, Lucy. No she doesn't." The pilot practically sprinted back to the craft, running a loving hand along the metal surface of the cockpit. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

Great, a shit pilot and a nutcase all in one. This was all just getting better and better!

"_Max!_" The leader was after me the second I started walking, pulling up next to me while looking all stern and understanding, which basically meant I wouldn't like what he was gonna say.

"I don't want to hear it..."

"_Listen!..._ I understand you have issues with this sort of thing, but we can't waste the time getting someone else..." He actually looked back at Ben for help, frowning when the poncho-clad bastard pointedly kept his eyes to the sky, whistling to himself. "Damn it, of all the times to..." The leader swore under his breath just loud enough for me to pick it up, taking a deep breath, before halting me with his arm. "You want something to calm you down?"

"Huh?"

The white-haired Huntsman patted at a small square-shaped box affixed at his belt, looking more than a bit hesitant. "Medical supplies. After the last mission, and because how often we seem to run into trouble, I thought it would be a good idea to brush up on my medical skills. Even took an elective course and everything. So maybe I could give you a... you know, a sedative or something to..."

Was prim, proper Ambrose really suggesting...? I glanced over his shoulder at the wreck-waiting-to-happen sitting on the deck behind him.

"...Alright, do it. Just... What are we talking here?"

He just shrugged and reached for his bag. Not exactly a comforting reaction, but what the hell? It seemed better than actually being conscious on that flying death machine for any extended period. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts on the flying scrap that I was too late in noticing that he'd put a casual hand towards my neck, the sharp tingle of something running along my shoulder, and the crackling feel in the hairs on the back of my neck my only warnings before I blacked out.

"Sorry, partner."

* * *

_"Damn it Max, I...!"_ He'd spoken up before I stopped him, emerald eyes looking at me as if I were the only thing in his world, a cold hand caressing my cheek. And I crushed him out of cowardice...

I jolted awake, wide eyed and gasping, before realizing I was strapped into a somewhat comfortable seat, with muffled rock music playing in the space, staring around the cramped interior of what must've been...

_'No, no, no, **NO!**'_

"Feeling better?"

"'_Sedative!?_'" I snarled in utter disbelief, eyes immediately finding Ambrose, who stood near the front of the craft just outside the cockpit with a bored expression, one arm on the grip railing, with the other casually flipping through the folder Ironwood had given him. How he managed to pull that off amidst the bumping and rattling of the flying metal coffin surrounding him, I had no idea. "You fucking _stunned_ me, asshole! The hell!?"

Ben and the little annoyance were strapped in across from me, the rogue giving me a quick glance before craning his neck to look out one of the small slits in the side. Murasaki, on the other hand, managed to look amused, even with the dumb mask on.

_'Bitch!'_

"I'm your team leader, Max," Joel responded, closing the folder with a resigned sigh. "It's bad for me to be drugging the people under my command, don't you think? Plus, I don't even see why you're that mad, really."

"You. SHOCKED. _ME!_"

"Lightly. Look, we're almost at the drop point already, if what what the pilot says is true. With you sleeping like a baby most of the way, and me not having to waste any of the good stuff in case we did end up needing it, I'd call it a win-win."

His "win-win" got him thrown against the side of the hull, courtesy of my Semblance, with enough force to dent the door, and send the ship reeling in a move that needed a full barrel roll to even out, leaving us all looking a little green. Ambrose merely picked himself up off of the seat he'd landed on in the chaos with a hacking groan, and a growing bruise on his temple that his Aura was already moving to rectify.

"Okay... I deserved that," he admitted, moving to pick up his spilled files.

"Warned ya, mate," our blonde teammate muttered, checking his arm for damage, before shaking out his head. "Not very rational, this one."

I deserved the jab. I knew it. Didn't make it hurt any less, though. I flashed my fangs fiercely, focused rage building up inside, and ready to tear this damn ship apart. "You...!"

_"Hey, kids, this is your pilot speaking. You mind **NOT DOING THAT AGAIN!?**"_ Redgrave's helmeted voice screamed over the intercom, sounding as if he'd just run a marathon. _"Sort of already pushing the old girl to her limits over here, trying to get you there on schedule. **Without** you all shaking things up back there!"_ I felt my face redden as I curled up in the seat, doing my best not to think about the turbulence flinging us around like a kid with a brand new toy.

_'Least the doors are shut this time...'_

"S-so how much longer until we're on the ground, exactly?" I stammered weakly, doing my best not to throw up, bile burning the back of my throat. "Soon, right? You said soon?"

"We're passin' over the Screaming Wastes now, by the looks of it. So if Spire Point's really where we're goin', it shouldn't be too long now." Ben... _Carson_ replied curtly, pulling out a pair of colored strips of cloth out from one of the innumerable small pouches around his person. One blue and the other red. He passed one to Ambrose, his slightly longer, and holding the other out towards me, still not looking me in the face, but this was the closest he'd come to interacting with me since this morning... Positively anyway. "Take it."

I glanced at the cloth suspiciously, doing my best to ignore his scent on it as much as possible during the examination. "What's this supposed to be? Blindfold? I'm... I'm good." My roiling stomach lurching suddenly in response, as if to contradict me right there.

"Hardly. It's bandanna; just take it, will ya? You'll need it for when we land." I took it from him with a grumbled "thanks," sneaking a look out one of the view ports, and immediately wishing I hadn't. Not that the view wasn't impressive; it was just the sudden vertigo forcing me to clap a hand over my mouth with a cough, tearing the bucket Joel offered from his grasp, and emptying my stomach until there was nothing left, the sour smell assaulting my nostrils painfully.

From what I gathered, we were currently flying above a desolate valley, bordered by blood red canyon walls, towards a large sprawl of ramshackle buildings spreading outward from a massive stone tower, that looked more like an enormous spear driven into the earth than any natural structure. Two long railways extended from opposite sides of the town.

"Spire Point's one of the larger settlements out here. Advantage of borderin' one of the Kingdoms, I reckon," Ben filled in to the room at large, showing Ambrose the view through the slit. "The canyon face acts as a deterrent, funnelin' Grimm through the passes on either side for the locals to deal with, while anti-air emplacements in the spire itself handle any flyers that stray too close."

"They have that kind of firepower out here?" Joel said with a note of amazement, taking the empty seat next to them. "Bit of a surprise that the Kingdoms let you keep them."

Ben laughed bitterly at that one, pausing only when Reika shot him a reproachful stare, and a quick blow to the gut. "They don't exactly advertise it, big guy. Spire Point used to be a Vale military outpost, with the settlement just sort of poppin' up with it over time. Soldiers scarpered when the goin' got tough, and left the hardware. The townspeople stayed behind, and managed just fine without them. The rest is all pretty standard history for most of the towns and cities out here."

"So they stole them?"

"I think the term they use around here is 'borrowed with no intention of returnin'.' 'Stole' is just such an ugly word. Personally, I prefer 'liberated,' but to each their own, I suppose."

What remained of the flight passed in uncomfortable silence, broken only by the occasional creak of metal, and the steady thrum of the engines whirring as we quickly descended towards what, according to our resident former bandit, would be the settlement's outskirts.

_"Hey..." _Redgrave's voice called over the radio as the old bird thudded onto solid ground at last. The pilot had worked on his landing skills since the last time, thankfully. _"You may not have any kind of official distress call this time, but I made sure Professor Goodwitch put my contact info in your Scrolls."_

I pulled out the device, quickly flipping through it to find that I did indeed have a new message from Goodbitch herself. A picture of the pilot playing guitar on stage, and singing in some brightly lit club uploaded itself to my Scroll, along with his number.

_"If you lot get into more trouble than you can handle, if that's even possible, then don't hesitate to call. Now watch yourselves out there."_ With that said, the doors slid open, and our mission truly began.

_'I've got a **bad** feeling about this...'_

-END

_**-CODEX-**_

**Indentured Huntsmen- **A somewhat controversial classification for a carefully select few Huntsmen and Huntresses, or those possessing roughly equivalent combat skills, convicted of a hefty crime against the peoples of Remnant and their laws that continue to serve in a limited capacity as a means of reducing their sentences. Equipped with specially designed tracking devices to keep officials apprised of their activities, these individuals are often assigned to missions requiring the skill, but not the presence of official Huntsmen, such as bodyguard work for valuable persons, or defending certain outlying regions from Grimm incursions. Former Red Hand agent Joel Ambrose is considered an example of one of the few Indentured Huntsmen-in-training employed by the Kingdoms.

**Spire Point – **Located close to the border of the Vale region of Sanus, Spire Point acts as a sort of gateway to the Badlands, and a shining example of what travelers should expect as they continue on. It was established as an early expansion project funded by Vale's military forces, using the area's natural defenses and advanced defenses to ward off Grimm. However, it was abandoned shortly after due to lack of resources and rising resentment between the soldiers and townspeople. Reports are vague as to the exact reason said soldiers left behind such a stockpile of weapons and equipment, even with their haste to leave. Foul play has been suspected on the part of the civilian population, but it has never been proven. Famous sights include the spire itself, both the namesake of the town and the largest, natural, free-standing formation in the entire region, as well as the locally named Hemorrhage Heights that surround the town with oxidized bloodstone that has been determined as a natural repellent to the creatures of Grimm for some unknown reason. Mining and excavation attempts have been met, understandably, with serious resistance from the local residents.

**_A/N: So this chapter was basically all about getting them to where they need to go and showcasing that everything's not exactly golden between our new couple. Really hoping I didn't mess up too badly, haven't written or handled many scenes like this in the past, and I wanted to show that she's fed up with hurting the people she cares about or them getting hurt over her, yeah people she has actual examples and they've built up over time. Based it all off a friend of mine who actually went through something pretty similar with a girl he liked, minus a few fantastical elements and personal tragedy on her part, and took it pretty badly, took days before he'd even talk to or be around her if she was in the room and it ripped at her. Not the most mature reaction on his part but if you've ever been rejected you'll know it sucks. Anyway if this scene is god awful, suggestions for making it better would always appreciated._**

**_The OC location Spire Point is, as said above, meant to be a good look at what people outside the kingdoms deal with on a daily basis which more detail will be gone into next chapter. Bit lawless in some parts and personally I like to source Borderlands (without the majority of the psychos) as inspiration for the setting. The original name for the place was actually gonna be Hollow Point after the bullet but I finally got around to playing Tales of the Borderlands and it turns out that was already used, (Awesome game by the way, highly recommend if love Robo arm MCs with hearts of gold. Seriously our two cyborgs have a lot in common it turns out.) So hence the name Spire Point, another type of ammunition._**

**_And then we have Jude Redgrave, the OC pilot and his ship Lucy who both literally popped onto the page while I was writing the first mission and they are based on something. Redgrave was just a last name from DMC that sounded cool while the names for both came from Across the Universe(2007), you wanna see the character just look up Jim Sturges, that's him. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is the end credit song, how could I not name the ship after something like that?_**

**_Anyway that's just a bit of background for some of the stuff going on in the story, hope you enjoyed and I'd love to hear your comments and reviews, they make the story better. - Mojo_**


	32. Chapter 32

**Edited as of (7/15/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

HANGMAN

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'Well, glad to know the weather hasn't changed much since I last visited...' _I thought sarcastically to myself, adjusting my goggles while tugging at the thick green strip of cloth that shielded my face from the storm of gravel and dust, the wind wailing its way through both the canyon and the settlement. One of many bits of basic, yet crucial gear that often went forgotten, when some idiotic, thrill-seeking numskull blunders their way out in these parts looking for adventure.

Reika was also similarly protected by her mask and a pair of wrap-around tinted glasses she'd pulled from within the yukata she wore, as were our two uninitiated teammates, who were at the moment half blind from the recent squall, but keeping up reasonably well, all things considered. I still needed to speak up, or clear my throat to let them know where we were, however.

"This is just a little dust up! Should clear up any time now!" I called back over the howl of the wind, trying to get my bearings in the settlement.

Thankfully, it seemed we were the only group actively trying to move about at this time, aside from a few heavily bundled up figures in all varieties of gear going about running errands or some other task that couldn't wait. So far our little hour long trek from the airfield to where we stood now had gone unmolested, aside from this little annoyance.

This may be considered one of the more law abiding regions in the Badlands, but this was hardly a walk in the park. All of the other people we saw were each toting some kind of weapon to defend themselves. Even the kid Psycho "dissuaded" from rifling through his pockets had carried a long knife at his belt, and he'd looked maybe seven or eight at most

_'Well it's a life, I suppose...' _At that thought, I felt the wind begin to die off slowly. I guided our group to a small shelter in one of the dark alleys, Psycho and Argus immediately ripping off their masks for what fresh air they could snag, and batting the dust from their hair or clothes. A useless gesture, but hey, they're newbies.

"Who the hell would actually willingly choose to live out here!?" Max slumped against the ribbed metal wall of the building behind her with a loud clang that had her wincing. "Smells like blood, sand, and... Oh god, what even is that!?" She clutched at her nose with a queasy heave.

"Probably better if you don't ask," I grumbled as I felt out with my flesh and blood arm, sensing the drop in air pressure passing by. "Could be the pest control, the insulation, or a whole mess of other things. You get used to it." You don't, really, but I wasn't petty enough to tell her, even if things had been decidedly awkward with us since she woke up. "Lights fadin', but we should be right around where we need to be."

"Huh? I thought we were going to the Spire?" our team leader wondered, glancing up at the massive stone structure that still looked to be a ways off, even this deep into the town. "We still need to rendezvous with...!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Boss," I told him quickly, hearing the dust settle and clatter against buildings, as the wind finally ceased, only to be replace by a few dwindling rays from the sun above. "But if you knew Bill Carson, then you'd know there'd be only one sort of place he'd want to hang around in. That, and Reika's sniffed him out already."

Now that the roar of the wind was gone, the sounds of Spire Point began to filter back in, the choppy coughing roar of vehicles starting up again to expel the dust from their filters, and the hustle and bustle of the locals leaving their brief shelters. And...

"_There_ we go..." I smirked, noticing the largest building on the block glowing in the evening air with bright neon signs that sparked to life, even as I watched. Shouts and cries of laughter poured from the entrance.

Psycho raised an eyebrow at that, glancing at the building warily. "...You're joking, right?"

"Dad always did love a party," I told my fellow Huntsman-in-training with a shrug, making my way across the street, only to frown at the crashing sounds heard within the establishment. _Lots_ of breaking glass and shouting, more than what should usually be going on in such a place, at any rate.

_'Ooh, that's... not very encouraging.' _I jumped when a small hooded figure, a woman judging by her shape, burst through the set of double front doors, letting out a squeak of fear and surprise as she bounced off my chest and onto ground. She rubbed at her rear with a pained groan. "Um... Sorry 'bout that, missy. You alright?"

"Please..." The woman glanced up at me, eyes squinting behind a pair of thick glasses that framed a very familiar face. "I'm begging you, you have to help me, please!"

"Doctor Faraday?" The rest of AMBR had caught up with me, the white haired leader running to help the small woman to her feet quickly, though instantly regretting it when she clutched at his chest plate, and shook him roughly with a surprising bit of strength. "D-Doctor? You need to _calm_ _down_. We're here to..."

The woman seemed to be caught up in her own little world ,however, mouth moving a mile a minute as word after high pitched word spilled out, "Thatbleedingidiot,alwayslandinghimselfintotrouble! It'sallso...!" she paused, blinking in astonished surprise when she finally looked Joel in the face more closely. "Y-y-y-you're the... The...!" She leapt away, as if Joel had burned her somehow, smoothing herself off quickly, trying not to faint. Whether it was from embarrassment or fear, I wasn't too sure. "I-I'm sorry, I was just a bit... You're the Huntsman team from Beacon sent to assist the transport operation, yes? Team... AZRE?"

"_AMBR_. What's going...!" He swore loudly, one hand going for his belt while the other shielded the good doctor, as a body blasted out of a nearby window, landing with a hard thud on the unpaved road with a crash.

Maxine had her axe within a second, ready to start swinging, but Reika and I just stared dispassionately, looking away when the body started twitching and groaning. Least he was showing signs of life. Lucky break for him; that looked pretty nasty.

_'Life in the Badlands right there... So good to be home.'_

"One of my guard detail, Huntsman Carson, I don't know how, but he's somehow ran afoul of some of the locals inside." Her eyes darted back to the building, another crash bellowing inside that shook the whole foundation. "I-I was going to call a Law Keeper, but if you're here..." She glanced to each of us nervously in turn, eyes lingering on Max's axe.

"Good ol' Dad's still up to his old games, I see. We'll probably want to deal with this fast," I told the leader casually, the Doctor having noticed my arm when I'd turned. Her stare was making me a bit uncomfortable, to be honest. "Your call, Boss. Law Keeper, or us?"

"You don't seem too worried, considering you're his son," he replied, scratching at his head in annoyance as I raised an eyebrow. "Faster would be preferable. You know how things work around here, any chance we can get out without a fight?"

Our resident sadist seemed a bit ticked off at that, but I personally preferred the nonviolent approach if we could help it. Not out of spite, of course, though it did stand on a few factors, though.

"Depends how showy you are. Law Keepers only really get involved if someone dies, or makes a mess of trouble for 'em. Most of the time the ones in charge are those with the biggest guns and the strongest nerve. We're a rough crowd out here, which means more often than not, you either have to be strong or clever to make somethin' of yourself." I gestured to Reika, who just shook her head in exasperation, then to myself. "Or filthy rich. But hey, that's what bandits are for, right?"

"Strongest nerve, huh?..." Joel muttered to himself, shrugging as he straightened his clothes out, glancing back at us all with a sly grin. "I think I'll try being civil. Yang did say I should keep practicing my people skills." He opened the door with a loud slam, and strode inside, hands held out with us close behind, revealing quite the scene. Tables and chairs lay in pieces about the broken saloon... Or was it a bar? Never could tell the difference, really.

Amidst shattered glass from the windows, and what must've been at least a good half of the establishment's entire stock of drink, judging by the smell, were almost a dozen men, large rough looking types with scars, muscles, and faces only mothers could love, were spaced around the room. Some were lying on the ground unconscious, or sporting nasty injuries, but most stood surrounding...

"What? Back already, sweet thing? I thought... _Ben_!?" Their target, a lanky middle aged man peered up from where one of the thugs had a steel toed boot on his back, keeping him down. Emerald green eyes identical to mine stared back at me from beneath a mess of dusty brown hair streaked grey, and a lightly tanned face sporting a mess of dark stubble.

_'Didn't have so many grey hairs last time we met...'_

"When'd you get back in town? Here for the party?" the former outlaw said in a slurred drawl, pawing himself a bit higher to get a better look, before another one of the fighters, probably the leader considering the state of his clothes, all rich material and a wide brimmed hat shading a wicked face, brought his foot down on his head with enough force to send cracks through the wooden floorboards. I heard a groan issue from behind the shattered counter. Probably the place's owner. Poor bastard.

_'Dad probably had too much again... Guy really needs to learn to hold his liquor.'_

"Glad to see you're still making friends, as always..." I sighed as he flashed me a grin from beneath the boot, doing my best to get a read on the room, while our white haired leader strode forward in front of us with a friendly smile on his face. "Uh, Psycho? You might wanna reconsider this," I said nervously, eyes shifting to where Maxine stood poised, ready for a fight. Some people were just too violent, stupid, or headstrong to listen to reason.

_'And we're running the whole gamut here,'_ I thought worriedly, eyeing the closest bastard who was eyeing up the females in our party. A spike of anger set my teeth grinding, and my mind spinning. _'Go for him first when the fighting starts. Maybe put two shots in his feet, then dive behind the counter using him for cover...'_

"Listen to your friend, boy," the one in the hat muttered. I suddenly became very aware of the knives and pistols they all had strapped to their sides. Some even had swords or axes at their belts. "Now, I'll be mighty generous, seein' as you seem to know this bastard, and let you walk. Bar's closed, and I don't feel like babysittin' a buncha kids today."

Ambrose, however, merely shrugged, glancing back at me confidently, before looking back to the group at large, the leader specifically. "Gentlemen, I'll be blunt. I'm sure you must have a good reason for what you're doing..."

"This pile of waste here owes me quite the sum!" Dad tried to interject, but another stomp had his face in the ground yet again. "Bastard got sauced, and started a riot that burned down one of my properties, and the product inside. Now he has to answer for it. Then, there's the matter of my men he dispatched..." He trailed on, the list growing more and more incredulous, and expensive, with every word.

"I thought you lot have only been waiting maybe two days, at most..." Max looked to the doctor, who was at the moment trying to disappear behind Reika, and doing quite a good job of it, too, considering she had a nearly head on the girl. "How the hell did you manage even _half_ of this?"

"He's been like this the whole trip! The man's a wild animal! Always running about, either gambling away provision costs, or spending it on...!" Her face flushed red, either from anger or embarrassment. I couldn't tell. "It's like looking after a child!"

The older Carson at least had the decency to look sheepish, Reika and I sharing a glance, before shaking our heads simultaneously. "This is actually pretty tame, all things considered. For him at least."

The man was an incredible leader and career criminal. Certainly not the best role model, but a good man all the same. _'I mean he raised me, and look how I turned out.' _One quick glare from my Faunus... I didn't even know what she qualified as at the moment, however, was enough to put that little comment to the question. _'Maybe if I was... Shut up, Ben. You heard her.'_

It was nice having teammates who could focus on the matter at hand. Left you plenty of time to have these little moments with yourself. Take Psycho, soldiering on with that forced smile still on his face. What a trooper.

"That's... actually a pretty impressive list," he agreed, not taking his eyes off Mr. Hat. Ooh, I liked that. Nice, simple, and relevant. The former Trapper seemed pretty calm, actually. No outward sign of nervousness, except for a small tick in his left eyebrow, or twitch in his neck every time one of Hat's men shifted, but that only stood out because I knew him.

_'Not the only one tracking targets, am I?' _Still, he didn't pause, keeping up his attempts at negotiation, though I could see already that Hat wasn't going to buy into it.

"And while I certainly can't make up for the damages, we still need..." Faraday screamed as a large knife flew past Ambrose's head, striking a quarter way into a wooden support beam just behind him, blade still quivering from the force of its flight.

The gang leader straightened up to soak in the laughing applause of his men, glaring at Ambrose smugly with a gold toothed smirk. "Don't know what dung pile you crawled out from, you coward, but whatever whore spawned you must've been the daftest..."

The laughter in his voice died as the Huntsman slowly turned to retrieve the knife, pulling it from the wood with a dull hiss of wood on steel. Some of the smarter one's had their hands drifting to their weapons, but most had just started up again with the laughter when they saw him looking it over blankly.

For those of us who knew him, it was something a bit more frightening. Reika, who could probably sense his Aura right now, had gone white as a sheet. "You should put that down before you hurt yourself, boy."

"Tried to be civil... I really did..." I heard the leader mutter under his breath, examining both edges of the knife before weighing it in his hand. "That was a good throw, especially seeing as the balance favors the blade just slightly."

"Boy, I'll only say this one more...!" Whatever words he was about to use to try and convince the now livid Huntsman were cut off by a strangled yelp, his hat practically vanishing off his head, as his own knife flew mere centimeters above his head in a throw I'd probably need my Semblance to follow. It flew like a missile, until it buried itself up to the hilt in the far wall with a crash that sent cracks spreading outward, and warped the reinforced wood paneling. The hat, or what once was the hat, had been crushed into a crumpled piece of hide and leather sitting underneath the hilt.

It was pretty easy to forget the kind of strength needed to propel a knife, even ones as sharp as those he used regularly, with enough force to pierce a Grimm's muscle and bone.

_'Just **another** one to add to the list of scary little things he can do... Damn glad he's on our side…'_

"Oh, sorry about that," Joel said casually lowering his arm, even though only a fool could miss the malice and venom dripping from each word, as he twirled one of his own knives in his other hand.

_'Didn't even see him draw it...'_

Seems I wasn't the only one that had missed it, either, the realization had the whole group freezing before they could finish pulling out their own weapons. "I meant to give it back to you, but I guess my aim's a bit out of practice." The knife stopped in his fingers, as he gazed hard at... guess Mr. Hat doesn't really work to well now, does it? "I can lend you this one. I promise I won't miss."

"Holy shit, Ambrose..." Max muttered with her eyebrows raised, gazing at her partner as if seeing him for the first time. "You gotta let the beast loose more often."

Wow. I am actually jealous of my friend for threatening some random nobodies in a tavern at the ass end of Remnant. Awesome... Screw you brain, heart, whatever.

Wasn't much of a shock that the room was clear of baddies within maybe ten seconds tops, all stumbling apologies and rushed assurances that they wouldn't make any more trouble. The boss, to his credit, actually tried to retrieve his knife, but struggled with getting it out of the wall, finally deciding after a few seconds when Psycho cracked the knuckled in his fingers that it wasn't worth it, as he ran off with his tail between his legs.

I helped Dad back on his feet with sharp one metallic tug, leaving it up to the older "Huntsman" to make himself presentable. The man stood only bit taller than I was, as he smoothed a few of the more noticeable wrinkles in the thick dark coat and light brown vest he wore, over a dirtied white button down shirt, all of which were probably well pressed and new at one time or another. But a few days with the Carson patriarch was usually enough wear and tear for most clothes to handle. Aside from those were the thick black leather trousers and boots favored for life out here, and a dull red scarf tied securely around his neck.

"_Ahhh_, that's better!" he stretched out his arms, cricking his back and neck for kinks as his Aura quickly undid what little damage that crowd had managed to inflict, sweeping his hair back away from his face. "Not sure how that might've gone without you lot present. Well, I might've been fine, but at least this way no one got too roughed up. Now, if you'll excuse me...!"

At that point, Reika managed to dunk a bucket of water she'd snatched from a corner and doused him with it, the two of us each snagging an arm each before he could even splutter a protest.

"Where'd you say you the escort was stayin'?" I said to a bemused Faraday, as Psycho moved towards the counter to apologize for the new hole in the wall.

* * *

"Still no proper respect for your old man, I see," Dad grumbled into his water cup, having apparently been strictly cut off within the first few hours at this inn, and now sulking because of it.

"Still a shameless old drunk, I see," I countered, sipping my own cup, as metallic fingers tapped in rhythm on the large wooden table we all shared. Joel, Reika and I were seated across from the Doc, Dad, and Maxine.

It had only made sense after our little show that we clear out before whoever had owned the place could call down the law, making our way back to a small inn near the train station that these two and the rest of the escort's officers had been staying at... Well, where the Doctor had been staying, at least. The old man had apparently been surfing around on whatever couch or bed he could, with only his collar, an exact match to the one my leader wore, to keep him contained.

"And a flirt. You do realize she's probably _half_ your age, right?" "She" being the young bar maid who kept finding an excuse to clean or pick something up near our table, so the old lecher could pay her a compliment. Didn't even look like she was in it for the money he was shilling out, either.

_'Can't account for taste. She is pretty, though. Nice hair, good...'_

Memories of last night started to surface again, and I shut that train of thought down hard, gritting my teeth almost painfully.

_'You got dumped. Happened before, probably'll happen again. So hurry up and grow a set, Carson.' _Great, even my thought processes were beginning to sound like her.

"Wow. I was wondering where he got that charming quality from," Max growled darkly, a frown on her face as she looked at both of us in turn, then burying her head in her hands. "Shit, there's two of them now."

"**You kiddin'!? He's way worse than me!**" Both Pop and I remarked as we stood up in unison, the two of us pointing and glaring at each other, before falling back in our seats laughing. Meanwhile, the rest of the table looked on worriedly.

Dad took a large draft, finishing up the cup, then ordering another, sending the women that came for the refill away with a giggling blush and skip in her step. "I missed you, boy. You too, Rei-Rei." He reached across the table and ruffled my partner's hair, the red tinge evident on her face even through the mask. "Miraculously lookin' even more beautiful than last time I saw you."

Max chuckled under her breath, but swore like a sailor, clutching at her leg after the small girl kicked her in the shin hard enough to shake the table, threatening to upset the glasses and plates.

"Now, I don't think we've been rightly introduced." He shot a wink towards Max, and a professional nod towards Ambrose. "William 'Bill' Carson, better known as 'Hangman' around these parts. Otherwise, I'm known as the most charming, respectable..."

"Alcohol inhaling, womanizing, son of a..." I made to finish jokingly, but my old man beat me to the punch, pulling my bandanna over my mouth, and clapping a hand firmly there within a second, perching himself up on the table with his eyes on Max, who, to her credit, didn't seem to know whether to laugh, or send him flying through the roof with her Semblance.

"Sorry you've had to put up with him for so long, Lovely. He's had terrible role models growing up. Afraid I have to take some responsibility for that."

_'Yeah. **SURE** he does...'_

Max spared me a cursory glance, shifting in her seat back to the plate of meat she'd ordered. "Not like he's my partner. Better off saying that to Murasaki." Dad gave me a sympathetic look and let me go, clapping me on the back as he turned to Joel, his face suddenly more serious than it had been since we'd met up with him.

"And you must be the ring leader of this little troupe, Joel Ambrose. A.K.A the Trapper with a heart."

Joel actually let out what could've been a dry laugh, more like a stifled cough, as nodded in confirmation. "That's a new one. You know about me, then?"

"I like to make a point of knowing who I'm working' with, and the good General quite agreed with me." Pops shrugged his broad shoulders, swirling his water with a sly expression on his face, the one that usually meant he was plotting or winning at something. "Quite the impressive resume you have, Mr. Ambrose. The fact that you're one of Marigold's was especially surprisin'."

The white haired huntsman did a spit take, forcing him to dodge a quick punch from a now furious Faunus, as well as the follow up, pinning her arms against the table with his eyes now firmly set on my father.

"You knew my mentor?" Joel asked, voice now possessing a hard edge, definitely on the defensive. We were all listening by this point. Wasn't every day he talked about what he used to do. Yeah, a lot of people knew it, and had made their own assumptions. But for Dad? It looks like he went through the trouble of digging up the truth on his own.

_'...Wait... Did he just say **SHE** was his...!__'_

"Knew her? Fortuna Marigold, _THE_ Bounty Huntress. 'Lady Luck,' herself. She used to be quite the name in the criminal underworld, one folks like me didn't want to hear." The older man sagged slightly, a whimsical look gracing his features, making him actually look his age for once. "You throw just like her. Bit sloppier on the wind up, I'll admit, but pretty distinct to anyone who's ever been on the receivin' end. Of course, she didn't use knives."

A reveler of the highest regard, a living maelstrom given flesh, and one of the greatest Dust Magi of the age. The woman was a legend, someone who had reportedly cleared the Badlands of some of its worst customers, real criminal elements and murderous scum, in the span of months only a decade before. A legend who had, to my knowledge, disappeared.

_'Guess we know where to now...' _I eyed the white haired Huntsman with a newfound awe, and found Reika doing quite the same. Max, however, merely looked confused, ear twitching in annoyance at being left out.

"Ran into the bird a couple times. Near misses, too. Easy to like, even when she was poundin' your face into the dirt. Even easier on the _eyes_, too," he sighed, seeming to notice us all staring at him, face blushing slightly. "She doin' all right, I hope? That file was the first mention I heard of her name in close to four years now."

The Huntsman-in-training shrugged, taking a quick drink from his own cup before responding. "I haven't seen her myself in close to... about a year and a half now. She fell out of contact with me for a time. No idea if she turned up at all after I left. Retirement isn't exactly expected of a Trapper agent..."

"She was one of 'em, then... Damn shame... You wouldn't happen to know why she turned to the Hand, would you?"

"I do, though that's not my story to tell. It's bad, though. I'll say that much." Dad nodded, toasting the air, obviously wishing he had something stronger. "Well, now that introductions are out of the way, we can discuss the mission at hand."

"My thoughts exactly, Mr. Ambrose." The doctor adjusted her glasses, doing her best to make herself seem authoritative, but failing. Girl needs to learn to calm down. "You four are to act as additional support to our current protective detail, working to defend both myself and my latest prototype, which is currently being loaded onto the train we are taking tomorrow. You will be accompanied by a team from the Special Operatives Division, led by Specialist Commander Altrosa, a full company split between the train, Bullhead support craft, and a fair number of the new Model AK-200 Security Androids."

_'Holy shit. They delayin' 'cause the Airship hasn't arrived yet, or something?' _I gaped at her, just trying to wrap my head around the numbers. Psycho seemed less surprised, though. Of course he would; he had actually bothered _reading_ the file.

"As Mr. Carson..." She eyed the man with obvious disdain. "He has been assigned by the detail's commanding officer to watch me..."

"Which I've been doing a damn fine job of, so far," he added, scowling when the women swatted him on the nose. "Ack! C'mon, you know it's true. _YOU_ haven't had a single issue this whole trip that I didn't...!"

"_AS I WAS SAYING_!..." Faraday steamrolled on, leaving Dad to mutter darkly into his cup. "As Mr. Carson here is assigned to look out for my safety, your focus should be on the prototype itself, and supporting us wherever the Commander judges appropriate."

"Lot of security aside from us... Mind telling us what it is we happen to be guardin'?" I asked. Joel nodded as well, looking concerned.

_'He should be; they only use that sort of manpower on major Dust runs from the quarries.'_

Such shipments were pretty rare, and almost always military related. No bandit worth his salt would be stupid enough to go anywhere near one, however, the risk basically tantamount to suicide by overwhelming firepower.

The doctor eyed us warily, as if considering her options carefully, before opening her mouth, only to close it again as a sharp voice called through the common room. "An improved power battery. One that should greatly increase the performance of this new generation of mechanized assault platforms."

We all turned, as a handsome, if stern looking man wearing glasses, with shockingly pink hair cut short around his ears, except for a thin strip of red coloring across the fringes on his right, strode into the room from upstairs accompanied, by a woman and three men. Each of them were wearing variations of the same white military dress fatigues one could usually expect from Atlesians. Glasses, the one who'd spoken, possessed a much more impressive number of medals and patches pinned to his uniform than the others, even though he still looked to be about the same age as the rest of them. Maybe only a few years older than us.

_'Well, except for the obvious non-Huntsman anyway.'_

Easy enough to guess who these were. If not by dress, then by the careful measured grace that spoke of long experience and training. The same I often saw in Psycho, if less prominently.

"I was told you were familiar with them, or at least what a base model is capable of," he continued, obviously referring to Torchdick and his little rampage through downtown Vale, pale teal eyes instantly darting between Dad and, strangely enough, Joel, himself, with the air of one scanning targets. Familiar enough concept to me, anyway. "Specialist Commander Dorian Altrosa. Behind me are Specialist Operatives Braun, Kelly, and Slater, as well as Lieutenant Pips, who will be leading the Atlesian detachment accompanying us."

Each of the Specialists bowed their heads when their name was mentioned, though Pips, a thin faced man with blonde hair shaved scarily close to his scalp, and the only one not wearing a distinctive badge on his shoulder, merely frowned, looking as if he'd swallowed something sour.

If the Commander had merely glanced at Joel, then this guy was full on staring, eyes swimming with barely held distaste. If he'd noticed, however, the Huntsman-in-training certainly wasn't showing it. Merely standing to his feet to shake the other man's gloved hand, which I noticed had pieces of armor sewn around the digits, and what looked like crimson veins spreading along the white fabric, introducing himself and the rest of AMBR with a marked professionalism, that seemed to surprise the Specialist, or at least set his eyes widening behind the lens of his spectacles.

Unfortunately, the Lieutenant merely switched his target, now examining Max, or more specifically her ears, with a haughty air that practically screamed _"I'm a shitty racist, please kick me now!"_

"A pleasure to meet you all. If you're half as good as the General and this _lout_..." He shot a withering look towards the older Carson, who at least had the grace to look ashamed of himself... Somewhat, anyway. "...would have us believe, than you should have no trouble coming up to speed. If anything, just relax, and enjoy the trip."

_'Funny. That's **exactly** what his boss said. Why the hell does that not reassure me?"_ It was easy to tell that Joel wasn't exactly convinced either. Guy was practically an open book.

"If you don't mind me asking, though, why all the increased security, not to mention the delays?" he inquired, catching him off guard as he moved to talk to the doctor, and gaining his attention. "If there's something we should know..."

"The only thing you should know is when and when _NOT_ to speak, _Trapper_." Pips stepped forward, face reddening, before the Commander held up a hand to silence him, his lip curling in a friendly, if challenging smile, as he sized up the tall teenager.

"A fair question, and an easy one to answer." The Atlesian eased his overzealous companion down with a sharp timbre in his level voice, the Lieutenant seeming to realize this wasn't a battle he could win. "Rockfalls and heavy storms are the reason we've taken so long. As for the security, we are still not fully aware of how Roman Torchwick and the White Fang came to attain the Atlesian Paladin your team and others encountered, though we do know he has others. While we investigate further, we'd rather take no chances with new designs, or our brightest personnel falling into the hands of the enemy."

He sat down quickly next to the doctor. For all of his poise and calm authority, he still managed to give about seven or eight different tells, including a rapping tap on the table from my partner, that said something in his Aura was off. It more than enough in itself to call his story bullshit, but it wasn't as if it he or anyone else would tell us, and there was little point in pushing the issue further with his goon squad around.

The Commander leaned forward in his seat, adjusting his glasses. "Now, to discuss assignments for the train. Kelly and I will be posted on the Bullheads accompanying the Doctor, while Carson..."

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"Glad that's finally over with," Ben groaned, scratching at his cheek with a metallic finger. He'd been on edge the whole day. Likely it had something to do with that sadist Argus, but what? An argument? The rogue had been spending more time with her than usual lately. A lovers spat? The idea was almost laughable. The two got on like fire and ice most days.

_'Then what was the issue?'_

Unfortunately, I was distracted by the fact that Ben hadn't gone into his and Joel's room, as expected, and had instead moved further down the long hall towards Bill's accommodations. Apparently, at one point the other male Specialists had shared the room, though that had quickly ceased after the first night they had bunked together.

"_Ben!_" I signed, cursing as he pointedly ignored me and kept moving, forcing me to try and get in front of him. I'd always been stronger than him thanks to my Aura, but that damn arm of his seemed to be making up the difference, as he pushed me aside with an annoyed grunt. "_**Ben**!_"

I stomped my foot, but tried to be at least somewhat quiet about it. The sun had long since faded, and it wouldn't help to get us all ousted for disturbing other patrons.

"_What are you doing?_"

"Talking with my dad, what do you think I'm doin'?" he grunted, shouldering his way past me yet again. "A real talk away from those Atlesian bastards, especially. I need to hear some things for myself."

Resigning myself to the inevitable, I fell into step behind him just as we arrived at the door, Ben knocking with a dull thump that rang through the quiet corridor.

A thud echoed from inside, followed shortly by the pitter patter of footsteps. A preemptive sweep with my Semblance told me it was Carson inside. And _alone_, thankfully. Both Ben and I had had more than enough awkward encounters in similar situations to this one before.

The door opened quickly, revealing the former wearing nothing but his trousers, looking as if we'd just woke him up. We probably had, actually. The man had told us he wanted to catch up on sleep, and I guessed he had meant it. Of course, the fact the room already smelled like a brewery through my mask's filters wasn't very comforting in and of itself.

"Expected this..." the middle aged man sighed, stroking his stubble as he moved aside to let us in. "Thought you might've wanted to wait 'til mornin', though. You realize we need to get up early, right?" he chided us, giving us both a stern look.

"And spend the next two days on a train, where we'll be surrounded by the goon squad all day long? No thanks." Ben spat back angrily, falling back against the side wall, while I leapt on the bed, dangling my legs off the side. Bill just shook his head, plopping down onto a chair that had been set in the corner, staring at Ben's prosthetic with a note of fatherly concern.

"How's the arm?... New model?"

"Oh, it's great, thanks for askin'." The blonde sniper rolled his flesh and blood appendage sarcastically. "Oh wait. You meant the _other_ arm..." He held up the metal arm, sliding his sleeve up to expose a dull silver forearm. "It's shit. Still hurts whenever it gets too cold, itches when it gets too hot, and _always_ seems to need calibrations on somethin'. Just a while back, my middle finger got stuck upright for two whole days. Few awkward moments there..."

I scooted over and made to elbow him in the ribs, but Bill held up a hand to stop me, green eyes laid firmly on his son. "I'm sorry, Ben... I really am. It's my fault."

Ben opened his mouth to retort, but shut it fast, flexing the arm's fingers in that strange pattern of his. "...Don't be, 'cause it isn't. That shit show was my own doin'. And I ain't gonna lie, it's pretty sweet being able to punch through solid walls without Aura... Not that I do that sort of thing!" he amended quickly at another raised fist, and a harsh glare from my direction. "Hit with the ladies, too. Plus, I have a friend who's this prodigal mechanic. She's the one who made this one, after the first got... blown off." The former gang leader raised a brow at that, but let it slide, probably thinking it would be better for his health not to know the details.

"Well, you're obliviously mad at me for somethin', aren't you?" Bill sighed wearily. "So out with it. We don't have all night. And don't look so surprised; remember who taught you how to read people in the first place."

"What could I possibly be mad about, hmm? Maybe it's the fact that I woke up with my _REMAINING_ limbs chained up to a hospital gurney in Atlas, and had no idea if any of you were still alive after the crash. Then weeks go by, and we _finally_ hear that you turned yourself in, and that we're going to be tested for some Huntsman Academy! Reika had it the worst, with her Aura being the way it was..."

I grimaced. Memories of all the tests, the trials, the doctors ordering me to exert a force I barely even understood as they took notes...

"In the end, I got two letters from you. _TWO_ letters, and a five-minute visit where you tried to explain what happened, and then nothin'. Nothin' for months, wonderin' when the professors were just gonna snap their fingers and put us away. Hell, I didn't even know if you were alive or not!"

This was old anger, rage that had been building for quite some time under the surface. Under all the smiles, jokes, and flirtations.

"I kept my distance for a reason, Ben..." The man stood up, father and son staring each other down. "I wanted you kept as far away from me and the rest of this as I could manage. Let you find your own path!" He gestured to himself, and then out the window. "I wanted a chance for you to grow away from this kind of life, and work past this damn obsession of yours concerning your mother...!"

"_Damn obsession_!?" Ben's hands curled into tight fists. I could almost hear the metal stressing, his bones creaking. "Annie's dead, Dad! Dead because that woman ran away, chose the law over her family, and sold us out! Its _more_ than a petty obsession!"

"...I'm very aware my daughter's passed, thank you," the smooth voice held just barely, but cracking in a way I'd never heard the jovial man make before, my heart rending with guilt as his eyes drifted towards the bottle lying at the foot of the bed. "I see it most nights."

"But you still...!" my partner tried to bite back, but was stopped in his tracks by a loud thump, as the older man slammed a calloused hand against the wall.

"You were a child then; things didn't go the way you think they did."

I felt like an outsider just sitting there, like I was intruding on something personal and very private, neither wishing to see or hear this. The only reason that kept me from darting from the room altogether was the fear of leaving the two of them alone like this together.

_'If it came to blows, who would I side with? Who would I help?" _Both men had saved my life in their own way. I loved one like a brother, and the other a father...

"What does it matter, huh? Doesn't change the fact that she never came back, or tried to explain herself!"

"And you wonder why I was hesitant to write you; listen to yourself!" the man shouted back with enough force to send Ben a few steps back to the wall. "Look at what you've made for yourself since arrivin' at Beacon! Friends to share your joys and burdens with, a legitimate and respectable livelihood, chances at opportunities I could never have offered to you or Reika with the gang!" He smiled brilliantly, gazing at both of us desperately. "I would've done anythin' for Ironwood, Atlas, or whoever else wanted it, if it meant you two could pursue that."

I nodded my head, reaching up to unclasp my mask, and pull it away, so he could see my small smile. Ben, however...

"'Pursue that?' We were _abandoned_! What would you know about what we've been through? I've almost died a hundred times, already! Probably more than that, even, and so has she!" He cocked his head towards me.

_'Damn it, Ben!'_

If I'd known this sort of anger was festering in him, I would have... Guilt stabbed at me again as I glanced at Bill, nodding my head. The old man had always understood me, even despite only knowing a few words of our little hand language, and this time was no different.

"I _never_ abandoned you. Never stopped checkin' into how you've both been. I know about that hellhole your team crawled out of, and this Roman Torchwick you've been pursuin'. I know about all of it."

The rogue actually gaped at him, brain working furiously trying to come back with something. "What!? B-but if you... You would have to..." It hit him as hard I knew it would. He was too smart not to see the obvious answer. What really hurt was that he didn't seem to want to believe it. "Reika... You...?" I nodded, doing my best to ignore the betrayed look on his face.

"If you need to be angry with someone, then be angry at me. I ordered her not to tell you," Bill cut in quickly. "I meant what I said about letting you make your own way, but I wanted to make sure Reika could keep lookin' out for you."

"How often?" It was a question he asked to neither of us in particular, nor did it seem he was very focused on the answer either way, his eyes set on the floor. "On top of everythin' else... _Damn_ it..." he murmured so low I could barely make it out. "How often did you two write each other, keepin' me out of the loop? Did you have her spyin' on me!? 'Oh hey, Carson. Nice to hear from you again. Ben's been runnin' around flirtin' with Huntresses, and messing around, as usual. Still no idea his _backstabbin'_ best friend's keepin' him in the dark!"

"_BEN_!" Bill growled angrily but it was too late. The blonde had already stormed from the room, slamming the door so hard he almost took it off its hinges with a crash, leaving the two of us alone in awkward silence.

From what I could tell with my Semblance, Ben had already made it back to his and Joel's room, and was already making to walk out again. Our leader was still out on te roof talking with Yang on the Scroll, last I'd seen him.

"Damn it..."

I watched the old man crumple back into his seat, running a hand down his face wearily, looking every bit as old as he was for the second time tonight, before looking at me with those eyes that looked so alike his son's. "I won't force you to do this if you don't want to. Not after that. But could you _please_ just keep an eye on him tonight? Steer him out of trouble? And if you can't, well... Just keep him safe, I guess." It definitely wasn't an order, but a plea. A plea from a man who was sorely out of his element.

There were no tears or doubts in my mind. I knew what I had to do, and a few harsh words said in haste from the young Huntsman-in-training wouldn't stop me from keeping him safe, as I had all these years.

I nodded, replacing the mask with a silent sigh, and ran after him, leaving the old bandit to himself. It was probably the cruelest thing I'd done all night.

**\- END**

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Marie Faraday - Caitlin Glass

William "Bill" Carson - Travis Willingham

Dorian Altrosa - Ben Diskin

Lieutenant Pips - Sean Schemmel

**_A/N: Hey everyone I'm back in the U.S and back on the ball with this story, didn't have the chance to while I was away so it took a bit to get back to work. This is the first of two releases I have for this week, my way of apologizing for the wait. Hope you guys enjoy it, Ben's dad sort of just seemed to write himself, had a template and everything but this just seemed to work better. Despite his habits you'll hopefully see later on why people willingly followed this guy around, even so he still has his troubles though. -Mojo_**


	33. Chapter 33

**Edited as of: (11/14/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

PARTNERS

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"So he just spent the day having you fight Grimm, and asking why you all wanted to be Huntresses?" I asked the Scroll sitting to my left, adjusting my hood slightly as another cold wind rolled over the rooftop where I'd been perched for the last few minutes, looking out at the small sea of lights.

Turns out the inn we were staying at was one of the taller buildings in Spire Point, meaning a spectacular view of the surrounding area, and an amazing place to look at the stars and shattered moon hanging overhead.

"And you're not sure whether you gave him the right answer, or not?"

_"My problem is that I think I actually did..."_Yang murmured over the line, the worry in her voice evident even over the Scroll. _"I told him I was a thrill seeker out looking for her next adventure, and being a Huntress just lined up with that goal. But after I said it, I just thought of how Ruby's been pushing herself every day for years, committing herself to this job. And here I am just going with the flow, as usual."_

I could almost see the nervous pout on her lips as she said it, the way her fingers would go to her hair... "You're wondering whether you're where you are for the right reasons or not." It was a statement, not a question.

_"I guess I'm just feeling kinda selfish in comparison,"_ she replied, sitting there silently for a few seconds, before hesitantly speaking up again. _"Joel, why did **you** want to become a Huntsman?"_ I leaned back, crossing my arms behind me thinking for moment, a small frown building on my face. _"Sorry. Stupid question. You don't have to say anything, I just..."_

"No, no, it's all right. It's just that I don't think anyone's actually ever asked me directly without some fancy speech to go along with it," I said quickly to reassure her, chuckling to myself as I thought back to my time at Aegis. The drills, the lectures, beating the template of what and how I should be since day one in basic. "As for being a Huntsman, well... I didn't choose it, really. It was expected of me. I had a powerful Aura, and two very successful Hunters in the family, so it was practically inevitable. That, and a part of me wanted to prove to myself and those that whispered behind my family's backs that I could, even if I wasn't the ideal specimen, and break their expectations. Finding out I actually had a talent for the work only helped make the choice easier."

I knew that if I really had wanted out at any point, Mom and Dad wouldn't have minded, having told me from the start that it didn't matter to them what I wanted to do, as long as I was happy.

_'But I **wanted it** to matter to me.'_

"That's how it started, at least back in Bastion. Now, after my time with the Red Hand and those few years, I suppose I came back to it as a way to try and make amends. To help people, rather than hurt them. Still a selfish reason, I know, but if I end up helping people regardless, I don't think it can be too bad."

_"That makes sense... Sort of."_ My girlfriend still sounded uncertain, but I guess that was to be expected,

_'Probably why the Professor asked them all in the first place. To make them think.'_

People often looked at the heroic aspect of being a Huntsman or Huntress without realizing the commitment it required to throw yourself against literal nightmares in the flesh for the sake of someone you'll likely never meet.

"I know this is supposed to be a job full of self-sacrifice in the name of helping others. I get that, and you get that. But there's nothing wrong with having a personal stake in it, as well. If someone became a chef because they like cooking, and people happen to enjoy the food they make, then is the chef selfish for having their own reason for doing it? You said it yourself, you're looking for action and adventure. And if you can help people along the way, then it's a win-win."

_"Yeah, I guess so... Oh, its Ruby's turn to take watch. Need to go wake her."_ I heard the rustling of cloth on stone as she stood up. _"Do you... Do you mind if we talk about this more when we get back to Beacon? Once I've had the chance to clear my head a bit?"_

"Sure thing. Now don't go and do anything _too_ crazy, you hear? We have a date."

_"That goes double for you, Sparky... Uh... Love ya."_ Her added words sent a warm feeling coursing through me, a stupid smile already making its way across my face as I grabbed the small device, and glanced at the I.D picture on the screen, taken in a club during our little excursion into Vale, her head leaning over my shoulder trying to get at the Scroll. _"I... **Wow**, I mean..."_

"Love you too, Sunshine." I heard what might've been a barely muffled cheer roar over the speaker, before the call ended, leaving me alone to my thoughts, which, at the moment, were going off like fireworks. "Love you too..." I punched the air with a whispered cheer, and settled back down for a quiet night.

"Y-you two are gonna make me puke, y-you know that!?" I was startled as a familiar Faunus' voice echoed from over the side of the roof, shortly followed by a shaking hand that rose up, and gripped the edge of the gutter tightly. "Dammit, dammit, dammit! So _fucking_ high...!"

"...Max!?" I stuffed the Scroll back in my pocket and scrambled over as quickly as I could, shocked to find the Faunus leaning out of her window, trying and failing to get up to the roof with her eyes closed. "The hell are you doing!?"

"Oh you know, just hanging out, enjoying the sights... _GIVE ME A FUCKING HAND, WILL YOU!?_" she screamed at me as she made a flailing grab for my arm that almost missed, letting out a hasty shriek as she fell back in free fall for a fraction of a second, as I just managed to catch her in time with a leap, flaring my Aura to life in order to drag her up, kicking and thrashing about as she was pulled up to me.

The effort left us both gasping for breath, lying flat on the tiled roof, staring up at the moon. Looking at her now, she must've been getting ready for bed, wearing a set of thin, red-colored pajamas, and a thick coat she must've picked up inside somewhere, her hair loose from the ponytail she'd adopted, hanging down her back and in her face somewhat.

"_Whew..._ Thanks for the save, Ambrose. Holy shit," she breathed, eyes still screwed shut as she felt her way around on her hands and feet. "God, what kind of idiot goes to a roof at this time of night to just screw around on his Scroll!?"

"Says the idiot who follows him up, even though she's supposedly scared of heights!" I countered, looking over to catch her wiping at a bead of cold sweat on her brow. _'Not supposedly, then. Actually, what **is** she doing up here?' _"Anyway, I worked my way up here to clear my head, and maybe listen to some music. Then Yang called, and we just talked about some stuff, which it sounds like you listened in on."

"S-shut up!" she barked defensively. "Can't help it with you two gossiping just above my room. Your voice carries." She flicked her ears gently, and looked at me as if I were an idiot.

I shrugged my shoulders lightly, a useless gesture considering she still wasn't looking. "I can shut up, sure. Thing is you're still stuck up on the roof. I can actually get down from here."

"For your information, I wanted to think too, asshole!" she growled, whimpering slightly as one of the shaped clay tiles rattled under her blind grasp. I had to make a grab for her shoulder and guide her next to me on one of the more stable patches. "My room was stuffy, and I didn't feel like going out. So when I heard you and your girlfriend sexting up here, I just thought..." She snickered at that, probably sensing my reaction either through smell, or just by way of knowing me.

I was tempted for a moment to upset her seat, but realized I wasn't that cruel, nor did I want to see the fallout if she actually did fall and lashed out with her Semblance by accident, or on purpose. _'She'll probably take down half the building with her.'_

"Real mature, partner. _Real_ fucking mature."

"Definitely not as mature as you and Xiao Long are getting, it seems. Plus, you stunned me on the ride over, remember? How 'mature' was that, huh!?" She clapped me on the back, chancing a look up at the moon hanging above us while I muttered angrily under my breath. "Anyway, you guys are really getting all serious, aren't you? Using the 'L' word and everything. So _adorable._"

"I suppose we are, yeah." Well, of all the strange things I could've imagined myself doing today, somehow holding a conversation on my relationship with my partner, the same Faunus that enjoyed blowing shit up and torturing Grimm, was pushing things a bit, though I suppose she also does draw in her spare time, so she must have other interests beyond the less violent. "You feeling okay?"

"Think so. What's it to you?"

"Nothing really. I was actually wondering if you had an argument with Ben, or something like that. I get that the two of you don't exactly mesh well sometimes, but this is on a whole other level. There a particular reason?"

"Yeah. One you _don't_ need to fucking hear. _Drop it,_" she spat back, her tone a clear sign I was treading on thin ice.

_'Remember, Joel, she has emotionally-driven powers, and you're stuck on top of a roof. A very **tall** roof in the dark,' _I told myself quickly, estimating my chances if I kept on antagonizing her. They weren't good.

"_Okaaay..._ Consider it dropped. Though I just wanted to remind you that, whatever it is that happened between you two, you still have to work together. I need to know you guys can still handle that. Sort of my job, actually."

_'Team leader of AMBR: less tactical commander, and more mediator. Thankless job, but someone had to do it, or this team would've probably killed each other months ago.'_

"I'm fine. You should be asking Carson that. He's the one making trouble."

"I will next time I see him, no doubt about that," I assured her, bobbing my head as music poured in through an earbud I'd left in. "This is our first official mission, Max. And I'd rather it go off without a hitch. Now, if you have anything you actually want to talk about, I'm all for it."

Max scratched at her ears absently, looking out at the sea of lights, albeit a bit nervously, picking at the tiles lazily. "I can talk for a bit, I suppose. Keep my mind off the view." She waved to the surrounding city, face paling slightly with a suppressed shudder. "For one thing, I didn't realize we had the whole Huntsman origin thing in common."

"Hmm?"

"You didn't choose this line of work; it was practically chosen for you, right? My dad was the one that signed me up shortly after my mother died. He thought it would channel my 'urges' in a positive way." She laughed for a bit, though it sounded sadder than jovial; a bitter thing. "Those stuffed shirts probably would've kicked me out a hundred times over if it weren't for my Semblance. 'Couldn't let that much raw power just sit around.' Least that's how they justified keeping me anyway. Just go to class, don't hurt anyone too bad, and be ready to demonstrate your power if requested by a school official or researcher. Bastards..."

"Must've been tough."

"It was at first. Then, like you told your girlfriend earlier, I found my personal stake in it."

She screwed up her face in a focused glare, Aura radiating from her in the form of a pale carmine colored light, as a few of the looser tiles plucked themselves off the rooftop, and began to float in little figure eights around us.

"I used to resent this power. Still kind of do. But as long as I have it, I might as well put it to good use, and have a bit of fun on the side." Something about the toothy smile she had on made me feel her idea of "fun" meant a lot of pain for something else.

We sat there for a long time after that, me listening to music, while Max whistled to herself, seeming to have found a balance that made this experience a little less terrifying for her. Whatever memory she'd found to calm herself down had to be affecting her somehow. She hadn't looked away from the moon for at least the last twenty minutes, her eyes glazed with a slight blush on her cheeks, as she mouthed something I couldn't quite catch over the wind. She'd even let the tiles fall to the ground. Probably to avoid overexerting herself, now that I thought about it. Her control had improved immensely in the last few months, though she still had issues maintaining her Semblance for longer than a few minutes at a time.

"Hey... I wanted to ask you something, since you got me in a talkative mood and all." I had to stifle a chuckle at that. Talkative mood for her usually meant insults, or some form of entertainment for her. This was something new. "Just don't laugh, okay? Or ask why I want to know. You have to promise me as my partner...!"

"You do know pulling the 'partner card' doesn't exactly reassure me, don't you?" I told her in a mock lecturing tone, only to scramble back as a few of the tiles between us started to rattle dangerously. "Okay, alright, I get it!... What do you want to know?" I surrendered meekly, leaning back and breathing a short sigh of relief, as the shaking ceased abruptly.

_'This ought to be interesting.'_

She fidgeted slightly, scratching at her arm nervously, as her mouth worked to form the words. "Is it... Is it worth it? Caring about someone, loving them, even if you know you might hurt them in the end? That they'd be better off as far from you as possible?" She was blushing. Maxine Argus was actually _blushing._ It was a bit disconcerting seeing this side of her. "How do you deal with that?... You and Xiao Long, I mean?"

"Don't suppose I can ask why exactly you're so...?"

"I already told you you weren't allowed!" she snapped back, making a point of not looking at me as she did so. I wanted to gape, struggled not to, but she'd probably blast me off the roof if I did, so I settled for a disbelieving stare and a blank nod, as I tried to register where the hell this conversation had gone. "Well? Just answer the damn question!"

"You realize I probably asked myself this question everyday for weeks before me and Yang got together, right? Is what we have now worth the danger and attention she's drawn to herself?"

"I remember you being a broody little..." She clamped her mouth shut, doing her best to avoid finishing her thought. _'She must really want this...'_

"Well, for a while I was adamantly against the idea, denying it because of what might happen for her own good, but all that did was just hurt her more. And even after all my bullshit, she didn't walk away. That's one of the things I love most about her: she doesn't give up without a fight. Still don't know what she sees in me." I thought I saw her stiffen somewhat, though it might just be the cold. She'd drawn the jacket over her legs, curling herself up with her head, resting on her knees in a dark colored ball. "It took almost losing her to realize what those feelings actually meant to me, and how close I came to never having the chance to express them."

"But if you hadn't been around her, then she wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place!"

"Maybe you're right. I've told her as much already. Said that as long as I am who I am, people'll keep finding an excuse, and I didn't want her anywhere near that. She said to my face that she didn't care. That even knowing what I was, she could still see the good in me. That I make her happy..."

I closed my eyes wistfully, other memories beginning to surface too. Scenes of Natalie laughing, and dancing with me. Even some of Liz during our quieter moments between assignments for the Hand, finding comfort where we could.

"Take it from me, Max. This sort of stuff's weird, and a lot of the time it just sneaks up on you when you least expect it. We can, however, control what we do with those feelings." I opened my eyes to find her staring wonderingly at me. "Yang and I chose to give it a shot. And if something does come up, we'll deal with it together. When given the choice, I decided to fight for her. And yes, I think it's _well_ worth it so far."

"Fight for her? Didn't know you were such a romantic," she said in teasing tone, nudging me in the side roughly, with a sly grin on her face.

"Picked it up from Velv, actually, though I'll admit to perusing the occasional romance every now and then with Blake," I admitted before turning on her sharply, as the Huntress burst out into a fit of giggles she unsuccessfully tried to stifle in the coat, tears rolling down her face. "No one, _especially_ Yang, hears that! I'm serious, Max!"

I'd never hear the end of it from the blonde if she found out, let alone that the Cat Faunus would probably die from the embarrassment. She was so damn private with those _Ninjas of Love _novels of hers. _'Not without good reason, though...'_ I'd only ever skimmed one of them, and even then it had taken a week to look at drapes without blushing.

"Y-your secret's safe with me. Oh my gosh, this is incredible!" she stammered, gasping as she clutched at her sides as she looked back up at the moon again. "...Thanks for this, Ambrose. I really did need this."

"Glad I could help," I grinned, looking about as most of the lights in the sea below began to dim. "I know we don't always see eye to eye on everything. Max, but you're still my partner. I've got your back whenever you need it. Someone has to, right?"

It was getting dark, but I could just see the outline of a smile on her face before she stood up, stretching out with a long contented sigh. "I'll keep it in mind, partner." she offered a hand, pulling me to my feet. "Now, can we _please_ get off this death trap, now?"

"Sure... If you tell me who it is you're so worried about. Someone I know?"

"Don't push it, asshole."

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"...and then I told him, I-I sez, 'what you know about gettin' screwed over, eh?'"

I had to catch Ben as he swayed dangerously during his slurred rant, threatening to drag me down with him to the unpaved dirt street we found ourselves on, lit only by the dim lights of what equated to the settlement's downtown nightlife, and the shattered moon above us already fading as the thin line of light signaling the sun's arrival peeked over the horizon. It was so late, there was hardly anyone out at all. Those we saw were either likely up to no good, or rushing to make way for those that were.

"Dumbass... Never even s-saw the second punch comin', huh...? W-why you not sayin' anythang, huh?... Oh right. That thing ya..."

This was how our night had gone since leaving the inn: Ben having only stopped off to collect his poncho and his rifle from his room, before scampering off into the night. _'No wonder Bill wanted him watched.'_The rogue then proceeded to hit up every bar within walking distance, and had already been in three brawls before I'd managed to drag him kicking and screaming out of by the scruff of his neck. _'Explaining this to Joel's gonna be a pain.'_

He really must've been upset. I hadn't seen him this out of it in... Actually, I've _never_seen him like this, and that realization only had me more worried and more dead set on getting him back to his room and in bed. Thankfully, it seemed as if he was calming down, not leaning on me so much anymore.

_'His Aura must be burning off the drink.'_

_S_till, it didn't help that he was flinging himself around, trying his best to run off again like before. Losing track of him only an hour before was the reason things were so bad now. If I hadn't managed to get a hold of him, tonight might very well have ended in blood.

"...W-why'd ya do it, Rei?" I almost tripped when I realized he was looking down at me now, a solemn, pained expression on his face. "You... You knew how much I wanted to talk to him... S-saw me runnin' around tryin' to get off a message for months, and you've had a channel to him this whole time..."

_"It was to help you..." _I signed, doing my best to keep my hand well lit so he could see, cursing the fact I couldn't get the words out myself, no matter how hard I tried. _"He has a point. We have a good thing at Beacon. Joel, even Maxine..."_

"_Please_ don't bring her up; I have enough of a headache as it is, right now..." he groaned, heaving so heavily I was wondering if a stop off in one of the alleys was needed, but he waved me off, pulling a canteen off his belt and downing the contents, before splashing what little was left on his face. "Damn it, I-I thought we could tell each other anythin'! That I could trust ya, and you could trust me..." The words cut at me like a blade, but I let him go on. "I think I had a right to know about my own father!"

_"You did..."_ I nodded for emphasis, sweeping my hair out of my face absently, trying to think of the right way to convey how sorry I was. How I really didn't mean to hurt him this much. _"I felt that you would be happier if you..."_

"Look, I-I understand why ya did it, but that don't change the fact you went behind my back, and _lied_ to me."

"_I **didn't** lie!"_

_"You kept it from me when I asked! You not voicing it **doesn't** make it any less of one!"_he signed back with his free left hand, the other clutching at his stomach, mouth twitching with the effort he was spending not to yell at me. If anything, his using our secret language just made it hurt all the more.

_"Bill begged me not to say anything. He made me promise!'_

"Right. Somehow that don't make me feel better," he murmured, looking off towards the ground sullenly.

Before I could even respond, a woman's scream split the night. Not the usual drunken howling or partying whoops that echoed through the night in districts like this, but a terrified shriek. A quick look around with both my eyes and my Aura determined that Ben and I were definitely the only ones still on the street. The only ones that might've heard...

_'Damn it!'_

"...We'll finish this later... _C'MON!_" Ben shouted, suddenly very alert, clutching awkwardly for his rifle, even as I grabbed for _Strike Lotus _at my belt, flying into an all-out sprint. My eyes closed as I searched through the mass of souls around us, detecting six distinct sources from a nearby alley.

It was strange, though. One of the sources seemed to be... _changing_ was the only word I could use to describe it. The feel of it seemed to shift in a way I'd never felt before. Auras could change based on emotions, but those were minor, and never anything this extreme before. We rounded the corner, weapons raised and poised to fire.

"Oi, assholes! Back o... O... Oh _shit..._" Ben's voice trailed off, dying in his throat as we took in the scene. Not that I could blame him, my own weapon drooping, if just slightly, as trepidation took over.

There were certainly six people in the alley, five surrounding a young woman, whom they had pinned by the throat against the wall. Four of them looked to be the same sort of thugs we'd encountered in the bar earlier, if more clean cut. The problem, however, was the fifth.

**"You see?... Your prattling managed to attract some flies,"** a deep distorted voice rose up from the man holding the woman's throat.

Dressed in worn, dark-colored fatigues and ceramic matte plates that left no hint of skin exposed, seeming to blend into the shadows the longer you stared, the figure was armed with two long sabers belted to his back, so that both hilts peeked over his right shoulder. The source of the strange timbre in his voice was issued from a metallic, black mask encompassing his whole head, prominently displaying a faded red handprint stamped across its faceless visage, that still stood out clearly to our Aura assisted sight.

**"You just had to scream, didn't you?"** the man released his captive's throat, and delivered a vicious backhand that sent her to the ground with a sharp outcry of pain. **"Though lucky for you, it seems they might just prove useful."**

A Trapper. We actually managed to rush and stumble our way into an actual, flesh and blood Trapper, standing in the back alley of some dive bar. _'I've heard of bad luck, but this is just unfair!'_

We were in trouble, no doubt. The last Trapper we'd met had managed to seriously wound both Yang and Joel, on top of demolishing a city block and an entire police dispatch single-handedly. This one, on the other hand, had back-up, almost certainly Red Hand agents of some kind, and possessed an Aura about him that made the one they had fought look like a house cat in comparison to a tiger.

_'So cold... And that other Aura...'_

"Y'know, I thought the Red Hand had other priorities than tormentin' defenseless women!?" Ben called out, bringing up his gun to his cheek as the weapon shifted to assault rifle form. "Bit of a change in your M.O., ain't it? Doesn't look like a Faunus to me!" His voice sounded confident, though I could tell from the subtle shift in his stance and his eyes that his mind was racing rapid fire, trying desperately to figure some way out of this. After a second, he paused, holding out his ring finger away from the gun, a signal to hold back for something.

**"I don't see how those details concern a fly like yourself."** The Trapper cocked his head and stared at us, looking over our weapons and stance with interest, or at least I thought he did. His mask was one smooth, solid piece of metal, no visor or anything else that might allow him some vision.

_'How does he even see out of that thing?'_

**"However, I meant what I said about you two possibly being of some use. Especially...!"** Ben took his chance, squeezing off a shot that pierced the side of some of the insulation piping that ran along the upper walls of the building in a sudden shower of compressed steam that flooded the space the second it hit the cool night air, and sent up surprised shouts from the disguised soldiers.

It was a standard ploy: distract and demolish the enemies, while using my Semblance to track them once they were blinded and confused. One that had pretty much always worked in the past.

_'Have to take down the most dangerous target first before he can find his bearings.' _I focused, bringing my arm back, _Lotus'_weight sliding back into position behind me. _'Straight shot. Head on, with no holds barred. I need to crush him with one attack that he can't get up from!'_

I lashed outward mercilessly, the weight slamming home with a deafening clang that, combined with the force of my Aura-fueled punch, should've sent at least a few tons' worth of force directly into the masked man's chest, and out the other end. But all I met was air, the blow blasting away what steam was around me enough to reveal that my target had side-stepped on my right just enough to avoid the blow.

I reared back for another charge, but one of his sabers was already in his hand as he swept past me faster than my eyes could follow. My mind was barely able to register the dull clack of metal on earth that rang out, as my weapons split in two leaving me clutching a broken pistol that I stared at blankly in stunned disbelief. It had ended in little more than an instant, his body moving like the mist that surrounded us.

**"You should know that if you're going to incorporate a pistol into a weapon, you might want to lead with it first, rather than go for some all or nothing kill..."** he reprimanded even as he smashed the hilt of his sword against the side of my head with a sickening crack that echoed through my skull, and set my sight flaring white.**"Though I suppose it doesn't matter much now."**

I fell hard against the ground, Aura sparking as it tried and failed to keep me awake. The last thing I heard was my partner desperately calling my name, and a hail of gunfire, before drifting off into an abrupt silence.

_'Ben...'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_REIKA!_"

I yelped with a start, as my eyes snapped open to the light of the early morning sunlight pouring through a window into very unfamiliar room. In a rush, I shot upwards, only to fall back against the bed I'd been laying in. I even managed to slam my already splitting head into the wooden headboard with enough force to send dark spots dancing across my vision, as my right arm failed to take my weight.

_'Crap, crap, crap...'_ From somewhere on my left side, I heard a muffled squeak of protest, and then the light pressure of a pair of hands on my shoulder and arm. "Hey, what... Rei?" I murmured weakly, eyes shut against the pain. _'Feels like I just went a few rounds with a Beowolf, and lost...'_

"Sorry, but I'm not this 'Reika' person... I'm guessing she was that the girl you were with last night, huh?" a soft voice spoke up from above me, prompting me to open my eyes, gazing up at a beautiful face, framed by long-flowing reddish hair that stared down at me concernedly with her brilliant piercing green eyes. While mine were a dark emerald color, however, hers were light, like a grassy sunlit field. In other words, she was drop dead gorgeous.

Suddenly very aware that the only thing I currently wore were my boxers, I got up again, this time more slowly, careful now that I noticed my carefully bandaged chest and leg. Her eyes lingered just slightly on the arm. People always stared a bit at first...

"You should really be more careful. Your Aura's already mended most of the external damage, but your bones probably need a bit more time." I recognized her voice. She was the girl from the alley, the one who was being threatened by the...

"What happened to the Trapper!?" I grabbed her wrist before she could make to leave, letting go the instant I realized it was my metal one, and instead settled for a pleading look. "Please, I remember wingin' two of the bastards when she went down, but after that...?" After that, the Trapper had put me down, weaving and dodging each burst of gunfire, even with my Semblance working for me. He even deflected a few shots off his sword for seemingly the hell of it. "They didn't... They didn't _kill_ her, did they?"

"I-I don't think so. She was still breathing when they carried her off/ I don't believe they'll kill her just yet, anyway." I exhaled a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding, shoulders slumping in relief, before I looked back at her in confusion.

"_Yet!?_ I don't understand! Why haven't they killed us al..." The Trapper's words played again in my head, realization hitting like a hammer blow to the gut. "We're useful to them, aren't we?" The girl nodded sadly. I felt a tug of sympathy for the woman. She'd patched me up, and had gotten me out of that alleyway, after all. "Sorry, I haven't even... Name's Ben. Ben Carson." I leaned back to stare out the window, the sun just barely cresting the horizon.

_'Haven't been out for long, then. Maybe a couple hours at most.'_

"Sienna. Sienna Mason. I'm a Huntress-in-training out of Shade Academy," she introduced herself with a bow of her head and a small smile.

_'A Huntress? Guess that would explain why there's no bruise from that blow she took earlier...'_

"Judging by your clothes, I'd peg you for a local, though your weapon seems a bit more advanced than something you'd usually find this far from the Kingdoms. You a Law Keeper or something?"

"Hardly. I'm actually a Huntsman-in-training myself, from Beacon Academy. I was on a mission with the rest of my team." I scrambled over to my clothes, wincing as she helped me into the pants, before grabbing my Scroll and flashing my I.D. "The girl I was with was one of my teammates. We stumbled across you lot after hearin' your scream."

_'Teammate... She **lied** to me, betrayed my trust over a damn order...' _I shook my head, trying to clear it. But the voice kept nagging at me incessantly, as it had since last night. Since yesterday morning, if I was truly being honest. _'She's still my partner, and I let her down... I couldn't just.._.'

"Look, I know this is probably a bit hectic for you, but do mind explainin' how a Huntress from Vacuo gets caught up with the Red Hand?"

"I ran into them about a week ago on my way to visit the Vytal Festival in Vale with my little sister, Silvia. It was all my fault. Our parents made me swear to keep her on the train, but she'd wanted to go see the Spire up close while we were stopped in town, and I'd just wanted the chance to stretch my legs..." She paused, breathing out and crossing her arms together tightly, as if she were cold. "They attacked us on our way back. I never even saw them before they were right on top of us. Next thing I know, I wake up in this room with that masked bastard, Vergil, or at least that's what some of his men call him, sitting at the foot of the bed, talking about how he had my sister holed up captive somewhere, and wanted me to do a job for him!" Her knuckles where white from how hard she was clutching her biceps, her voice shaking now. "H-he said he'd kill her if I went to the authorities, or if I failed to do what he wanted...!"

She faltered, shivering as tears ran down her face. Not knowing what else to do, I put a hand on her shoulder, the flesh and blood one this time, and gave her a reassuring smile. She returned it gratefully, before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"I didn't know what else I could do but go along with them after that. I mean, I'd heard of the Red Hand, sure, but I thought they were supposed to only go after Faunus! And for a Trapper to..." She shook her head, breath catching as if the mere mention of them would make one pop out of the shadows. "I didn't even think they were real. Just some propaganda they used to scare Faunus; only a rumor!"

"They're real enough, alright. And I guess they're broadenin' their methods a bit nowadays," I groaned angrily, thinking back to all of the wrecked police cars and shopping fronts the Trapper that had been after Joel left behind.

"Well, whether or not he's a Trapper like he says, I have to think they've probably done the same with your friend as they did to my sister. He told me before you guys showed up that I was going to probably need more experienced help if I was going to pull this off, but I never expected he'd just pluck someone off the street like that!"

I wasn't listening, not really, anyway, having inhaled sharply at the thought of my partner, my friend, sitting in some cell, with that masked bastard looming over her.

_'And my last words to her...' _The look on her face when I'd called her a liar. The pain, the regret. I smacked my forehead hard with a metal palm, that elicited a small squeak of protest from my fellow Huntress, gritting my teeth as she pulled my arm away to examine the freshly blossoming bruise. _'Damn it, I can't believe I... Reika, I'm sorry. I'm **so** sorry.' _Of course she'd listen to my father, especially if he phrased it as something that would help me in the end. _'She was just doing what she though was best for me... Always has.'_

And now she was being used as a bargaining chip. Just some hostage to get me to do whatever it was they wanted. "Pull _what_ off? What does he want us to do exactly?" That was the first step. Play along until I got my chance.

She frowned, pulling a Scroll from the pocket of her jeans, and gave it to me. "At first, it was just simple stuff, like going out and buying certain supplies in town with money they provided to an account. Survival gear, clothes, and other things. I'd only ever go out when they sent me a message. Then yesterday, they finally filled me in on exactly what it is they want me to do. And it's _insane; _flat out _nuts!_ They want me, or _us_ I guess, to hijack some train out of Vacuo leaving the station in a couple of hours, and steal a specific piece of cargo on board, along with kidnapping a prominent Atlesian scientist... What was the name again? Farnsworth?... Felicia?"

"..._Faraday?_" I finished, dread creeping through me like ice as I passed the Scroll back to her, screen still dark.

_'No... You've got to be **kidding** me...'_

"Y-yeah, that was it... How did you know?" she wondered, taking the Scroll back, and glancing at it curiously when she found I hadn't even turned it on. "Ben, what...?"

"...Let's just say your Trapper friend pulled the jackpot when it came to people that could've stumbled into all this," I laughed bitterly, putting my head in my hands, running them down my face.

_'Never just an easy mission, is it!? **Shit...!**'_ I paused, glancing up at the girl, who at the moment was probably wondering if I'd just lost my damn mind or something. _'This is gonna be a **rough** day...' _I shook my head, pulling my shirt over my head, and turning to my new partner in crime.

"I'm gonna need to look over this gear they had you buyin'... We've got a train to rob."

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Sienna Mason - Brina Palencia

**_A/N: Alright everyone I just have to say this one was so annoying to write, especially Joel and Maxine's little conversation on the roof. Those two haven't received nearly as much time together as they deserve seeing as they're partners and all. I thought it might be nice for Max to discuss her problem with Ben to Joel even if not in full detail and skated around (After five iterations and rewrites this one sounded the best). On the more exciting side we finally get to meet our antagonist for this Arc of the story and learned what our conflict really is and it doesn't get much better for these guys, especially Joel with the Hand running around. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the updates and I hope to get off at least one more before I head back to school. After that my schedules gonna be a bit more hectic as always. -Mojo_**

**_P.S: Reika did just lose her weapon, been thinking of a way I can update it seeing as it went from this tonfa/pistol/piledriver thing to just being a one hit killing machine for her to punch with. Anyway this seemed the best chance and I was wondering if you lot had any ideas on the Strike Lotus Mk II. She's short yes but the girl's got insane strength and isn't afraid to show it off head on but nothing too big cause she needs to be able to still move quickly (Hit and Run). Nothing to flashy or over powered, doesn't even need to have a ranged variant or transformation. Any help you guys can give would be great even if their just a rough idea._**


	34. Chapter 34

**Edited as of: (11/5/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

AN OFFER

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Apologies, sir, but we still haven't found any trace of them on our end. They're not in any of the surrounding inns. Lieutenant Pips is growing anxious regarding the delay, but we've tried...?" the ensign trailed off at my weary nod, snapping off another unnecessary salute as I turned around to face him.

_'Must be a new recruit. Doesn't know enough to recognize the collar, or the difference between Huntsmen and Huntsmen-in-training. Probably thinks I'm with the Specialists.'_

Fully licensed Huntsmen and Huntresses were seen by most serving in the militaries of Remnant as heroes, or at least figures worthy of a certain level of respect, due in no small part to their abilities. By most, anyway.

Being the leader of the team assigned to this mission by Ozpin himself technically put me just below the Lieutenant Pips and the Atlesian Huntsmen in the command chain, though I'd made sure to defer to the military presence as much as I could in since meeting him the night before. No use riling this up into some useless pissing contest, after all, seeing as both he and Commander Altrosa seemed to have an understanding in place.

_"Shut up and do your job, while I do mine, criminal!"_ Those had been the first and only words I'd heard the man say in regards to me the night before, preferring to keep his comments for the "true Huntsmen," in his own words, or the Doctor, while ignoring mine and the rest of AMBR's presence almost entirely.

"Understood. Alert me if you find a trace, and let the Lieutenant know he has my deepest apologies," I told him, waving it off with sigh as I heard a discomforting growl issue from behind me. "They're late, Max. We can't afford to hold things up any longer than we already have, without at least..."

"At least what? Don't want to piss off Mr. Stick-up-his-ass over there?" She cocked her head to where the large, thin-faced man stood in regulation Atlesian armor, minus the helmet, clapping a hand to his close-shaven scalp in frustration as he mouthed off to the pink-haired Commander over some breach of etiquette that Bill had committed, the smell alone proving that the former bandit likely hadn't slept a wink the whole night. "Pips... What sort of name is _that?_ Sounds like something you name a pet or something." She grimaced sourly, before shifting her eyes back to me. "Wouldn't kill ya to put your foot down on this, would it?

"Those two have had two extra hours to get back here from whatever mess they landed themselves in last night. If they were coming, they'd be here," I explained, massaging the new headache throbbing like a hammer just behind my eyes. "We've already gotten the Atlesians involved in the search, and Altrosa wants to get the Bullheads in the air and on the way before another storm hits.

"And what if we can't find them, huh!? We just say screw it and leave!?"

"Doubtful, but if it comes to that, Redgrave's still around this area, isn't he? They'll just call him up and meet up with us at the next stop whenever Ben finishes his tantrum. Honestly, to think he'd screw us like this, and drag Reika along with him..."

Bill had made it clear, back when we first noticed the pair missing, that it had been very likely his fault. He and his son seemed to have had some sort of argument the night before that had ended with the rogue storming off, with Reika trailing close behind to watch his back, and keep him out of trouble. The Specialists hadn't exactly been thrilled with the idea of two teens with sensitive information ducking out for a bit of night crawling, while Pips himself had almost seemed ready to bust a blood vessel, practically tearing the town apart in the search, but had so far come up with nothing.

"They'll be fine."

The Canine Faunus, however, didn't seem convinced, biting her lip in an effort to stop a retort most likely, settling for a deep breath, and a swift kick that dented one of the crates littering the loading dock. "You know this isn't like him. I mean, Carson can be a dick, sure, but even if he was pissed, he wouldn't drag us into it like this. He's got _some_ pride."

I could only shrug at that, motioning for her to follow as we made our way towards the front of the train, catching sight of Faraday hauling a heavy-looking metallic briefcase with her onto the platform while flanked by two guards,

_'Must be her prototype...' _I thought, watching her hand it off to the pair of Specialists assigned to the train alongside Carson, the nervous looking duo lifting the object gingerly between them, carrying it towards the central passenger car.

"I don't like this... Something just feels... off, somehow." As if I didn't agree with the Faunus entirely on the issue myself, both as the leader of this team and as a friend.

_'Sadly...' _I thought, pulling myself up into the train, helping her clamber aboard after me, _'it's not as if I have much choice in the matter.'_

"_Master Huntsman!_" Max and I spun around, probably faster and more aggressively than the sandy-haired Faunus in a civilian train staff uniform before us had been expecting, if his sudden back step was any judge. "S-sir," he stammered quickly, snapping off an awkward salute he was obviously unfamiliar with_._

_'Following the example of the soldiers, then, rather than being one himself.'_

"There's no need for that, or this 'Sir' business. And I'm no 'Master' Huntsman, so let's cut that out," I tried to reassure the Faunus, somewhat relieved to see his salute shift into an awkward sweep through his hair, that grazed the tabby-colored pair of cat ears peeking through his hair. "You guys are the ones running the train, after all. If anything, _I_ should be saluting _you._"

I thought I heard the ghost of a groan from Maxine, and cringed a bit myself. Must've been more desperate to ditch the formalities than I thought, especially from a man at least a good way into his twenties, judging by the small lines on his face.

"I won't deny you the opportunity if you really want to, though I doubt the Lieutenant will be pleased. Racist prick..." His face paled as he looked to both of us desperately, color flooding back in relief when he saw the small grins on our faces. "Well, it's the truth. He won't even have his men speak to me, or any of the other Faunus on board. Prefers to make one of the Huntsman do it instead, if he absolutely has to, and can get it past the Commander anyway."

Max chuckled evilly under her breath. "Wow, like I needed another reason to hate that bastard. Was wondering why he didn't seem too keen on looking at me when we showed up."

"Yeah. Not the nicest guy, but the rest of them are alright for the most part, as are the other Humans that work aboard. They won't stare or spit when your back is turned... At least not to your face, at any rate." He raised his arms to his sides, with a sober grin. "Now, do I have it right in guessing you two are members of Team AMBR?"

I nodded, pointing to myself then Max. "Yep. Joel Ambrose; AMBR's leader. This is my partner, Maxine Argus."

"Just Max," the Faunus added with a lazy wave. "Now, you got a reason for being here that involves us being with AMBR, or is this just the complimentary greeting from the company?"

I was about apologize for her less-than-stellar manners, but the Cat Faunus just laughed, an apologetic look on his face as he held out a friendly hand. "Actually, yes. I never did introduce myself. Samuel Bastet, co-conductor for this train."

"..._Bastet?_" I gaped, giving his hand a firm, if stunned shake, while Max shot him a similar surprised look. "Then you're...!"

"My father's name was Leon Bastet, a foremen for one of the SDC's mining sites," he continued, picking at his uniform nervously, before working up the courage to straighten up. "A few months back, word came from the company that my father and those he'd been working with had been killed in some sort of industrial accident, but they wouldn't give me any more details then that." I had to bite down on the inside of my cheek to keep from snarling at that. Hell, Max wasn't even trying to hide it.

_'Leave it to the SDC to chalk all that up to some accident, burying the lives lost there...'_

"I don't care what you might've heard, but that's a load of shit!" Max growled, her hand lying flat against her skull as she sat down in one of the seats lining the cabin.

"Regardless, I didn't know what to think at the time, or how to feel, given our less-than-stellar relationship over the last few years since my mother passed..." Samuel shook his head, amber eyes narrowing as he crossed his arms. "But then a few days later, I get a call from some kid named Carson. Says he's a Huntsman-in-training up at Beacon, and that he has news regarding my father... That he was killed by Grimm."

_'So Ben **had** managed to get in contact with the son, after all. Could've told us...'_

"I heard his account, how he and the rest of Team AMBR found that my father died trying to wipe out some sort of shadow monsters that fed on people's minds like leeches with a jury-rigged bomb... Frankly, I thought it was all some cruel joke at first, with how outlandish the story was. Not sure I still believe half of what he told me. Especially about Dad." He took a deep intake of breath, and gazed at us both pleadingly. "I volunteered for this ride personally after I saw Huntsman William Carson's name on the passenger manifest Atlas provided. When he confirmed what I suspected, he mentioned that he was bringing aboard a team..."

"And you hoped it might be us," I finished for him, the Faunus nodding solemnly.

"Guess I got lucky huh? I just... I only wanted to ask you guys who were there, and hear it from you face to face... About how he...?"

His face fell as I shared a look with Max, then shook my head. "I'm sorry... I really am, but neither of us is really going to be able to help you much. It was Ben who found the body, and if he hadn't pulled a disappearing act on us, I'd have had him here now for you, but..."

Disappointment, anger, regret, all of it flashed across the Faunus man's face as he lowered his head, leaning against one of the walls. I moved quickly to clarify, trying to keep my voice level as I thought back to that hellhole... The dead girl's laughter...

"Personally though, I can say that, while I never met Leon Bastet, I sorely wish I had. Anyone who could've endured against those things for as long as he did would've needed a will like iron. His actions had a direct hand in saving my life, and the lives of my teammates, as well as allowing us to stop those Grimm, and keep them from hurting anyone else ever again. He was a _hero_ in the end..."

"...The old man always was stubborn," the conductor muttered weakly, wiping at his eyes preemptively as he looked at me gratefully. "He would've been honored to receive that kind of praise, especially from folks at Beacon. It means a lot... Truly."

"I know this might not mean much, or be any sort of comfort, but..." my partner spoke up from behind me, rubbing at her arm awkwardly. "Those things... Wraiths or whatever our teachers back at the school were calling them... They try to trick you with things that mean something to you. Stuff your mind dwells on. Ben told me about your dad. And by the sound of it, um... He was thinking of you, but I think it did the opposite of what they wanted, kept him from... Forget it." She shut her mouth, fidgeting in her seat as she turned to the window while we looked on, my eyebrow raised, while Bastet's...

"...Thank you, Miss Argus... Er, _Max,_" he corrected himself at a glare from her. "That means a lot. More than you know. If... If Mr. Carson does turn up, please let him know I'd like to talk to him. To thank him." He gave one last bow of the head, before striding from the cabin. "You two just relax, and enjoy the trip."

"...Wasn't expecting that." I fell back into the seat across from my teammate, sliding a hand down my face, suddenly feeling out of breath. "Almost can't believe it." It didn't exactly call back great memories; I could almost hear the specter's voice again, taunting me for the first time in weeks. "Still, you did a good thing telling him that. I think it really helped him."

"Ben should've been here for that," she muttered, glancing out at the station and the city beyond. "Asshole... The hell is... What the hell's going on there?"

I frowned as I began to hear it too. Loud shouts began to echo along the length of the station from some of the shoulders, the sounds of engines revving in the distance We felt a shudder as the train buckled sharply.

_'They've started powering up the engines? But no one mentioned...!'_

Realization dawned on me as I raced to join a confused-looking Max at the doorway to the compartment, eyes catching sight of a heavy dust cloud, before a convoy of vehicles crashed onto the scene through the Atlesian's roadblock that had encircled the station. What emerged was a pair of large transport trucks, with canvas covered beds, and a quartet of small land rovers equipped with...

"Get down!"

I'd already dragged Maxine to the hard cabin floor with me, and not a second too soon, as the men manning heavy-caliber machine guns affixed to the rover's backs opened up on the train, filling the space the Faunus had occupied with Dust-tipped lead shells that ripped through the car above our heads, playing hell with my hearing. There was no telling what it did to the Dog girl. From the what I could make out, we weren't the only targets either. The soldiers on the platform that weren't already on the ground, dead or wounded, were scrambling for cover.

"_Shove off, moron!_" I gave a start as the girl pushed me off roughly, managing to unhook her axe from the awkward position on her back, and split it into its ranged form, a gun in each hand. Before I could voice a warning, she'd already clambered her way to the door, sticking a hand out and unloading on the closest vehicle. Her attack managed to send the man manning the turret scrambling off for cover with a startled yelp, as bullets dented his blast shield. "They're offloading people!... Shit, more fighters!"

It was true, I learned, picking myself up from the floor with _Circuit _in hand and extended it. I peeked up through a shattered window pane to see men in rough-spun dull civilian wear, supplemented by the occasional pieces of body armor, clambering from the beds of the trucks already seeking cover, and unloading bursts of suppressive fire on what resistance the Atlas forces had managed to put up. Some even had explosives, judging from the booms I heard further down the line.

_'Bandits!?' _Whoever they were, they were definitely aware of the train's imminent departure, a large individual splitting off from the main group to rush the train, while their fellows provided cover, right towards us. _'Bad luck for them.'_

The two of us were on our feet now. One look and a nod was all it required for the Faunus to dart across to the other side of the entrance, and stop the would-be raiders in their tracks with a cone of oncoming fire aimed towards their feet. For a moment, I thought I saw the Faunus falter, her face a curious mix of disgust and open glee, as some of her bullets tore through the men's weaker Auras and tore apart flesh in a chorus of screams.

No time to dwell about that now, unfortunately. Those that were still standing were already moving to fire back on the exposed Huntress, but faltered as a thin silver knife struck the lead gunman in the shoulder, throwing off his aim wildly, before he dropped to the ground, twitching as the weapon sparked blue. His body was soon joined by two others, who hadn't managed to duck behind crates fast enough.

"Max, by the car!... _MAX!_"

The Canine Faunus seemed to come back to herself, catching sight of the man she'd sent scrambling, before trying to mount his turret yet again, his eyes fixed on the two of us hatefully behind a dark-colored handkerchief. She brought one of her guns up to track, finger poised on the trigger, but before she could even flinch, what looked like a streak of fiery light burned past, and struck the side of the car, burning through the frame like a scalpel, until it met the gas tank, sending the vehicle, and its unfortunate occupants, skyward in a blaze of white hot smoke and wreckage.

Commander Altrosa strode through the battlefield with all the calm ease of one weaving his way through a formal dance, head and limbs twitching or shifting to avoid oncoming fire, while his gloved hand, held out in a gun-like shape, glowed a pinkish crimson, prongs of Dust curving outward on both side of his hand to form a flickering short bow.

Even as we watched, he brought his other hand to the bow, glasses wrapped around his pink and ring finger casually, and drew back, pulling a bar of white hot energy with him, before shooting it off like an arrow towards a soon-to-be dead combatant that had exposed themselves to try and attack him. All this happened while he was still shouting orders to those around him in a clipped cadence. Only a slight edge in his voice showed that he was actually in combat.

Another one of his fellows, Slater, charged forward with forearms covered in strange, dark-colored gauntlets. Bullets pinged off of his Aura like spit wads from the desperate fighters, the large, dark-skinned man driving a mailed fist into the side of the other turret car to similarly no effect for a moment, at least until the pile bunker shot forward, as his gauntlets pushed the vehicle back, albeit now in two separate shredded pieces, in a way similar, if not as focused as Reika's _Strike Lotus._

"Get the package and the Doctor out of here!" Dorian called back towards the train, a good number of the Altlesians breaking off to board, a stunned, blood covered Faraday in hand, while the Specialists acted as a distraction. "We'll rendezvous by air at the assigned point!"

"Awesome..." Max gaped, and I had no real reason to disagree. The Atlesians may have been taken by surprise, and sustained heavy losses as a result, but even they were starting to rally at the sight of the Huntsmen among them, renewed battle cries and cracks of gunfire sounding all over the platform. "Shouldn't we...?"

"No..." I answered, stopping her when she tried to disembark and join the fight, gesturing to the train which was now vibrating beneath our feet. "We have our job, and they have theirs. We'll just get in the way."

She wasn't happy about it, especially since I could see more dust clouds in the distance, which could've been more Atlas troops returning in response to the shootout, or, for all I knew, an entire battalion of enemies, with perhaps something worse up their sleeve. But the logic stood, and even Max had to accept it.

Slater and Altrosa moved as one with obvious familiarity, which spoke of years fighting alongside the other, the larger man taking and drawing fire, dealing with soft targets, while the archer picked crucial targets off with methodical accuracy.

_'Sad truth is they don't need our help,' _I lamented as the train began to pull away, the attacker's shouts of surprise and alarm quickly cut off by distance, and the roar of the engines. It was a heavy reminder of how far we still had to go. How, even with everything the Red Hand had taught me about taking down their kind, I was little more than a scoundrel thug, relying on cheap tactics and surprise to win. _'No honor...'_

"We should find Bill. We'll find out what we can do when we do," I said after Spire Point had finally disappeared from sight, and the wind and sand forced us to close the cabin door. "You alright?"

The Faunus seemed ruffled, though by luck or Aura she was unharmed, at least physically. She was still breathing a bit hard, though, and the grip on her weapons... "Should've known this wouldn't be easy," she spat under her breath, roughing her way past me as she stormed down the bullet-riddled train car, kicking at ragged debris and shattered glass. "When the fuck is it ever!? Shit luck. _Shit_ mission. Shit, shit, _SHIT!_"

If only I could've given her an answer. Problem was, she was only voicing what I was too prideful, or too stubborn to admit openly.

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

Awareness came flooding back in a sea of aching pain and dull incessant light, my eyes fluttering open weakly to the sound of whispered conversation, and a strange muffled whistling tune just in front of me.

_'What the...?' _I pulled at my arms, finding them bound to the arms of a steel-wrought chair sitting in the center of a large, dimly-lit space. My mask was still thankfully in place. _'Right. The Red Hand, and that girl. I was knocked out, and...'_

Keeping my head low, I peered up through the curtain of dark hair hanging in front of my face to get a better idea of the room, noticing a few decaying wooden crates, a battered metal table littered with tools, and what seemed to be weapon parts. Two armed men in dark, military-style body armor stood talking at what seemed to be the entrance to the room, while the source of the whistling...

"We sustained heavy losses, but the distraction worked. All targets are currently on the train and mobile. Strike teams are on route, and are expected to intercept somewhere along what the locals call the 'Breaking Back Ridge...'" The operative at the door muttered just low enough to be heard over the whistling, but not enough to be considered shouting. He glanced at the masked figure sitting in a chair directly across from me, a saber balanced on one knee as he ran a steady gloved hand down the keen edge of the blade, scraping it to a fine edge with a whetstone.

That was one hand. The other one, however, was uncovered, revealing a hand covered in scars and burns. It ran along the pages of an open book that sat on a stool next to him. What was strange was that he wasn't even looking at the book, or at anything in particular. I suddenly realized it with a start. _'He's blind... The Trapper's **blind**!'_

"They'll be ready just in case those two can't get aboard." He kept going, motioning to his partner. "Are we certain we can be so..."

"They'll be aboard; don't worry about that," his companion said briskly, glancing back at the Trapper nervously, before gesturing for the other to follow him out of the room, shutting the heavy metal door behind them with a loud clang, leaving me alone with the murderer.

_'Where am I?... Need to understand my surroundings...' _I focused on gathering as much information as I could, and wait for help. _'If help was even coming... If I'm here, then Ben just might be... **NO!** I can't think like that!'_

I'd gathered as much as I could from sight alone, closing my eyes and letting my Aura build slowly. My Semblance reached outwards from the room. Beyond myself and the Trapper, there were maybe two dozen more Aura signatures moving about above us, which either meant I was in a storied building, or that I was somewhere underground in some kind of basement.

With only minor effort, I expanded the search and found... nothing? Wherever we were, it was remote. _Very_ remote. The only other signs of life were a few choked out plants and small insects. It was while I was dwelling on this fact that I realized how quiet the room had become. I saw that the Trapper had ceased both his tune and his work, and was now staring directly at me, or at least his faceplate was turned towards my direction.

"_...What was that you did just now?_" I stiffened at the muffled voice, eyes glued on the floor as the breath caught in my throat.

_'No... No, there's **no way!**' _I breathed in lightly, letting my heartrate get back under control as I summoned my Aura and reached out again, searching on an even wider radius, trying desperately to find any sign of life.

"_Yes, that right there. Don't bother pretending to be asleep; I can tell your breathing's unsteady._"

I looked up, trying and failing to keep the cold chill from running up my spine. _'He can sense my Semblance!? How can he...!?'_

"_Ah, right!_" The man clapped his ungloved hand against his helmeted head. "_You can't speak, can you, Miss Murasaki?_"

I glared at him defiantly, but internally my mind was racing. _'He knew my name. He knows I can't speak...' _If this had been a random-by-chance abduction, that would be impossible... Which meant that they...

"_Yes, yes, we know who you are. Might as well clear that up for you now._" The Trapper leaned back, putting his sword aside and closing his book. "_How can we not? You and your trigger-happy friend are on the same team as an old associate off mine, after all... Now tell me, what is that you're doing?_" He cocked his head, as if expecting me to answer, probably holding out hope that whatever intel he thought he had on me was wrong, before sighing in exasperation. "_Surprised, hmm? So it isn't a visible effect, then. I wondered why the guard outside wasn't responding..._"

He pulled his other glove from his belt, covering his hand, before tapping a forefinger against where his eyes would be.

"_I'm well aware I'm blind, Miss Murasaki, but I'm certain I can see better than you can..._" He gestured to the table lazily. "_Two spare cuffs, the barrel and disassembled scope of a disassembled Vacuan-model sniper rifle, a small kit containing fifteen different cleaning tools and solutions, as well as five loose screws. One just on the edge of the table..._"

I couldn't help but look over, and from where I sat, I could just make out the details of most of the objects he'd just described.

"_...You don't seem convinced... Ah, I see now!... Figuratively speaking, of course. I will admit, I could've set that up before you awoke. How about, then, the guard leaning against the door outside, thinking he can get away with being less than alert, or the guard coming down the stairway now to relieve him?_"

I shifted my Semblance and froze. There _were_ two separate signatures just outside the room, and one approaching from above. Too late, I realized I'd done just as he wanted, the man gauging my reaction somehow.

"_So I was right in thinking it's some sort of sensory ability... You have this wave of energy emanating out from you every time you focus your Aura, before it returns to you a second or so later. And that one just now was smaller than those before. A Semblance that tracks Aura emissions, if not the area itself, perhaps, seeing how it bounced off myself and my people?_"

Horrified, I reared back in my chair as I felt my skin crawl with the sudden sensation of being watched. _'Whoever this man is, he could see and understand my Semblance as if he could actually see it being done.'_

"_I guess we have more in common than I thought!_" he said jovially, pointing a finger towards me and then to himself. "_You see, I had my physical sight taken from me in an unfortunate event years ago, but my own Semblance allows me to use my Aura as a sort of radar, reading everything that goes on around me within a given distance, though I do need to focus for the finer details. It seems it also can track Aura projections, to a point._" He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and playing with his fingers. "_You, on the other hand, seem able to detect only Aura signatures, but at a much greater difference, judging by how fast the wave issues from you before returning. Far beyond the scope of my radius, at least. We knew you had a special condition regarding your Aura, but this?... This is more than we could've hoped for... Ah, where are my manners? I haven't even bothered to introduce myself!..._" He straightened his back and bowed his head forward to me respectfully. "_My name is Vergil Jett. As you probably guessed from the uniform, I work as a Trapper agent of the Humanity's Hands Front, or the 'Red Hand,' as the media has taken to calling us. I am a defender of Humanity, and a slayer of the White Fang. You are one Reika Murasaki, currently acting as a Huntress-in-training at the prestigious Beacon Academy, under Joel Ambrose's leadership, yes?_"

Seeing as he'd more than proven that he was anything but blind, I acquiesced, nodding my head if only to satisfy him. _'I could probably break the restraints... But he's armed, and I'm not.' _That was what kept me rooted in the chair submissively, trying to ignore the fact that, even if my weapon hadn't been destroyed, I probably couldn't do much, and was stuck here with this Trapper and a host of others above us.

"_Now, I'm not sure what you might've heard from Joel or the media, but if it's at all possible, I'd like to have a discussion with you before asking you something. All with good intentions, I assure you. I even have a peace offering. Locke, pull it up._" He pulled a small circular compact Scroll, and projected a picture of what was unmistakably Ben, along with the girl we'd attempted to rescue before, haggling with someone at a Roller depot, the high-powered buggies the only vehicles capable of moving independently in the region's harsh landscape.

_"Subject Ben Carson, taken exactly forty-two minutes and thirteen seconds ago in the town of Spire Point. Currently on intercept course to Vacuan Express Train #777VC, on route to Vale Kingdom Border Crossing." _A deep monotone voice intoned from the Scroll, a small Red Hand symbol appearing at the corner of the picture. _'I am Trapper Liaison and Offensive Combat Intelligence, or 'Locke,' as the agents have taken to referring to me. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."_

"_See here? Your friend is alive and unharmed. In fact, he's doing a job for us, as we speak, in an attempt to save you. The question being, however, is whether or not you'll need saving?_" He could probably feel the angry death glare I shot his way physically, even if he couldn't see it. "_Right, the kidnapping, yes. A fact I'm actually quite apologetic for. But it's not as if you'd come willingly, and we needed to play up that we didn't know who you two were. All part of the plan, I'm afraid, but I can see why you might be on edge._"

Really? An apologetic Trapper? Oh, this was _rich._ Maybe he was hoping I'd forget the damage the other one had caused, or that this one had threatened an innocent girl just to draw us into a trap. _'But what was that I felt earlier?... That...'_

"_And you would be right about the Red Hand, and most of my brothers and sisters amongst the Trappers. We're quite a violent lot, I'm afraid. It comes from how we were trained._" That was putting it mildly. The research I'd done on my own time had more than proven that fact, and the recent months had only confirmed it. Even Joel, despite his progress, still seemed to struggle with the peace. "_I, however, wish to change that negative outlook. Where some see a monster, **I** see Humanity's **greatest**defender._"

If I could have laughed, I would have done it then and there, no question, simply for just how absurd he sounded, even though he was completely serious, judging by his tone and what I'd read off his Aura.

"_Think about it. We are vilified for our actions against the White Fang publicly by the Kingdoms, but a good majority secretly support our cause. Some view us as simply terrorists against all the Faunus, and I will admit that some of our number do deserve such beliefs. But I, for one, and I know Joel does as well, fight the White Fang simply because every moment they are active threatens the peace and safety of those of Remnant. In more ways than one, we are superior to Huntsmen and Huntresses in that regard... Miss Murasaki, my mentor and I are searching for people. Capable people that place the security of Remnant and Mankind above themselves and their own desires... Those that seek order for Mankind, and destruction for its enemies._"

_'No... He can't seriously be asking me to...?'_

"_I'm sure you likely think I'm jesting, but I can assure you that I'm not. I've never treated these opportunities lightly. Miss Murasaki... I am asking you to join us. Help us build a better world._"

He sounded so convicted, and what was worse was that I wanted to believe him. If what Vergil said was true, and the Trappers, even a small fraction, could be convinced to give up their vendetta and help Mankind...

_'A group of Huntsmen Joel's caliber, or even greater, would be incredible.' _I wanted to believe him, but the way he'd hurt that girl, the way Capaneus had hurt Yang and Joel, along with all those other innocent people. I focused my Semblance on him completely, reading his Aura like an open book. There was pride and conviction, yes, and plenty of it. It was almost like looking at Joel. But while my teammate's Aura burned with a sort of fire, this was just cold, dark and _hateful,_ threatening to consume everything.

I had my answer... With a burst of Aura, I tore through the clasps binding my right arm, pulling my mask away, and spitting at his feet, even as I reached out for the maximum range my _Sense_ could reach, just barely managing to detect Ben only a few miles away traveling past us, along with...

My eyes widened in horror, just as I felt a rough hand grab at my hair from behind me, pulling back with a painful yank and a flash of steel, before my head flopped forward, feeling strangely lighter. I looked over my shoulder, and realized that Vergil had somehow managed to get behind me from his seat, saber in hand in an instant. His free hand was clutching what I now realized was a fistful of hair, his Aura burning with a rage I'd never thought possible, let alone felt in another human being. I felt for my scalp, discovering that my hair was uneven, reaching at most to my shoulders. I would've responded, bent the steel chair like clay, if not for the blade now kissing my throat, the edge just grazing against my Aura.

"_Literally spitting on my offer... I'll admit, that is a new one I haven't encountered before..._" he growled, a grey-colored Aura building across his body as he kicked the chair, and me, across the room with a loud and very painful crash against the table. It freed me from the chair, the whole thing in pieces after that blow. But before I could even think of fighting back, he was there again, crouched above me, using his sword to tilt up my chin. "_Sit still,_ **or I will remove something that _won't_ grow back."** The blade flashed wickedly in the dim light. **"Now let me rephrase the offer into something clearer for you..."** he threatened, voice cold and full of malice, now distorted by his mask's filters. **"Your friend Carson is on borrowed time, and would already be dead if his services, skills, and position as that _coward's_teammate weren't required, so don't hold your hopes up for him, or anyone else rescuing you. That leaves you with two easy options to consider."** He held two fingers off the sword hilt, making sure they were in my line of sight. **"You either take my very generous offer, and use your impressively large pool of Aura and your Semblance to hold an impressive position in what we're trying to build, or you can continue being petulant, have no rank, and a lot of pain."**

The sword disappeared into the sheath on his back faster than I could comprehend, the man already turning on his heel to leave the room, leaving me sitting in a pile of scattered tools and hair.

**"Either way, your services _will_ be required..."**

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"You're sure about this!? I mean you _do_know what you're doing, right!?" Sienna shouted from her perch in the back, over the roar of the roller's engine. "How could you possibly know...!?"

"I can almost guarantee that the cargo we're after's in the central car!" I called back, swerving to avoid a nasty bump in the cracked and dry surface of land we followed, the telltale whistle of a Dust Train off in the distance. "Easiest place to defend it in case of an attack, and harder to escape for the ones doin' the thievin'! As in us!"

It felt strange. A day ago, I would never have dreamed of being back in this position again; I still didn't. At least Sienna had proven herself to be more than capable in assisting me from procuring last minute supplies, to navigating from the back.

_'Weird havin' a partner that can actually talk back to you, too... Better not to get used to it.'_As much as it pained me to admit it, pretty or no, I'd grown used to the silence. _'Meant the only one bein' negative was myself most of the time.'_

The redhead was certainly motivated, hardly eating or resting since I'd met her, though I supposed that was only to be expected with her sister on the line. Not like I'd do any less for Reika. At the moment, she wore a thrown-together outfit, similar to my usual attire, goggles over her green eyes, and her face wrapped tightly with a violet-colored scarf to ward off the dust and the sun.

"So how do we get to it!?"

"With just the two of us, the easiest method would be for one to focus on breakin' in and securin' the cargo, while the other clears a path of escape! It's dangerous, but it's the fastest and simplest method there is!"

I neglected to mention the fact that my two remaining teammates, two very dangerous people on their own, along with my father, would likely do their best to repel us if we encountered them, but it was my hope that it wouldn't have to come to that. The plan made yesterday had them sticking close to Dad and Poops, while a pair of Altrosa's Specialists handled the package. But of course, that had been when there were _four_of us on the train, rather than just _two_.

_'Max, please just stick to the front. **Please!**'_Not that I really much cared to run into the Human Bug Zapper, or the "Hangman" himself, but the thought of having to fight the Dog girl was just too painful to consider. _'At least with them, I **MIGHT** have a chance of being able to talk my way out of a fight. If the Atlesians catch me, however...' _A cold shiver ran down my spine, and my palms itched irritably. _'Wow. Been a while since **that** happened.'_

I prided myself on being prepared, and being able to think my way out of trouble if the need arose. The problem was that Huntsmen tended to make things a bit unpredictable. As much as it worried me, however, I couldn't back down now, or I'd be gambling with Reika's life. Hopefully, if push came to shove, the others would understand.

"We're gonna approach it by usin' both the dust the train throws up and the storm as a cover!"

My first idea, and in retrospect not my smartest, had been to avoid this whole run around, and just walk onto the train with the redhead cleverly disguised as Reika herself. We were new additions to the escort, so all the average soldier would have to go off of was maybe a picture, and a few key features. Seeing as the Huntress had most of her face behind her mask, anyway, all we had to do was find decent props, a good wig, and avoid the rest of AMBR or anyone else that had seen her.

_'Might've even been able to convince them to help, even if they did find out.'_

Of course, the whole thing had been derailed, pun not intended, by the train leaving without us completely against protocol due to some incident at the station. The Law Keepers hadn't been very forthcoming about the details when we'd met them at the roadblock they'd established. My personal guess, the bastard's thought we'd try and make a run for it, or thought we'd screw up and wanted to make a go of it.

_'Makes it more difficult, but not impossible. Just have to do this the old fashioned way...'_

I _hated_ the old fashioned way...

What worried me most was the lack of flyers. Supposedly, we should've had at least three, if not more Bullheads hovering at different points of the train. Currently, I could only make out one, which was having more than enough trouble keeping itself in the air inside this storm rather than be bothered looking for oncoming threats. _'What happened to the others?'_

"Sounds good! I'll get us an escape route!" I turned in my seat, my companion starring at the ever-approaching dot of the train on the horizon with an air of confidence that was almost infectious. It was strange, being around the woman. I discovered, as I spent more time with her, that her personality was infectious. She'd have made a damn good public speaker or salesperson if she hadn't chosen Hunting as a career.

_'Frankly, I think she might've missed_ _her calling.' _Which was also my issue. I had no idea, aside from an encounter with a goddamned Trapper, on how she'd handle herself in a fight, let alone against what was almost certainly a good portion of Atlesian soldiers. It'd be almost impossible for me. Hell, even Reika, the muscle between the two of us, would've had trouble on her own...

"I can do this, Ben! I know I might not look like it, but I can give as good as I get!" She raised her arms, showing off the thick grey bracers that encased both forearms, a red, blue, and yellow light showing on the bottom of each. "Trust me!"

And I did. Something about the way she smiled, the way she spoke, just sang to me.

"A-alright! Make sure you do, 'cause we're both screwed if the other messes up!" I pointed out, at least wanting her to know the level of risk here. Dad usually went with at least a dozen trained bandits, most of the time even more for something like this, and there was a damn good reason for it.

"I understand!..." the Huntress-in-training nodded, betraying only a slight waver of fear at the prospect, gripping the cage of the buggy, before speaking up again. "Thank you Ben. For this. For your help. I know this sounds horrible, but I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't shown up..."

"Oi! Keep all that mushy stuff in for after we save Reika and your sister, alright?" I reached up behind me, clasping one of her hands gently in a mechanical grip she thankfully didn't flinch away from. "We've got this!"

"We've got this!" she agreed, wiping at her eyes quickly, before looking on ahead. "Train up ahead!" Within minutes, we were alongside the massive machine chugging along, using the copious amount of dust in its wake, along with a lucky sandstorm that kept the guards inside, to work our way up, until we were just behind the last car. "Good luck, and be safe!" She leapt off in a burst of Aura that seemed to shift color the longer you watched it.

_'Damn. Even her Aura's gorgeous...' _I found myself thinking, before shaking my head out, slowing down just in case she missed her jump, but relieved to see it hadn't been necessary. The girl gave me one last wave, before slipping swiftly into the car with short deft movements. _'Least she wasn't lyin' about the training. Alright... Now it's time for my part.'_

Pushing the little rover as fast as it was able, probably faster, I brought it alongside the center of the train, a thin walkway bordered by a wrought iron railing rattling between the cars. "Been a while since I tried this..." I murmured under my breath as I took an old brick from the seat next to me, grabbing up my ruck sack as I wedged the weight onto the petal, before working my way up to the side. I took a deep breath, before leaping towards the railing.

For one heart-stopping moment, I'd thought I'd misjudged the timing, the speeding dusty wastes rushing towards me, before I managed to grab hold of the side in a tight grip, breathing out a sigh of relief as I hauled myself up so as to sit securely in the carriage.

I got to my feet shakily, sparing one last look as the rover hit a pothole and flipped in a cloud of dust. It was battered, but easily still drivable. _'Better be, or I'm walking back to Spire Point to rip that dealer a new...'_

I'd hardly taken a step when a loud boom shook the whole train, and almost sent me tumbling over the side, with only a lucky grab between me and a grave injury at best. "What the hell!?" I swore loudly, along with a few dozen others, ready to go help Sienna, when I realized she hadn't been the cause the smoke coming from the front of the train, but something far more sinister.

The Atlesian Bullhead playing awkward escort was now cartwheeling through the air, letting out a pitiable whine from a flaming wing, as fire and emergency fans met the unforgiving roar of the elements, and a fair bit of oncoming weapons fire aside. Even as I watched, another missile raced through the dust storm, striking the broadside of the VTOL, gutting it and any unfortunate crew inside, and sent what was left careening into the ground with enough force to shake the train.

"No... No, you sons of...!" I muttered, artificial hand clenching into a bone-crushing fist that crumpled the support bar it clutched, as a pair of sleek black Bullheads soared over the now-smoking train, lines descending from above, as soldier after darkly-armored soldier dropped from open hatches onto the roof of the massive behemoth, each heavily armed, with the Red Hand symbol emblazoned over their hearts and on their sleeves_._

They hadn't intended to let us try our way at all. They just wanted two Huntsmen for back up and a distraction, while they killed everyone aboard. I could already hear the shouting, the hastily-ordered commands as they fanned out, ready to clear this train and everyone on it.

Probably better they don't find me standing around... But first...

I looked around quickly, spotting my target immediately, a red button encased in protective glass, a general alert all transports of this class carried to warn its crew of attack, or ill intent. Without a second thought, I lashed out with metallic fist, punching through the glass with ease and depressing the button, setting off a series of wailing claxons, as the entire train's lighting pulsed red. I couldn't help my teammates directly, but I'd be damned if I didn't at least give them a chance to defend themselves.

_'Though that still doesn't change the fact that I have a job to do... Time to get it done.'_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast introduced this Chapter-**

Samuel Bastet - Christopher Bevins

Vergil Jett - Liam O'Brien

Locke - Phil Lamarr

**_A/N: So Vergil, not a nice guy as you all probably imagined. To be honest this chapter turned out a lot differently then what I'd intended, especially with Bastet's son which wasn't originally going to be brought up again but a friend of mine saw that it could work, that old cat was the real badass of that Arc, lasting for days with the wraiths while AMBR only lasted a few hours. Know this wasn't a high action chapter but don't worry, things are gonna kick off next chapter I promise. – Mojo_**

**_P.S: Props if you can tell where I picked up Vergil's line from the end there, it's another villain and it just stood out to me for some reason._**


	35. Chapter 35

**Edited as of: (11/6/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

DULLED FANGS

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'**How!?** How could this day get any worse!?'_ I wondered frantically as my ears pounded at the sudden audial assault, scrambling to my feet the instant the first shrill alarm bell sounded, followed shortly by flashing red lights filling the train car, which was _also_ followed by an explosion that rocked the train, and set Faraday screaming.

For the most part, aside from the rather abrupt departure, the trip had been exactly as advertised: boring and slow going, with little to do but stare out at the passing scenery, or try and make some semblance of conversation with the other occupants, not that that was going well. The fine choices of that option were an intellectual that cringed every time I looked her way, still likely shell-shocked and muttering to herself, an old man nursing what must've been his fifth or sixth bottle since boarding the train, as if awareness and thought of continued attacks wasn't a thing, and a moody Faunus, who last I checked was idly scratching a little doodle into the wall with one of my knives to take the edge off her nerves.

As a result, I'd spent most of the last few hours pacing the various cars I was "allowed" access to, and thinking over our enemy just as Fortuna had taught me, allowing just enough paranoia to cross the threshold, while still keeping a firm hold on reality. Reality being that those weren't bandits that had attacked us. Their training and patterns were too professional, despite appearances; too drilled into memory. And Ben had said it himself months before at the site during our first outing: bandits were businessmen; they weren't stupid. Any way you looked at it, that attack was doomed to fail, likely even if the Specialists hadn't played a role in the response.

We'd received confirmation from Altrosa, sounding honestly chipper, if a little exhausted over the radio, that the survivors had broken off soon after the train had left, and that he, Slater, and the bulk of the aerial support was en-route...

_'They'd wanted to separate us from the air defenses! Catch us while we were... **Damn it all!**'_

I pulled aside a young uniformed trooper dashing past us, his face a mask of panic and confusion. "What's going on!?" I called over the alarm. I honestly thought it was going to set my ears bleeding, until Max let out a howling scream, and smashed the buzzer with her axe, blissfully cutting off the siren, aside from a few dull thrums from the other cars.

"W-we have reports of a pair aircraft knocking our bird out of the sky, a-and is offloading armed troops towards the front! F-from what we gathered before they jammed communications, it seems they were trying to b-breach the conductor's car, and halt the train!" he stammered out, glancing at us all as he tried his best to straighten up, not looking at me.

"Do we know anything else? Who are they? Bandits, raiders, what?"

"W-well I... I know what the reports said, but..." He choked up, and I noticed he was gripping the rifle he held so tightly that his hands shook. He was also backing away from me, like I was some sort of Grimm.

"Out with it, son," Bill spoke up, striding up next to me, keeping one eye consistently on Faraday even as he moved, the woman clutching at her arms curled in her seat. "What're we dealin' with here?"

The young man opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as the door to the cabin burst open. Four soldiers burst into the room, followed shortly by a red-faced Pips, a vein pulsing above his eyebrow as the group fanned out, weapons brought to bear on... _Me!?_ I backed off with my arms raised, but ready to move if they did. "Joel Ambrose! You are to stand down, and disarm yourself _immediately!_"

"The fuck are you lot playing at!?" Max shouted, splitting apart her axe into its twin gun form, and likely would've started shooting if I didn't stop her with a raised hand. She didn't fire, but she sure as hell didn't lower her weapons, keeping one firmly aimed at the lieutenant, while the other shifted from sweating soldier to soldier, picking out targets.

"Bring your pet to heel, traitor, or we'll be forced to...!"

The lieutenant didn't get much further than that, my partner snarling furiously, teeth bared and her ears flat to her skull as her Aura began to flare ominously. "The _hell_ did you just call me, asshole!?" Her fingers twitched towards the triggers, even as some of the Atlesians turned away from me in favor of the active threat she posed. "Try and say that with a mouthful of lead, you Bald Bitch! _Say it again!_"

"Max, just stay calm down! Let me...!"

Before I could finish speaking, a loud gunshot rang through the space, freezing us all in place. "Let's all be civil, shall we?" Carson intoned to the room at large, holstering the silver smoking pistol, lined by a long bayonet and what looked to be a cowboy spur at the bottom of the handle, in a hip holster at his belt with a styled flourish. "Now, Lieutenant... Would ya kindly explain to us the reason why you and your people are wastin' time pointin' weapons at my charges, while we obviously have more pressin' matters to contend with?..."

He cocked his head towards the broken siren, one of the soldiers moving to step forward. Whether or not it was to restrain him or something else, I never discovered, as the man froze at a glare from the Indentured Huntsman, his green eyes flashing in a way that would've even made a Beowolf think twice.

"_Well?..._"

The Lieutenant looked ready to burst a blood vessel for maybe the tenth time since I'd met him in half as many meetings. But after a few seconds, he finally managed to restrain himself, his dark eyes shifting from the insubordinate Indentured Huntsman to me, narrowing to slits. "My reasoning, Carson, is that this boy is a traitor, who's sold us out to his subordinates within the Red Hand! Those Bullheads have already brought down our escort ship, and I expect them to be the reason for our lack reinforcements! That's not even including the multitude of our men and drones in the back cars already in the hands of unknown assailants. Meanwhile, what must be the majority of their forces are traversing above us, either by spreading out along the roofing this way, or moving to take the...!"

"The _Hand's_ here!? _They're_ the ones attacking us!?" I cut him off abruptly while stepping forward, heedless of the sudden series of clicks and clatters of weapons all around me. Max's growling reached a fever pitch. "But why!? That doesn't make any sense!"

The man let out a hoarse laugh, all force and no humor. "You really weren't aware? Doubtful; even a child would see this is some sort of half-baked escape attempt. Your plan was to use the crew and cargo as leverage to buy your way back into their good graces, and slip the Council's leash all in one go. I suspected such a thing might occur...!"

"_No,_ it really _doesn't_ make any sense, you pompous ass!" I interjected, not even listening to the bigoted blowhard at this point. "Even if their operational standards have changed since I left, the Hand wouldn't consider pulling an operation like this! They don't waste men as a diversion, devote Bullheads and this many troops, maybe even Trappers, just to come after me, when they could just scuttle the train from above, and save themselves the trouble!" That got a few nervous whispers, which were quickly silenced by the bald soldier. "No... They instead want to take it, even with the heavy Atlesian military presence, including three trained Huntsmen, on board... Which can only mean..."

_'I'm not the target... But if it's not me, then... Wait... The **cargo!**'_ I looked over my shoulder at the chestnut-haired doctor currently ducking behind her seat, who let out a fearful squeak out when she noticed me staring.

"What the hell is in that case you brought on board!?" I asked her, fists clenched at my sides angrily_._

"W-whatever d-do you mean? Y-you've been notified already, haven't you? I-it's just a prototype power cell for the A-Atlesian Pala... _Ah!_" She ducked low as a knife extended in my hand, one of the spares I kept hidden in my glove for cases like this.

"Kid, settle down, now..." Bill muttered dangerously, but I ignored him.

I'd had a bad feeling about this mission nagging at me since the moment the Headmaster and Ironwood presented it. The heavy military presence, Ben and Reika's disappearance, the attack... One thing after the other, and I didn't bother to speak up when I should have! _'Dammit, Ozpin! It's the cave all over again!'_

A quick order from Pips had the troopers ready to fire, but they were stopped, their weapons shifting upwards under seemingly their own power, even as the confused and frightened men and women tried to bring them down, tugging with all their might.

Max had them handled, her face scrunched up in concentration, while shooting me furtive glances as I marched past Carson, who didn't bother stopping me, but kept a hand on his gun all the same. After slamming the heel of my shoe into the back of the seat where she lay crouched with enough force to almost dislodge it from the floor entirely, the small woman scrambled into the aisle away from me.

I wasn't planning on hurting the doctor, or I'm sure Carson would've been able to keep me back. I'd just had enough of being jerked around, and wanted the truth for once.

"These aren't the sort of people who would send a Trapper _and_ a contingent to attack a heavily-fortified train just for some over-sized battery! So I'll ask again..."

"I-I... I-it's all...!"

"Doctor Faraday, you are _not_ cleared to reveal that information!" Pips shouted, before he was shoved back into a chair by some invisible force, glaring at Max in a way he probably thought was threatening. "Someone shoot that damn animal already!"

"My thoughts _exactly..._" Max leveled one of her weapons on the soldier with a strained, yet wide grin on her face upon noticing the sweat beading down his brow. "But I'd actually like to hear this, and your screaming might make that difficult for some of us." One of her ears twitched dismissively.

I sighed, compressing the knife again, before taking a knee before the scientist. "Look, I'm sorry for scaring you. Lost it for a bit there..." I raised my hands, turning them so she could see they were empty now, having slipped the knife back into my glove. "And contrary to what the lieutenant and his men might believe, I didn't have _any_ part this. I'll do my best to complete my mission, which, as I understand it, is to keep you and the people on this train safe. But for me to do that, I need to know what it is I'm risking both my partner's and my own life to protect... _Please._"

"You shouldn't need a reason; your orders should be eno...!" I could hear the man yelling behind me, only to let out a yelp when a trio of holes appeared just to the right of his head, cratering the cushion of the seat next to his with a heavy thump as he leapt back. snarling. The Dog Faunus only gave him a coy wink.

"Sorry. Gettin' a bit twitchy, here."

Thankfully, it seemed my words had had some effect. Her mouth opened and closed briefly, before she relented with a weary sigh, wiping at her glasses. "It isn't a power cell, is it?" I asked again, calmer this time. "What are they after that's so important?"

"_Doctor...!_"

"Y-you're... You're right..." she said after a few seconds, replacing her glasses with a stony look on her face. "What sits in the storage cabin isn't a new power cell, but the culmination of my own research... A Dust-fueled explosive capable of changing the face of Remnant forever. 'Nature's Wrath,' in truth..." Eyebrows went up across the room, the only ones apparently unfazed were Pips and the scientist herself. Carson even cursed under his breath. "Project Endgame..."

"Isn't that a little overdramatic?" Max asked, shakily dropping her Semblance on all but the lieutenant. We definitely weren't the only one shocked by the revelation, as even some of the soldiers were muttering barely-audible curses, looking to their commander for clarification, rather than aiming them at me as they were supposed to. "So it's high-yield? That isn't exactly a new concept. I've seen a thrown-together piece use Dust cores to take out a mountain; what makes yours so special?"

"This device doesn't just force an unstable structural reaction from whatever crystals or powders that are stuffed inside, like most weapons or engines. It splits a specially-formed artificial solution that I developed at its core, the atomic level, to create an exponentially more powerful reaction."

I was no specialist in the mineral resource that had uplifted Humanity; my own understanding and application was limited to using it as a supplement for Aura in combat, and even that was a dangerous far cry from what I'd seen others like Weiss or Professor Goodwitch pull off. What I did know firsthand, however, was how dangerous and unstable it was at the best of times, and what even a pinch of it could do if handled incorrectly.

_'**Boom...**'_

"You understand why we can't let this weapon fall into the wrong hands, don't you?..." Faraday said somberly at the look that must've etched myself on my face, hands wringing themselves together. "The prototype we have on board is easily capable of wiping a city the size of Vale off the map, and likely a good stretch of the surrounding area as well, not even accounting for the worst of it... W-we weren't even going to let it near the city; a ship was already prepared for Atlas...!"

Max laughed, but there was no humor in it. Only stunned disbelief. "What? A city buster isn't bad enough?"

The chestnut-haired woman, however, didn't seem at all amused, and certainly not joking either. "Aside from the chaos wrought in the initial detonation, the blast would also send enough charged Dust particles high enough into the atmosphere that the sheer quantity itself would evoke _catastrophic_ climate change on its own... We detonated a similar device with a _quarter_ of the destructive power this one is capable of months ago, and it created a glacial formation in the middle of the Vacuan desert, that still stands today... Similar tests have produced all manner of events..." In other words, it could _literally_ change the face of Remnant as we knew it... "I even saw fire rain from the sky once..." she spoke almost wistfully, eyes glazing over.

"_Why?..._ Why even create something like that?" I found myself asking, backing away quickly from the madwoman before me. "Who could even... You had to know it was a bad idea, right?"

"General Ironwood insisted on a solution; a safeguard of some kind!" she replied, leaning back against one of the seats as gunfire and a distant explosions rang out towards the front of the train. "Like the name Endgame suggests, it would be used as a last resort against the Grimm, or anything else that might threaten Mankind, if we were ever pushed to the brink with few pieces left to play! A-a means to even the odds; a chance to push the boundaries of what could be done... W-what self-respecting scientist could resist the opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds...!?"

"...And Jacob Ambrose?..." I asked, fearing the answer even as I asked, my brothers words on the "side projects" Ironwood had him working on at the forefront of my mind. "Was _he_ involved in this!?"

"Your brother?... H-he's the one who presented the idea. He was the one that suggested me to the Atlesian Council, even!" She flinched as I kicked at the dented seat beside me, this time dislodging it from the floor with a crash that startled everyone, whirling around to face those assembled. Carson looked towards the doctor as if he were going to be sick, while Max glanced at me nervously. "Please, they'll also be after me as well! I'm the only one who can replicate the mix, and knows the process of how to set it off correctly!"

Bill shook his head in disgust, green eyes settling on the small woman. "Well, least I know why I was given orders to make sure you weren't captured, even if it came to... Well, you get the idea." Her eyes widened, tears trickling down her face now. "I _won't,_ but at least I know the reason now... You lot just _had_ to keep pushin' it, didn't ya?... Damn it, Altrosa..."

"Why weren't we told!? Why didn't Ozpin...!" I started out, before the truth hit me, my eyes narrowing on the soldiers around me. "So... He _didn't_ know, then? Then it was chain of intelligence scenario? Compartmentalization; keep it in the higher ranks!?"

I nodded towards Max, the girl releasing whatever hold she had on Pips, her shoulders slumping as she swayed slightly. I was acting a hell of a lot more calm then I felt, that was for damn certain. _'Jake, just**what the hell** have you done here!?'_ I couldn't believe it. Penny was bad enough, but _this!?_

"Well, then... I guess we know what we have to do," I said to the soldiers, each of them staring back at me with their own grim, guilty expressions. "Some of you will stay here and hold this position, while most of you, along with Max, will be going towards the front of the train, and keep them from halting it. As long as we're moving, we have a chance out of this. Meanwhile, I'm going to head to the cargo hold, and join up with the other Specialists. We'll secure the prototype, and hopefully deal with whatever's back there, Trapper or not." I looked to Carson, the Huntsman bowing his head approvingly. "You'll need to stay with her." I pointed at the now sobbing Faraday.

"Sounds like a solid enough plan; I approve wholeheartedly," the Huntsman said, kicking at one of the bottles at his feet. "They won't touch a hair on her."

"Now, wait just a moment! Who put _you_ in charge here!? You're under confinement!" Pips leapt from the chair, pistol in hand, though as he looked around at his soldiers, who were already moving ahead behind the Faunus girl, he held his tongue and his bullets. "The General _will_ hear of this... And just _wait_ until Specialist Commander Altrosa returns!" he spat venomously, eyes burning holes in the back of Carson's head. "You can be sure of that!"

"Hope they do; they'll hear how the kids I brought aboard pulled their asses from the fire!" the former outlaw laughed, plucking up Faraday like a child, and depositing her in a seat, sitting across from her and gesturing to another vacancy. "Might as well join us, Lieutenant. I have a feelin' it's gonna to be a _long_ day for you after this little debacle."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

_'Shit! How many of them are there!?'_ I swore internally, ducking low to avoid another burst of gunfire that blew out the window behind me, darting forward to cleave a deep furrow in my attacker's chest, shivering a bit as blade bit into muscle.

I'd already told the troopers to stay behind me and secure cabins as we went, pressing forward myself. I either forced what Red Hand I could off the train, or injured them badly enough that they were no longer a threat.

"Focus on the Faunus!" Swearing vehemently, I leapt for cover again as the car lit up with renewed gunfire. _'Bombs, terrorists... I didn't sign up for this shit!'_ No, I didn't, but here I was caught up in some other damn mess._ 'What happened to good old fashioned Grimm, huh!? Or droids, even!?'_

The firing stopped abruptly, my cue to leap out and pick off two more before they could scramble for cover with clean shots to the legs, sending them sprawling. Huntsman training might be rough on occasion, but _goddamn_ was it effective. These goons might as well have been standing still for all the effort it took, my Faunus senses easily picking out targets, even in the dim light!

"Conductor's car's next, ma'am!" one of the soldiers I'd had with me called out, gesturing ahead where a few Hand bastards had hunkered down, despite the wound he was nursing on his side. A stray shot, but he was luckier than most of the others I'd passed on the way here that had been fighting, while that Poops asshole was mucking things up.

A thick, official-looking steel door barred the way forward. It was probably locked from the other side, but that wasn't much of an issue for me, despite the slight exhaustion I still carried from before.

_'Small and precise is a bitch to handle. Crushing things is so much easier... **and fun!**'_

With that thought in mind, I chose the expedient option. Rather than working my way up and get shot at, I just forced my way through with a push from my Semblance, which sent all the seats, row by row, off their fixtures, and into the far wall, effectively burying any resistance. It left only me and the three other soldiers with a clear path forward, though I did accidentally blow out the windows as well.

"Damn..." the injured one cursed over the sudden roar of wind rushing through the cabin as I let go of my Aura with a strained sigh. "I've seen Huntsmen do some incredible things, but you take the _cake_, ma'am! Never seen anything like it!"

I merely shrugged, a move that probably just impressed them all the more. "I'm a bit unique. Get back to the central car while I mop out the rest." I flexed my axing arm, checking the blood-coated weapon for nicks.

They nodded appreciatively, the two still on their feet, helping their injured comrade limp along. _'That's new. Actual respect from a Human, without any double-edged backtalk...'_

It was weird, but a little... nice, if I was being honest. To actually be thanked for contributing to others... With renewed confidence, I moved along my little impromptu pass, delivering a harsh kick to the nose of one Red Hand that hadn't been completely buried and seemed to be stirring, chuckling a bit as I wiped the blood off on his cheek.

"Would be rude not to knock," I shrugged to myself, delivering a harsh kick to the door's center, with enough force to rock it off its hinges, and forward like a slab, only to land heavily on the metal-grated floor. The first thing I picked up immediately was the scent of blood. _Fresh_ blood. It was accompanied by sweat, and a myriad of other sources. Three crew members, all Faunus, sat trussed up against the wall. Two were slumped over with what looked like arrows lodged in their vitals, obviously dead, if not near it, while the third...

_'**Bastet!**'_ I tensed, noting an arrow similar to the others lodged deep in the cat's side as he was bleeding profusely. Judging by the pained look on his face, however, he at least still had enough life in him to feel it. The blue pony-tailed bastard sporting dark body armor, along with a composite bow and a small boxlike quiver on his back, stood at the train's controls, watching the landscape race by as he tried to decipher the myriad of knobs and buttons.

**"Complicated piece of crap... You yokels out in Vacuo ever hear of labels?"** a high-pitched distorted voice mused in annoyance, sighing dramatically as he brought his arms to his sides. **"Really, I thought you'd have managed to get here _much_ faster, considering a reputation like yours, even amongst us Trappers. Guess Beacon really _has_ made you gone soft, hasn't it, Ambro...!?"**The surprisingly young figure turned around, sharp yellowish eyes widening in shock above a dark mask similar to what the shrimp wore, but more streamlined, and without the little carved designs. **"Wait a..._You're not Ambrose!_"**

"The fuck tipped you off? The ears or the boobs?" I countered, raising my both of my guns. "The hell're you supposed to be, anyways!?"

Rather than answer me, however, the terrorist just kept looking at me, raising a hand to a small receiver in his ear, muttering darkly under his breath just loudly enough for me to pick up, even with the weird distortion. **"Damn it, I was promised a shot at the traitor for going along with this! What're you playing at, Vergil!?... Ah, no, no, no, _don't give me_ that crap! I want my vengeance; we had a_deal!_"**

As much as I was tempted to let the archer have his little monologue with himself, a wracking cough from Bastet made it clear that this needed to be over with, and fast. _'Great. A Trapper, of all things... Thanks, life. Glad to know you have my back!'_ So Ambrose was wrong about the major threat attacking from the back end, or worse, there was another of the masked buggers running around. _'Least this one's fun-sized, unlike that shield bastard...'_

"_Oi!_ I asked you a question, shithead!"

**"Do you mind, _dog?_"** he spat back, the venom oozing off his voice with every syllable. **"Your betters are speaking, so if you could just stay...!"**

_'Okay, negotiations have broken down. Prepare to die, asshole!'_

I saw red, firing off a quick volley and charging forward, even as he leapt to the side, pulling his bow. I made sure to stay right on top of the Trapper, bringing the bladed edge of my gun down in a downward arc. In a perfect setting, the fight would've ended right there, with me bringing the blade across his chest, and kicking him back unconscious, or at least wounded severely.

Unfortunately, of course, the assassin had just managed to nimbly avoid the swing that grazed his chest piece, flipping backwards with a fast-extending arrow already drawn back on his bowstring and ready to fire. He let it loose with a cheeky wink that had Carson's face flashing through my mind.

_'Fucker...!'_ I was barely able to bring my gun's twin up in time to deflect the shot, a sharp pain grazing my cheek and earlobe as the shaft passed by in a hail of sparks that set a ringing in my eardrums.

**"Much nimbler than you look, aren't you, _dog!?_"** he taunted as he landed in a crouch, another arrow spinning in his hand already, a smirk audible behind the mask. **"Most don't walk away after that one."**

"Shut up!" I jumped forward, missing another swing, and having to bob down for my trouble as the condescending target fired off another one, feeling the wind rush past me above my ears close enough to hurt. With speed almost impossible to follow, the Trapper weaved behind me, wrapping his weapon around my neck as an arrow nestled closely against my jugular, held in one hand like a dagger.

**"Why would I, when we're having _such_ an _engaging_ conversation?"** He cocked his head, noticing the vein pulsing in my forehead. **"From the ears and personality, it's not difficult to deduce who you are. Ambrose's new pet guard dog, Maxine Argus, correct?"**

My sudden stiffness and the growl in my throat told him all he needed to hear. _'A kid? A fucking **kid's** kicking my ass!?'_

**"Not exactly what I wanted, but killing you will hurt him all the same."** He chuckled darkly under his breath, the distortion ringing in my eardrums. **"You have the distinct honor of engaging Red Hand Trapper, and master archer Robert Lanc... _Ack!_"** He cried out all of a sudden as he was blown back against the wall hard, coming to his senses, and ducking his head with unnatural quickness just in time to avoid a fully reconstituted _Cerberus_ denting the wall where his neck had been. He peered up at me in shock and confusion at the bow I had under my boot.

"You know, the way you keep blabbing on is _really_ starting to remind me of a certain teammate of mine..." I growled deeply, dislodging the axe while kicking the Trapper back into the console with an Aura-filled boot to the side, shivering slightly at the gasp of pain he let past his mask and the glare he gave me. "Which is definitely _not_ helping my mood, right now, so why don't you just start screaming instead, and make this fun, at least!?"

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"I still think we should go back. We can't leave the device alone; you know our orders," the tan-haired woman, Braun I think her name was, said nervously to her companion as she smoothed out an invisible crease in her pressed-white uniform, her Aura having protected it from the storm outside. "Dorian wouldn't want us to...!"

"The situation's changed big time, Mari. If this is the Hand at work, then the best thing we can do is deal with them quickly and efficiently before they have time to gain momentum," Kelly shot back, blowing a strand of silver-colored hair out of his face with a comforting grin. "Hey, we've fought way worse, and it's not like we left the thing unguarded, after all."

Fair logic, I supposed, if a tad bit overconfident, though that was common enough around Huntsmen, I'd noticed. Problem was that if this guy hadn't already realized that the Red Hand possessed air superiority, then they already had the high ground in this fight. Best thing they could've done would've been to fall back and defend a position they couldn't just bomb.

_'Of course, that would make things a bit more dicey for me. More power to ya...'_

I grimaced, mouthing out every curse and prayer for luck I knew as I held my breath, listening to the Huntsmen banter back and forth on their way through the cabin as I safely crouched in a dark corner amidst a mess of glowing service piping and cleaning supplies.

_'C'mon, c'mon! Move, already!'_

My chest was getting a bit tight, but I didn't dare exhale, knowing full well that they would've been able to pick it up. And if they could, well... Always a safe bet to just to assume the worst. And it never hurt to be cautious, especially since they'd shut off the alarms, though the space was still flush with crimson light from the emergency buzzer. Beyond that, all I had to listen to was their footsteps and the dull rumble of the train.

_'Awesome...'_

It had been through dumb luck that I saw the door light signaling when I did, happening to look up at just the right time to catch it. Thing is, I was a moment too slow, my poncho rustling just a fair bit too loudly before I'd settled in place. Luckily for me, these two seemed too busy arguing at the time, more focused on each other, buying me the precious second I needed to get into position.

"We've got the drones set to key us in if anything so much as breathes in that car," Silver kept going, the rustle of flesh on fabric signaling some contact between the two. "You worry too much." There was affection there. Made me wonder if these two...

"And you don't worry enough." Louder footsteps now. Quicker. too, as she picked up her pace, leaving her comrade chuckling to himself. It was nice to see that even Huntsmen could still strike out now and again, even though I did fully agree with the lady in the room.

_'Hurry up! I'll quit drinkin', stop swearin', be the perfect soul of humility and temperance. Hell, I'll even ask Max out on a...'_ The door on the opposite end of the car opened, and I relaxed as the sound of wind and dust matting entered the car. _'Holy... Guess I'm goin' dr... **Yah!?**'_

I'd barely twitched, but in my relief, I'd forgotten about my damn arm, using it to steady myself against a Dust pipe, only for it to clank very, _VERY,_ audibly, at least to someone with Aura-enhanced senses. Freezing in place, I panicked as I tried to pick up what the couple was doing.

"Did you hear that?" the man's voice called to his lady friend over the rush of the storm. "I think something... I'm not sure." Well I, for one, was pretty sure he was going to hear my damn heart beating easily enough if he came back inside, the traitorous organ pounding like a hammer in my chest.

_'Oh crap, crap, crap...' _Two Huntsmen, two _ATLESIAN_ Huntsmen... Well, I'd maybe have a second or two to fix my hair before these two noticed my weapons and lack of reason being there. _'Might as well leave a handsome lookin' corpse. Here's to hopin' they'll at least not touch the face...'_

Strange, my mind had already all but given up, and was currently imagining the various gruesome ways I might meet my end, if Red's scythe or Blondie's gauntlets were anything standard. My body, however, seemed keen on moving on its own, hand surely but slowly going to one of the small pouches around my chest, traps and tricks mostly, but they at least might be something to throw them off...

He was turning around, muttering something under his breath I couldn't quite catch, when, thankfully and mercifully, Braun spoke up from outside. "You feeling this storm!? Something must've just come a bit loose! Now hurry up! The enemy's still close!" He'd convinced her, made her want to get this over with, and I'd rarely been so thankful for anything in my short life as the Huntsman. He gave one last look around the rattling car, before the door closed again, leaving me with only the beautiful sound of the train rumbling underneath, and my own heavy breathing for company.

"That... Ha... That doesn't... Hoo... Fuckin' count." I grinned between gulps, telling whatever gods of luck and fortune there were to collectively suck it after that little scare, resolving to have the biggest drink I could find after all of this was over. With one last exhale, I slipped through the door they...

I froze suddenly, with my hand millimeters from the control panel that stood as the only thing between me and our mission's first target. A cold chill ran its way down my spine; it was something I'd learn to trust over the years. But I couldn't let it stop me. Not now. Hell, I already knew this was stupid.

_'Calm down, damn it. Its nerve. I can't afford to choke now.'_ I had no idea how Sienna might've been faring, but judging by the state of the guards I'd slipped past on their way to the rear cars, she'd have her hands full keeping them busy. '_If she isn't dead already... **No!** Focus and do your job!'_

Prying the metal casing away from the door, I stuck a metal hand into the sprawl of wires to clutch at a pair towards the back with a bit of effort. _'Almost there...'_

I pulled back with a sharp tug. A quick spark and a flash later had the door opening, as the system entered emergency settings for crew evacuation.

_'Yes! Still got it!_'

I grinned to myself, shaking out the appendage with a shrug of the bionic shoulder while scanning the cargo laden room quickly for any signs of danger. I was relieved to know that, whatever my fellow Huntress was doing, it had warranted drawing what live security personnel that had been guarding the car away, including the Huntsmen. However, the Specialist had mentioned there being guards in the car. If that was the case, the guards they had mentioned had to be...

**"INTRUDER! IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"**

_'Droids! Called it!'_

I drew _Glory's_ hidden pistol from the stock and took aim. Four bulky AKs stalked out from the sides of the room, sporting a lot more armor than I was used to seeing on these things, as well as flashy compact rifles in human-like appendages.

_'Ah, right. New models... Welp.'_ Not a problem, just a costlier bill for the SDC to pick up, in my book, which was more than enough to put a swagger in my step.

**"ANY ACT OF AGRESSION WILL BE MET WITH RETALIATION... COMPLIANCE REQUESTED."**

The lead one held up a hand in a pre-programmed attempt to dissuade me, and received a Dust-propelled slug to the face for its effort, teetering back to the floor, while missing three quarters of its head, with a dull metallic thud throwing sparks over its mates.

"Benjamin Carson. A pleasure," I winked, leaping into action before their targeting systems could even register what had happened.

These droids were definitely an improvement over the older models. They actually managed to almost follow me with their weapons before I took them apart with a flurry of single shots to the vital systems.

Still, I couldn't help feeling a bit guilty with how easy it was... At least until one of them actually managed to smack me across the back with the butte of its rifle, and I paid it back in kind with a bionic fist through the chest plate, gripping a heart-like battery in hand, before crushing it brutally like an egg.

_'Thanks, Red. I owe ya big time.'_

Within a few minutes, I stood shaking out my arm over the sparking remains of the still-twitching droids, twirling my pistol in hand, before slipping it back to its compartment on _Glory's_ butte.

Whistling a jaunty Badlands tune, I set myself to the task of locating my prize, frowning slightly as I found what must've been the take: a large metal suitcase, which was locked electronically, and belted down in a secured corner of the room. Easy enough to rip off at this point.

_'All this for a stupid battery... **Bullshit,**'_ I thought in annoyance, hefting the thing up into the crook of my arm. Thing was heavier than it looked, even for the bionic replacement, putting an uncomfortable pull on my shoulder where metal met flesh.

Still, it wasn't as if I had much choice, however. Reika's life and others depended on this... Whatever the hell it was, though, I couldn't help the fact that I was actually tempted to sneak a peek, regardless of whatever Hand orders had been to the contrary. So distracted was I, that I missed the telltale sound of a door sliding open behind me, a familiar voice calling out in wary surprise.

"Ben?... _What the hell are you doing here!?_"

My whole body stiffened where I stood, like a child caught in the act, eyes darting over my shoulder to see Psycho standing there in the doorway, outlined by rushing flurries of sand and debris, _Storm Circuit_clutched loosely at his side, and one of his knives ready in his hand. He stared at me as if I had to be some sort of sick joke.

The Huntsman-in-training was a lot of things: stubborn, brave, and even a bit over-protective. But one thing he certainly was not was an idiot, despite what his partner might've said to the contrary. He noted the case I held, his face immediately hardening into a determined, if still angry scowl.

"...Tell me this isn't what it looks like... _Please,_ man..."

"This isn't what it looks like," I shot back hopefully, giving him a rueful smile and a tired shrug, though it didn't seem to help matters. "Sorry, but my hands are tied, Boss. I need you to trust me on this one..."

"First, you take off with your partner, and go dark the night before our mission even officially starts. Then, you show up at the same time as a Red Hand raiding party, which happens to be trying to capture the very thing you're holding." He took a few steps forward, my body flinching back on instinct over the kind of presence the Huntsman was exuding, and not just by size alone. "You wouldn't join them; you're not the type..." The muscles in his wrist twitched, but I could still see his hand shaking slightly. Not that I could blame him. I was personally feeling guilty enough as it was. "...This have something to do with why Reika's not with you right now?"

I nodded with a sad smile. "I wound up havin' a fight with Dad soon after we all supposedly went to bed, and I ran off. Rei followed after me, and tried her best to keep me outta trouble, just like she always has..." The memory of me arguing with her, what I said without thinking... It still rankled... "We were arguin' on our way out of some bar, when we managed stumble onto some Red Hand get-together, Trapper and everythin'. Ran into some creep named Vergil." Joel's face paled, but I kept on going, hating how pleading my voice sounded. "Last thing I remember is the guy takin' her down hard, before wakin' up as part of some crazy plan to rob the train, with, you guessed it, Reika as an incentive... She _dies_ if I muck this up, Boss. Let me do this. For her at least, if not for me."

"...Did they even tell you what's in that case?... What's _really_ in there?" he said slowly, gaze falling on the case yet again as he moved a step closer. "Ben, the Atlesians lied..."

"No shit. Don't know a great too many Atlesians who don't, if it benefits them... 'Cept for maybe the Princess," I chuckled, holding up the case while examining it for a few seconds thoughtfully. "What I do know, however, is that whatever's in here's my ticket to keepin' my best friend alive... So how's this gonna go?..."

The big guy was gritting his teeth hard, but I could tell at a glance what his answer would be... I knew him too well. "...I'm sorry about Reika, Ben... I really am... But I _can't_ let that thing fall into their hands. Not for her; not for either of you..." He made to take another step, but paused as the hand I held my pistol in shot upward in an instant, eyes set and arm steady, aimed right for his silver-clad chest.

"Ya know... I still remember you tellin' me never to pull a gun on you again," I told him calmly. "All those months ago, after we first met, when you told me we were good..." That was definitely a plea, an unspoken wish to put this off. To potentially avoid it all together.

_'Please, Joel... Don't make me do this.'_

"Don't make this difficult, Ben. _Please._" The knife vanished in his hand, at least, with a deft flick of his wrist that I missed. No idea how he managed to make the move look so effortless. "Last chance..."

_'Of course. Just my luck.' _Right at the end, too. Guess I should've been more grateful.

"You realize who you're talkin' to, right?" I cocked my head as I used two fingers to pull my goggles down over my eyes, the reads instantly coming to life.

We both laughed then, though it was weak and forced. Our laughter soon faded, only to be replaced by the low rumble of the train clattering on incessantly. I couldn't tell you what unspoken or unheard signal spurred us into motion after that, but we both moved at the same instant, my friend sprinting forward with his staff held behind him, while at the same time I raised my weapon, Semblance slowing the sorrowful moment to a crawl.

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Robert Lancaster - Chuck Huber

Mariel Braun - Rachel Robinson

Ansel "Hans" Kelly - Robert McCollum

**_A/N: Hey all really sorry about the long delays with my stories, schools back in session and seeing as it's my last the work just seems to be piling up. Exciting and scary times especially seeing as I just moved into a new apartment and my WiFis been almost nonexistent along with a host of other small issues, ironically the largest of which being ants, so I haven't been able to get as much done as I might've wanted. I'll try my best to get a schedule going but until things improve the time between chapters will likely increase. Not giving up though so no worries on that! Thanks all for reading and never be afraid to leave reviews or voice comments cause all in all they make the story better._**

**_EDIT: Thanks to Da-Awesom-One for the heads up letting me know about some format issues with the chapter._**


	36. Chapter 36

**Edited as of: (11/6/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

MISSED CALL

**_-Mariel Braun-_**

"So you think the stories about Trappers are true!?" Kelly shouted over his shoulder as we made our way through the sandstorm, his voice muffled as he covered his face to avoid the worst of it. "They say they bathe in the blood of their enemies; that they're former Huntsmen gone rogue! _Ha!_"

I just picked up the pace. The storm was so fierce, it had actually started to hurt after just a few seconds, at least enough that we'd had to bump up our Aura's barrier, in any case, and was more than capable of scouring the bones off of an untrained Human.

_'What sort of insanity would sway people into actually **wanting** to live out here!?'_

"Will you just get that door open!?" The broad-shouldered man shrugged to himself, shooting me a devilish grin as he keyed open the door with a hiss. "And pay attention; keep your guard up!" He gave me another tiny smirk, the same he'd had back when we were still Team ALMD years back in Atlas. The same that always seemed to win me over in the end.

"We're trained Specialists, handpicked by Ironwood himself for this mission! If anything, the Trappers, or whatever the hell's back here, should have _their_ guards up!" He clapped his fists together with a small pulse of Aura that made me roll my eyes as I followed him inside, thankful for the short reprieve from the weather.

_'Still, would a little paranoia on his part really hurt?'_

His words did fill me with a certain confidence; the sort one would expect with the record we had. Be it Grimm, White Fang, or Red Hand, we were more than capable of taking on anything that came our way, and coming out ahead.

It was then I realized, at the same moment he did, the state of the car we found ourselves in. Trained reflexes and survival instinct rushed to the forefront as pistols leapt into my hands from the lining of my sleeves, my eyes scanning the space for the slightest sign of movement, while Kelly's arms were wrapped in a fierce orange light that burned like fire, and had his hair crackling like flames with barely-contained energy.

The cabin itself, a living quarter for off-duty crew, judging by the bunks, was now more charnel house than place of rest. Sheets, and even some bunk frames were rent and scattered about, as if the storm had somehow bypassed the thick steel walls and torn apart the inside. The crew and some soldiers, or more accurately what was left of them, were similarly strewn about, broken, and, in many cases, charred, blood coating the walls and even parts of the ceiling.

"Bastards..." Kelly breathed low and measured, stepping further into the room, examining the body of a slain Atlesian, the youth's face a mask of horrified shock and pain as he clutched at his bleeding chest even in death. "This wasn't the work of a soldier. This... This is _Grimm-worthy._"

I could only nod my head in agreement, fearing I might vomit from the smell, even with my higher than average constitution. They certainly hadn't died well. They were likely taken by surprise. Even the guards and their drones, if a sparking AK-200 unit's head was any evidence. It had been fast...

A sudden intake of breath had me rounding in an instant, staring down my sights surprised at the quivering figure. A girl with long dark hair, which hung wildly about her face, clad in the baggy coveralls of an engine tech, which I noticed, even in the red light of the alarms, were covered literally in blood. "P-please..." she raised similarly blood-covered hands to shield herself, voice barely above a squeaking whimper. "Please d-don't hurt me! I-I..." She dissolved into sobs, flinching away as I took a step forward, only to pause, Kelly's hands on my weapons.

"Mari, calm down; you're scaring her," he said firmly, relaxing his Aura as he approached. The woman cowered away from him, muttering apologies again and again, only seeming to relax when the energy about his arms faded, and he knelt down in front of her. "It's alright. We're Huntsmen; we're here to help. Are you hurt?"

Ansel always was the more empathetic of the two of us, knowing how to keep people calm in a crisis. It was one of his more endearing qualities. He genuinely cared. It's what had made him a good Huntsman, and had served him even more during his time as a Specialist. I busied myself with something slightly more useful, searching the car for any signs of who, or what, had done this.

"N-no... It all happened so fast. Grayson was at the door, and suddenly he... He...!" She broke down into his chest, shocking him with the sudden contact as he tried meekly to respond, glancing my way for aid. "I just... I-I just...!"

"Um... There, there. It's alright. You're safe now."

"Please... P-please..." She was hugging him closer now, like a child to a parent. The poor thing.

He patted her on the back awkwardly as he tried to look suitably heroic. I couldn't blame him. The girl was beautiful, if a bit on the young side, barely out of her teens. She looked like a student, really. There was also something... almost disarming about her. I couldn't quite explain it. How had she...?

The Scroll at my hip blinked with an abrupt whirring, my heart skipping a beat as I compressed and slid one of my pistols back up my sleeve, and practically tore the device off my belt in my haste to check the alarm I'd rigged, just in case the enemy managed to slip by us, or worse, managed to fight their way from the front. According to the Scroll, the droids were in combat, and losing badly.

"Kelly, bring the girl if you can get her moving, but we need to... Kelly?" I turned, surprised to find that the girl had vanished from sight, as if she'd never been there. Kelly was still on his knees, head slumped forward. "Hey, Kelly... Ansel, _talk_ to me! Where'd she...!?"

In horror, I recoiled as my partner slumped forward, revealing an expression of stunned disbelief, staring sightlessly above a new red smile carved across his throat, his front coated in his own blood. The emotional part of me was screaming, tears already running down my face, as a man I'd loved since I was seventeen lay on the floor in front of me. Dead.

The rational part, however, the one tempered and forged by years of brutal experience, had my pistol back in hand before the dropped Scroll had even hit the floor, eyes scanning the immediate space, teeth clenched painfully.

"P-please... Please _die_ for me." I spun with all the speed my Aura could afford me, firing off a handful of heavy shells in the direction of the sound, before something embedded itself in one of the mattresses I'd just filled with holes, letting loose a strobing glow more potent than a dozen suns, searing my retinas. I reeled, and suddenly she was there, covered in Hans' blood and vitae, all with a feral grin on her face. Like a predator leaping atop its prey, primed for the kill.

I brought a hand up, trying to focus through the pulsing pain, yet unable to get a clear shot. She weaved a hand towards the barrel, pushing the weapon aside to fire harmlessly into the ceiling, before grabbing my arm. Pain coursed through the limb beneath her grip, her fingers many times stronger than their delicate appearance suggested. The pistol clattered to the floor from numb fingers, before the girl stabbed into my side with a shuriken. My Aura was unable to focus properly, as the shock of Kelly's death, and the sudden searing pain in my swiftly-numbing arm, took their toll.

I wasn't out yet, however. Not by a long shot. I kicked her away fiercely to the floor, bringing other my weapon up to paste the little witch's skull to the wall, along with the others, I now realized, she must've killed.

_'A trap!?... Hans dies to a damned **TRAP!?**'_

My finger tightened around the trigger, so close to victory. But suddenly, I was assaulted with something completely unexpected. Sympathy... Concern for the individual in front of me, the malice I'd sensed gone, only to be replaced by the terrified girl we'd seen before, as if the two were totally separate of one another. It only gave me pause for but a moment, though, sadly, that was all she needed.

With one last pitiless smile, the girl pulsed with what could only have been Aura, and my side exploded, both literally and figuratively. The small bladed weapon she'd stabbed me with moments before detonated, destroying much of my chest and midsection in the process.

The pain was short lived, thankfully, my nerves already dulling as I lost whatever sensation I had beneath my neck, reducing the excruciating experience to a dull, if constant ache in seconds. Nothing worked right; I couldn't feel my body, like a puppet with its stings cut, though I could still sense something draining... My consciousness dimmed with each passing moment...

I didn't watch as she picked herself off the floor, and plucked up my discarded Scroll with a short "tsk," as the screen was covered in the blood on her hands... I didn't hear her laugh, as "Carson did his job..." No... I just stared into Kelly's face, feeling more afraid than I ever had in my life...

Soon... I wouldn't feel much of anything at all...

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

I've witnessed Joel Ambrose in combat dozens of times before. In training, on assignments against the beasties, and more than a few of his sparing matches with Max. And when they often happened, I always placed a safe bet on him coming out ahead.

All in all, I should probably have a good read of him, especially considering the fact that, at one point, I still thought he might turn on us, and had done my best to learn all I could about his direct fighting style.

_'Yeah, right...'_

I grimaced swiftly, ducking to one knee to avoid a spinning swing from Psycho's weapon, feeling the rush of air as its blade passed mere millimeters above my hair, only to have roll back to avoid an outstretched palm strike that could've ended the fight right there, sparks flitting across its surface.

I'd seen him fight, yes... But _watching_ him go through the motions, and actually _facing_ up against the white-haired bastard were completely different things entirely. A fact that had become abundantly clear the second after this fight had begun.

_'Guy's a damn monster!'_

My sides, arm, and the left side of my jaw were already numb just from a few grazing blows, the man's _Conduction_ meaning every hit like a stun gun, on top of everything else from bruises, to what felt like pulled muscles. I threw myself to the side to avoid a back swing that grazed my Aura by a hair's length, hand pulling a glass vial from one of the pouches at my belt, and tossing it to the floor at his feet, the container shattering in a sudden cloud of billowing, purple, foul-smelling smoke that filled the cabin in an instant, much to the Huntsman's alarmed cursing.

_'But I got my share of tricks, too!'_

The concoction was an old Badlands blend for the momentary quick getaway. It was moderately effective against Grimm, though too disruptive for anything but a fully-coordinated team capable of navigating it.

Keying my goggles to heat tracking, I clenched my teeth, the former Trapper showing up clear as day in a haze of red, hunched over while coughing into his palm as his head twitched about wildly. Sidestepping from my original position as softly as I could, I raised my pistol reluctantly towards his legs, finger on the trigger, and...

_'**SHIT!**'_

I don't know if it was the rustle of my poncho, or the short exhale of breath as I fired that gave me away, but the Huntsman's head twisted towards my direction the instant I pulled the trigger, jerking to the side, forcing a clean miss that cratered the side of the crate.

_'Are you **serious!?**'_

Placing my incredulity aside, I fired again and again, his staff almost seeming alive as it spun in his hands, and weaved to deflect whatever shots the guy wasn't avoiding himself, all the while he charged at me, intent on closing the distance where he would hold the advantage. Something I _wasn't_ about to let happen. Not if I could help it, anyway.

Really, the only three things that were keeping me in the game past the first minute was the fact that, despite his earlier words, the big guy hadn't been fighting all out. _'He's kept the knives away, at least...'_Another reason was that I had way better eyes, my _Draw_ giving me just enough time to read my opponent before he could move, and respond to it in kind.

_'Problem is...' _I rolled out of the way of a falling staff, squeezing off a few shots before he was on me again. _'I'm havin' trouble keepin' it up.'_

Slowing things down like this was hard enough, just to squeeze off a single perfect shot. Using it repeatedly in bursts like this was taxing on a whole different level, while Ambrose didn't even seem fazed.

_'Just put me a few thousand yards away, and we'll see how this plays ou...!' _The Huntsman paused mid-strike, leaping back, before raising a bladed edge towards me. _'Oh crap!' _I pushed my Aura to the limit, forcing my head to the side to avoid the blade shooting forth from the staff like a silvery bullet, watching as the blade pierced the far wall of the car, trailing a long silvery wire behind it. That was _way_ too close.

Then I realized the wire had gone taut... "Give me a _friggin' break!_"

I looked back to see the Huntsman sliding fast towards me, dragged along by the rapidly retracting line. I tried to bring my weapon up, but I couldn't get a clear shot, the large man barreling into me with a high-speed clothesline that put me on the metallic floor gasping for air, and my head pounding.

Next thing I knew, I had a bladed point digging into my throat, and a tall shadow standing over me. "Just stop this already, Ben!" Psycho ordered, digging his foot into my chest even harder. "We don't need to do this!"

"T-then _don't!_ Just back off, and let me take the damn thing!" Ambrose spared a glance towards the large briefcase that I'd been forced to drop after a few seconds, along with the main body of my weapon if I was to have a hope of winning in mobility. "Reika's life depends on it! Doesn't that _mean_ anything to you!?"

"_Of course,_ it does!" he shouted back angrily, his hand gripping his weapon just a bit tighter. "But you told me that the Red Hand, specifically a Trapper named Vergil, put you up to this with her as bait! But I know him. I can tell you now that if you don't succeed, Reika _MIGHT_ be harmed, but not if she has a use to him! On the other hand, I know for a fact that if Vergil, and those like him, get their hands on this, people _WILL_ die! Probably by the thousands, if not _TENS_ of thousands!" He said through gritted teeth. "I can't weigh all of those lives against hers!"

"And what if it was Blondie held captive, huh!? Or your brother!? What would you do then!?" I countered, making him hesitate slightly, and lose focus just long enough for me to take my chance. Grabbing the staff in my artificial arm, I forced it to the side and yanked, pulling him down with it as he tried to hold on, while my other arm raised the pistol in my hand.

Joel was damn good, and in any normal fight at this range, he would've had me dead to rights. But one fact still remained that played to my advantage.

'_I was much better at fightin' dirty..._'

He saw the move coming, of course, already letting go of the weapon, and knocking the pistol away from his face. _Exactly_ how I wanted him to, the weapon now right next to his ear. "Sorry 'bout this, Boss. I really am," I apologized, even as I squeezed the trigger, and fired one off inches from his head with a crack. The Trapper let out a pained cry, stumbling back while clutching at his ear.

Tossing his _Storm Circuit _away, I scrambled towards a patch of railing designed to keep some of the large boxes in place, tearing away a long pipe with one augmented pull, and tossing it into my fleshy hand.

_'Hollow... **Perfect...**'_

Joel recovered faster than I expected, making a run for his weapon, but doubled over again as I slammed the bar down hard on my metal limb, a keening wail vibrating throughout the space from the contact, and had him writhing around groaning.

"Like I said, sorry," I repeated, dashing forward before my teammate could find his bearings, using my metal appendage to knock him aside like a rag doll with Aura-enhanced strength. The former Trapper grunted as he slammed up against the wall, flinching as I brought the impromptu bell toll down against a large pipe next to me with a deafening clang.

"Asshole..." Joel spat a glob of blood from his mouth and clutched at his skull, shaking his head out as the sound disoriented him. "_THAT HURTS, DAMN IT!_" His hand shot up, my Semblance the only thing that allowed me to knock away the knife sailing for my throat with a burst of Aura that almost put me on the ground from exhaustion.

In that short time, the former Trapper had already bounced off the wall and was on top of me, avoiding my awkward swing easily, blue eyes flashing as he brought a bone shifting haymaker crashing into my side like a hammer, that made me drop pipe and pistol both. My Aura flared up in an attempt to divert the worst of the electricity, though it still felt as though every nerve in my body was on fire.

Two more punches to the pressure points in my leg and tendon, and I felt my knees begin to buckle. Stumbling forward, I tried to push him away, but the white-haired Huntsman shook out his head, stepping back of his own accord. "W... W-where'd you learn about that little trick?" he asked, swaying somewhat with a small smile on his face.

"Goodwitch's class, when that Mercury kid put ya on your ass..." I laughed. Even that little action made me want to vomit, my arm's fingers jerking as my flagging Aura tried to compensate. "Should've remembered it also makes you go all kill mode... My bad."

"It gets points for ingenuity, certainly, using your arm like that. You really _are_ a clever one, aren't you?" a light voice crooned softly from behind me. Looking around, I saw Sienna stepping from the shadows, red hair disheveled, and light green eyes glinting in the fluorescent lighting of the car, juggling the head of one of the newer drone models between her hands deftly. "I, for one, am _very_ impressed."

Even from a few dozen feet away, I could easily tell she just felt... _different_, somehow. Rather than comforted at seeing her okay, my heart was pounding ice water into my veins. Something was wrong._Dreadfully_ wrong.

"Sienna?... What're you...?"

She stepped further into the light, bringing the dark red stains dotting her clothes, which weren't the ones she had when we got here, I might add, into stark relief, even as she tossed the head aside, picking up Psycho's weapon to examine it in her hands. Her _bloodstained_ hands...

"You're...!" My breath caught in my throat. The blood... It wasn't hers. _None of it was._ "You're... What's goin' on?" She ignored me, striding forward until she was beside me, mouth curved in the same smile I'd seen when I was consoling her. But this one was still different, this one darker and so terrifyingly cold. The eyes that had been so afraid now were sharp and focused, like a predator, and fixed on...

I glanced at Joel, who stood staring at the young Huntress in a mixture of disbelief, sadness, and... _fear?_ _'Not just fear... The guy's **terrified!**'_

"Hey, Joel!..." she purred, like the name was velvet on her tongue, her smile widening at the sweat dripping down his face, as cool green met uncertain blue. "Been a while, hasn't it? At least a whole year, right?"

"...Liz..."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"_Gah!_ Stop running so I can hit you, already!" I shouted in frustrated anger as my axe passed through thin air yet again, narrowly avoided by the slippery asshole, who was darting around the room like a fly that wouldn't just let you squish it. My axe suddenly felt weightless as I brought it around to block the broad-headed arrow flying towards the small of my back.

**"Would _anyone_ in their right mind actually listen to that!?"** he called back snidely, eyes narrowing as he fired off two arrows at once. One deflected harmlessly off of _Cerberus' _blade, while the other tore a gash in my leg. **"Why don't you just be a good dog, and _play dead!?_"** My resulting cry blasted him off his feet with the force of a small semi-truck, putting him on the ground in a bedraggled heap, stunned as what appeared to be the very air itself was fighting him. **"W... W-what the hell are you, you monster!?"**

I threw the axe in reply, the blade likely hitting home, if it hadn't been for a sudden, jerking motion of the train that threw me off balance.

_'What the!? We're speeding up!?"_

**"Thanks for the save, commander."** Robert, or Arrow Bitch in my mind, got to his feet, with a shit-eating grin likely plastered behind that mask, judging by his visible eyes, that faded as quickly as it had come. **"...You drew Ambrose and that one-armed blonde rat to the cargo cabin!? But that's where...! You promised me a shot at the traitor, Vergil! A very _personal_ shot! That _wasn't_ the deal!"**

_'One-armed blonde?... Carson's **here!?**'_

And judging by how this guy was talking, he was wrapped up in all of this, same as the rest of us. I cut him off as he stared wide-eyed at my axe flying to my hand, gripping the handle so tightly, I could hear the metal start giving way, threatening to snap entirely.

"What do you mean by that!?"

**"W-what do you... It matters little, but that bastard killed my brother, and I want my...!"**

"Not _that!_ I couldn't give less of a shit about whatever pissing contest you have going on with my partner! I want to know why it's so important he and Carson are in the cargo cabin! _Answer me!_"

Unfortunately, it seemed my little rant had only pissed him off further, as well as the laughter I could only just hear over his earpiece, yellow eyes blazing as he drew back his bowstring, three red, Dust-tipped arrows in hand.

**"You degenerate scum! _DIE!_"** he screamed loudly enough to bruise my eardrums, firing with the intent to kill... and freezing as the arrows hovered in place a foot away from him, before dropping harmlessly to the ground. At least I thought they did, before they exploded, sending the Trapper flying back to hit the wall with a crash, slumping to the floor stunned, or unconscious, with what was definitely a busted leg.

_'What else did he expect? Compared to blocking that Paladin, catching a few piddily arrows is child's play... Should try and figure out the mix for those arrows, though. That blast was impressive.' _I thought triumphantly, before remembering the wounded cat in the corner, now a lot paler, with his head hanging limply to the side. _'Crap, Bastet!'_

"Oi! Wakey, wakey, c'mon!" I was at his side in an instant, bending down to slap at his face, relieved to hear him cough weakly, his eyes opening slowly. "That's it! You're gonna be okay now." I called out over my shoulder, trying to get the soldiers I'd left behind's attention. "Hey, we got wounded in here!"

"D-doesn't feel okay..." he wheezed, a weak grin on his face, before moving a hand to his side. "Your bedside manner sucks a bi... _Ah!_"

"Try not to move too much, but keep pressure on it," I ordered sternly, trying to draw on what limited medical training I had to see what I could do. My specialty was not exactly stopping pain. The arrow had pierced his side, but thankfully it didn't look like it had hit anything too vital, at least. The bleeding looked to have either stopped, or slowed.

'_Which is good, right? Bleeding's generally bad, I think. Maybe... Damn it.'_

"This'll hurt a bit, sorry." I fought down the shivering impulse as I tipped him forward to check his back, the Faunus grunting in pain at the sudden motion.

_'C'mon, get a hold of yourself, Maxine!'_

A blood-covered arrowhead was sticking out somewhat, but seemed to be blocking the worst of the bleeding, and seemed whole enough. No shards, then, at least none that I could see. "Okay, I'm no doctor..."

"R-really? Never would've guessed." He paled even more at the glare, muttering a rushed apology before I continued.

"Like I was saying, I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure things will only get worse if I try and take it out. Still, you should have a decent shot of making it, at least."

"Yea- _Ah!_... Maybe... Maybe I'll leave that call to the medic... But I-I appreciate the diagnosis..." He coughed lightly, glancing forlornly at his not-so-lucky crewmates. "I better be making hazard pay for this mess... What happened to the Trapper? He dead?"

"Not so much, animal... But her friends definitely are_ going to be_ soon, if not already... Just need them distracted for just a bit longer..." a low voice called from the other end of the room, the Trapper having torn of his mask to glare menacingly at the two of us. "Would've preferred putting him down _myself,_ but as long as he goes, I guess I can learn to live with it."

"What're you...!?" I started, getting to my feet, axe in hand, just in case this guy was going to somehow stay in the fight, but it seemed he was good and stuck. The mad smile didn't leave his face, though.

"Better get back there soon, if you want to catch one last glimpse. _'Cause you aren't seeing either of your mates again, dog!_"

I snapped, the next few minutes a flurry of screams and pain that left the man on the ground whimpering loudly, and me rushing out as soon as the medics arrived, pushing my Aura to the limit in an attempt to reach those idiots in time.

_'It's a trap! It was **always** a trap!'_

The mission had had three major objectives, according to what Lancaster had been told.

_1\. Obtain the prototype using the subject acquired the night before, while using his friend as leverage. Scuttle the train's cargo car._

_2\. Subdue and abduct Faraday. Unharmed, if at all possible._

_3\. Kill the traitor Joel Ambrose on sight._

"_Shit!_" I snarled, barreling through a pair of hapless soldiers too slow on the uptake. "_SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, **SHIT!**_"

I was in such a hurry, I didn't stay behind to see the smirk building across the little shit's bloody face as he pressed a small detonator in his sleeve.

"Gotcha..."

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

**(LOCATION UNKNOWN – Several Months Ago)**

_"Trapper Ambrose, take a left at the fork up ahead at the door on the immediate right," _an artificial-sounding voice called into the earpiece as I moved through the uniform, matte grey halls, doing my best to follow its directions. Rounding the corner, I found a pair of surprised White Fang guards in the door-lined corridor, accompanied by a larger bastard toting a big gun around on his hip. _"Eliminate targets properly before proceeding. Marking." S_mall red triangles appeared on my H.U.D, located on the chest of each contact directly overlaying their hearts. _"Proceed."_

**"_Really_ so glad you marked them for me!"** I grunted, dispatching the smaller two with a pair of knives, and a quick charge from my Semblance, even as I charged the big guy, who was still struggling with the strap of his gun, beady black eyes attempting to follow my weaving form.

_'Way too slow!'_

"_Happy to oblige, Trapper Ambrose," _Locke replied, the sarcasm tinging my voice lost upon the so called "intelligence," even as I swept the big Faunus' legs out from under him, silencing him with a quick stab from _Circuit _right to the marked heart, treated silver easily piercing the cheap armor he wore. _'Please proceed ahead on the highlighted route, post-haste_."

A yellow line marked out my path, leading behind a large metal door that a minor application of Aura let me kick off its hinges. The other side revealed another long corridor, along with an imposing, plate-armored form even bigger than the corpse behind me, hefting a massive hammer over his shoulders.

_'Crap...'_

"Greetings, Trapper..." He brought the weapon around, slamming the head to the ground with enough force to crack the concrete at his feet. "Are you ready to meet your death, as so many of your comrades have before you?"

**"Little overdramatic, aren't you?"** I mocked, taking a quick stock of my opponent, noticing the bloody head of the weapon he held, which likely pointed to why the 3rd Squad had gone dark a few minutes back. He was Boar, or a similar type of Faunus, judging by the tusks protruding from his Grimm-like helmet, and a full head taller than me, with enough bulk and metal to fill the hallway with ease, making my lean form almost childish in comparison.

_"It's strength of spirit that matters in a fight between Aura users; not strength of body. A bigger opponent just means more weight to throw around; weight to be exploited."_

Mom's old combat teachings rang sharply in my head, giving me small measures of relief, and hellish fury in turn. The lesson had taken place back before my growth spurt, when I was just a pipsqueak going up against those titans in sparring courses, the bigger lugs having taken a liking to throwing me around.

_'And still useful, even today.' _I grinned beneath the mask I wore, assuming a low stance with my staff held before me. _'Guy like this, must be some sort of big shot with all that fancy armor... Let's take him down a peg, shall we?'_

"You'll pay for your insolence with your life, Human!" He charged, thundering towards me with a speed that belied his armor's weight. Definitely an Aura user, then. Sprinting at him head on, I tossed a trio of knives his way, the sharpened silver bouncing harmlessly off his armor in a shower of sparks. "Hah! You'll need more than toothpicks like those to pierce my hide!" he bellowed, bringing his hammer around in a swing that would've taken my head off my shoulders if I'd been a second slower, which cratered the wall, sending shrapnel clattering off my Aura. "You're faster than you look! I like it!"

**"Like hearing yourself talk, huh!?"** I replied, compressing _Circuit _into its dual-edged knife form, sliding past him to strike at his hamstring, but found it was just as heavily armored.

_'New plan, then. Where's he got no armor?'_

I dodged another close swing, having to leap to avoid him crushing me with his bulk alone. I used the opening to dart behind him, and relied on my Aura to slam him face first into the wall with a monumental grunt of effort and straining muscle that surprised him, certainly.

His armor was full-bodied and spiked to keep my hands off, so my _Conduction_ was out the window, and only the joints lacked the protection. All targets in motion made my knives a bit of a problem, especially in close quarters like this.

**"Dead men shouldn't speak!"**

"Spirited! I like it!" He reached out, grabbing a fistful of my hood, before slamming me into the wall hard enough that I saw stars. I fell to my knees, coughing while he stood over me, weapon raised high in execution style. "But this is the end! _DIE!_"

I saw my chance, and took it with pleasure, curling up on a knee, and pushing outward, stabbing for his throat even as the staff extended outwards again, the blade piercing upwards through the small slit between helmet and gorget, and stabbing deep into the jugular. The giant let out a wet gurgle of pained surprise as he reached for the staff. His weapon fell with a loud thump, while his body was held up only by my own strength, though even with my Aura, the guy was a heavy bastard.

**"Told you,"** I whispered, modified voice sounding demonic even to my ears. Aura was a damn good armor when used right, but like any protection, it had its weak spots. Most included were the eyes, joints, and underneath the jaw, surprisingly enough.

Gripping my staff tightly, I let out a grunt of effort as I hefted the dead weight before me, peeking behind the body at the bulky door beyond. **"Alert the others that I've reached the central control room. Have them converge here."**

_"Most assuredly, Trapper Ambrose. Good luck."_

That synth voice was _way_ too cheery for this type of work. The nature of it being very bloody and frightening, at least for the uninitiated. The White Fang troops attempting to barricade themselves inside the room learned that all too well, when I crashed through, body in tow, flattening a pair of hapless guards where they stood with a squelch.

"_COMMANDER!_"

"Sir, no!... _NO!_"

"Kill him! Kill the Trapper! For the glory of the White Fang!"

I looked down at the body, even as the guards rallied themselves. I merely whistled to myself as they charged me with swords, and a host of other weapons in hand. _'Huh, so he was the one in charge?... Nice!' _I let out a vicious battle cry, dashing forward with my staff weaving and stabbing to and fro, knives flying with abandon, each finding their mark...

_"I can't do this anymore, Joel! **WE** can't do this anymore. Look what they've done to you! Think about what you're doing!"_

I closed her words out, faltering a step, and almost taking an axe to the gut for it. _'You don't need her. She rejected you, even though everything we've done was because of...!'_

At the corner of my vision, I saw my comrades enter the room at a full tilt. Vergil, a force of nature, carved any soldier that came too close to ribbons in moments, both swords in hand. Briar, meanwhile...

**"Having fun!?"** she laughed, flipping over one of the terminals, leaving two burned out troopers in her wake, as her hands shot forward again, taking two more down. They clutched at their throats, as she let loose her little throwing blades, her "Thorns."** "'Cause you better... Ambrose, watch your back!"**

I reacted a moment too slow, feeling the edge of a bladed weapon skate across my Aura, and thud across my back. My barrier held, but the blow still sent me forward with a cry of pain. Rage coursed through my system at the lapse, the mistake of getting distracted... Spinning around, I swung my weapon blindly in a wide arc with a snarl. The sudden warmth of something wet splashing against my mask, followed a pained cry, signaled an end to the unlucky fool that had thought to catch me off guard, all while another's hand scrabbled away at my shin, my boot square on his neck, before a sharp jerk put an end to his struggling.

The rest of the fight from there had been flurry of screams, steel, and blood, with the three of us alone left standing at the end... Well, Vergil and I were standing. Briar was perched on the side of a console, kicking her feet idly.

**"Hell of a party, this go around. Some of them even managed to put up a decent fight."**

**"Certainly bracing,"** Vergil added conversationally, almost as if he were commenting on the weather, and not the carnage. His faceless mask glanced my way as I stormed for the exit, sparks literally flying off me as I let my anger go.** "And special commendations to Joel, here, on taking the leader's hea...!"**

**"I _don't_ want to hear it!"**

**"Better leave him alone, man. Boy's probably just pissed that he let a no-name grunt sneak up on him... Or maybe he's still sore 'cause his little girlfriend dum... _Watch it!_"** She fell back to avoid the knife that sailed above her, by only an inch at that. She rolled into cover behind a terminal, as a shuriken ejected itself from her wrist guard, and formed in her hand. It was one of her Thorns, and an ice type at that, judging by the glowing white crystal present in the center. She glowed with a steadily shifting Aura. **"You want to go, Ambrose!? _Fine!_ Marigold isn't here to save your ass, this time!"**

**"_Bring it!_"** My hands went to my sides, Aura flaring as the world entered that sense of vibrancy yet again, ready to draw more knives, and finally spit the spiteful little...

**"Calm yourselves, _the both of you!_"** The field commander stepped between us, a sword raised to either side pointed at the two of us, his face front and center, though I was well aware that he was more than capable of keeping "eyes" on the both of us simultaneously. Judging by the uncomfortable prickling on the back of my neck, he most certainly was. **"We've won. There's no use fighting amongst ourselves, is there?"** That's when he turned to each of us, drawing on just enough Aura to sense, and make it clear that if we didn't stop, he would _make us_ stop.

_'Damn it...' _I stowed my weapons and let my Aura fade, the world feeling just a little bit darker. I glared at the other Trapper one last time, before marching from the room.

* * *

"C-congratulations on your mission, sir! Fun night ahead?" one of the braver recruits spoke up as I stalked past them in the hall while heading to the barracks, bottles in hand. He paled visibly when I looked back to face him, before his smarter fellows dragged him off, and muttering as if I couldn't hear them.

"Damn Trappers... Practically worse than the animals..."

"Inhuman, the lot of them."

"The hell were you thinking? That lot's twitchier than Grimm!"

I'd heard worse in my years since joining, though. thankfully, the mask or my height usually did a good job scaring them off. But of course, you always had the newbies, or the overconfident types who couldn't keep their mouths shut. According to Vergil, I was too lax with them, and needed to enforce more respect.

_"What would your parents think, Joel? We can't..." _I snarled loudly as Natalie's voice rang trough my skull, sending the trio scrambling away, probably thinking it was because of them.

Sighing, I lowered my hood and tore the mask off, taking the first breath of fresh non-filtered air I'd had in what felt like months. I took a long draft from one of my prizes, grimacing at the harsh taste, and how my stronger than average Aura immediately leapt to work on trying to burn away the edge.

_'This is gonna be a long night...'_

I ran a hand through my short-cut white hair as I moved through the base, earning my fair share of looks, either due to the bottle or how young I was. At least until they saw the mask hanging at my belt, and backed off. Being a Trapper was hard and dangerous work, but at least we had a few perks, including the power to clear some officer's barracks for some personal space.

_'Well... Not **officially.** But I'd love to see the guy that says no...' _I chuckled, the gallows humor quickly dying, as my back ached painfully. _'The hell is wrong with me?'_

I was almost back in the general emptiness of my room when I heard something echoing in the room across from mine... A sound I'd never thought I'd hear in a place like this, especially considering who that room belonged to. Crying - sobs so quiet, I probably would've missed them if my Aura wasn't acting up on its own - were being issued from Elizabeth Briar's quarters. Briar, the same girl who could torture smugglers and White Fang soldiers without blinking an eye. The one person that had dogged me throughout training, especially after the incident with...

"What do you... A-Ambrose?"

I finally came back to myself mid-knock on open air, surprised to find myself standing in front of a shocked, and confused-looking Briar. Her hair and face were damp, as if she'd just hopped out of the shower, though she probably just washed it in the sink to hide the stains and excuse her eyes. She was wearing little more than overlarge purple and black patterned shirt and short shorts, her armor and what little additions she'd added to it strewn about haphazardly around the space. Her mask lay next to the door, as if it had been thrown.

"Remnant to Ambrose! There any particular reason you're moping about on my doorstep!?" Unsurprisingly, her voice didn't shake at all, though I could tell by the slight red in her eyes I hadn't just been hearing things.

_'The masks we wear, huh?'_

Not having much mind to formulate a decent answer, I just held up the bottles, giving her a rueful look as I clicked them together. "Shame to drink alone, don't you think? Need the company?" She stared at them and then to me, mouth opening, before pursing into a thin line as she realized what had drawn me here, looking angrier at herself more than anything else.

"No... But it's not like I had much else to do tonight. And if you're offering..." She pulled me in by the lip of my chest plate, checking the hall as she did so, even as she slipped a drink from my hand,

_'Always was faster than me... At least Fortuna always said so, anyway...'_

* * *

"...And I've always wanted to know, if his Semblance really is as powerful as he says, does that mean the guy can see through clothes?" a red-faced Briar wondered aloud, tossing back an empty bottle to join the pile, apparently digging into her own stock tonight to keep the night going. It was an hours-long affair, spent complaining about assignments, superiors we didn't like, etc. "I mean, it's possible, right?" She glanced at her clothes nervously. "He could be watching me right now."

"Not sure if he can, or not. Hard to believe he'd spend time on it, though. He seems like the type that has better things to do," I chuckled, swishing around the contents of my glass.

"He doesn't _SEEM_ the type, but you see _that's_ how he gets you..." she joked, giving me a good shove that threatened to send me off the bunk when she saw me laughing. "Shut up! I'm seriously tempted to report his ass to the Commander. Even the thought's giving me the creeps."

"You're drunk."

"Nope, just delightfully buzzed." She fell back on the bed, kicking the air and giggling to herself.

I shrugged, tugging at the collar of the tank top undershirt I'd been wearing beneath my armor, having thrown the chest piece aside, and had the upper layer zipped down and hanging at my belt "Good luck with that. Let me know how it goes." She nodded, curling up so that her chin rested on her knees, hair littered around her face.

"...Y-you didn't have to do this, Joel," she murmured shakily, staring at the mask sitting across the room. "I didn't want your charity, or your pity."

"Wasn't offering much of either, but Marigold asked me to keep an eye of you for her, so that's what I'm doing." The young girl broke out into a fit of giggles, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "nosy bitch," before falling silent again. "So... You gonna fill me in, or do I have to guess?..."

"...It's Edward..." she said after a few moments, arms clutching at her knees a little bit tighter. "He made Trapper today... Passed his final test with flying colors, or that's what they're saying at least."

"Oh..." Damn. No wonder she was stressed; the girl had almost gone AWOL a few months back when she'd been informed her little brother had been accepted as a trainee. She'd been reprimanded, and his status pushed through regardless. But she'd never given up the hope that something might go wrong, and he'd be denied. _'Though considering his circumstances, that might've been too much to hope for.'_I shivered, a move that didn't go unnoticed by the other agent, her eyes narrowing. "I'm sorry."

"Idiots... He shouldn't be anywhere near combat, especially with a condition like his!" she growled venomously. "But instead of helping him, they're taking advantage of it!"

"...Have you tried appealing to the..." I closed my mouth before I could finish the dumb question. _Of course_ she'd appealed to the Commander on this. She was the one that brought Eddy's "issue" to them in the first place, looking for help.

"...I never wanted this life for him," she lamented, grabbing for another glass I'd just poured, downing the contents in one go, before trying to disappear into the folds of her shirt. "I joined up because it was the only way they'd risk taking him in. They said my abilities, once developed, would be uniquely useful to the organization. I.E., they just needed someone good at lying, but skilled enough to get out of a sticky situation."

"Well you have the lying bit down, at least..." I said, trying to steer the subject away from where it had fallen. "You managed to convince me you were this sad, little, in-over-your-head trainee that stumbled into the training, remember? Managed to fool me into using myself as bait for those traps, so you could pass with flying colors."

And earned me a nice gash across the thigh I still carried today.

She laughed into her knee, gazing mischievously at me. "That supposed to hurt? Can't help who I am, Ambrose, especially if it gets me far. At least I'm proud to admit it, unlike you."

"Beg pardon...?"

"One of the main reasons I hated your guts, even after you took me down in front of the instructor and almost got us all washed out, was the thought that you could be a real monster if you just slipped the leash she had on you. That you could be someone to admire as an equal."

"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow. "And what do you mean by _that,_ exactly?"

"Think about it, dumbass." She wrapped a fist on her head. "You say you joined up to avenge your parents, but it was really to keep Corbell out of trouble, wasn't it?" I stiffened as I sensed, rather than saw, her eyes on me, felt her Aura shift again to one of intimidation and control. She'd always been good at playing people. It was that, rather than just her own skills in a fight, that made her terrifying and dangerous. "Problem was, once you got a taste for blood, she saw the _real_ you. Wasn't so happy, then, was she? Little Natalie got scared of the big bad wolf in sheep's clothing."

"Shut up..." I spoke dangerously, but she wasn't intimidated. She never was. "I'm not just some killer that...!"

"Of course you are; we _all_ are!" she shouted back at me, crouched over me in an instant, having pushed me back, her finger pressed deeply and painfully into my chest. "Put whatever grand notion or goals you like to try and justify it like the others, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're some hero for justice, fighting to protect the weak innocents from the scary White Fang! Not after some of the shit we've pulled.

"So what do you suggest!?" I still had enough instinct to grab at her arm before she could pull back, flipping our positions. I managed to pin both arms to the mattress, feeling her words like physical punches to the gut as I leaned in close, my Aura sparking. "I get to be the villain in my own mind, while those monsters keep spouting off equality, while tormenting innocent people, and even other Faunus if they get in their way!? How is _that_ any better!?"

"Being the villain's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?" she said calmly, verdant eyes staring up at me. _Really_ looking at me. Even her Aura had settled into some measure of stability. It wasn't deceptively calming, or a trick. Just natural, truthful... And beautiful. "Believe what you want. As for me, I'm going to keep doing what I do best: lying and killing monsters just like the Huntsmen. Either until we make it so that Remnant doesn't need us anymore, or 'til they crack, and give us medals for saving them the trouble of doing it themselves. Whichever comes first."

She grinned, leaning upwards, molding her body to mine pulling me down with her, my heart pulsing in my ears with every ragged breath, as I felt her lips nip at my cheek playfully, moving steadily towards my ear.

I could stop this here, and push her away. Activate my Semblance, and pretend this night never happened. Go my own way... I didn't want it to stop.

"So... What are you going to do, Joel? You gonna _finally_ slip the leash?..."

* * *

**(Present Day)**

"_Ben, get away from her right now!_" I called to my teammate as she drew closer, pushing down the well of fear that rose up for later, even as my hand went for a knife, focusing on just how to get out of this.

_'Of course she'd be here; why wouldn't she!?' _It was unmistakable. Even though the disguise changed her appearance, not to mention annoying Semblance, I couldn't help but see her through it. _'Not like she was trying too hard to hide, anyway. A decent wig and different makeup. Just enough to fool Ben into going along with her.'_

"L-Liz?" the rogue stammered, backing away warily, having picked up on the atmosphere. "You two... You know each other? Sienna...?"

The fake redhead looked his way with an apologetic smile on her face that didn't fool anybody. "Right. I'm sorry we were never properly introduced, but I had to keep up appearances for the job. You understand, right?" Ben's eyes widened, looking to me, then back to her in shocked disbelief. "Plus, you looked like you were having _so_ much fun being the hero, I almost didn't want to have to break it to you. 'Oh please, Ben, won't you save my little sister? I can't do it without you! She must be so scared!'" she pleaded, her voice the same yet, completely different in tone, as everything about her changed down to how she felt, exactly like a mask. Even I felt a twinge at my heartstrings, and I was used to the act. "...Elizabeth Briar. Trapper agent, and _very_ close friend of your leader, over there..." She shot me a coy wink "Sorry to disappoint you, but you've played this game before, right? Nothing personal."

"Nothi_..._ _Nothin' personal!?_ I'll show you nothin', you littl...!" He brought his pistol to bear on her, but hesitated just a second as she smiled at him, just long enough for her to weave inside his guard, strip him of his weapon, and then toss him like a rag doll against the side of a heavy metal crate with a crash. "Damn it... You bi... _Ack!_" She silenced him with a harsh kick across the face, raising his own pistol to his skull as she turned to face me, watching the knife that had appeared in my hand.

"Uh, uh, uh... Put that away, or handsome here loses two of the few redeeming qualities he's got left," she threatened softly, smiling as I did as she asked, before pointing _Circuit _my way. "And the spare. The one in your glove; come on now." I frowned, tossing the spare aside reluctantly. _"And_ the other one."

_'Bitch!' _I internally screamed, as I did as she asked.

"There, see? Doesn't that feel better?"

"You have to listen to me!" I cried as she walked over to the metal case, kicking aside Ben's rifle, which eliciting a groan of anger from the blonde, before looking her prize over. "You want me dead, fine! Just get it over with!..."

"_Ambrose!_" the sniper gasped, but I trailed on, ignoring him. He made to stand, but the infiltrator made sure he sat back down with a shake of the pistol in her hand.

"But you have to know what'll happen if that thing leaves this train! How many people are going to die, especially if Vergil really _is_ the one behind all this! You can't honestly expect me to believe you're okay with that thing going off!?"

"Yeah I am, actually. And hopefully, it takes a lot of White Fang out when it does, and even more as we keep making them. Once the newbie gets off his ass, and fetches our doctor, that is..." She looped my weapon in her belt and bent down, struggling to pick up the case, before applying her Aura to the task. "They won't be able to ignore us, after we pop off a few of th...!"

A blast split the air, threatening to send us all off balance as the front half of the car buckled, an explosion separating us from the rest of the train, along with a few more towards the back. The train which slowly trundled on ahead, while we lost speed.

_'Crap!'_

"That... That idiot set them off!" she snarled angrily, before realizing I was already in motion, dropping the pistol as I jumped at her. Her wrist guard spat out a small circular throwing star with a Dust crystal inlaid inside, and tossed it, the weapon just grazing my Aura overhead as I ducked, leaving a great patch of ice as it exploded behind me.

Before I could get a good hold of her, however, she twisted away, just out of reach, and slammed the heavy case into my side with a blow that sent me further into the train, right next to Ben.

"It's too early! Fucking Lancaster..." she simmered, staggering to the large opening to peer back at the steadily retreating train, tearing at the wig and clips she wore to release her shoulder length, purple-dyed hair. "Aw well. Doesn't change much, I suppose."

I saw Ben shoot me a look, and I moved at the same time he did. I went for Liz, while he dove for his heavy rifle, which had slid off to the right of us in all the confusion.

Pushing myself to the limit, I ducked and weaved past her throws, the number of which was restricted due to her hand on the case. She was shocked, and more than a little impressed by the ones that were seemingly shot apart, or deflected away by covering fire in showers of flames and ice. My hands drifted to my waist, but I hesitated, hands straying from my knives. I was so close, I could see the momentary flash of fear in her eyes as I reached out, which followed shortly by the triumphant smile, my hand freezing over her heart at the sudden familiar cry of pain from behind me.

"You've gotten faster..." she whispered just loudly enough for me to hear amongst the chaos and rushing winds of the valley, the Bullheads flying above, and the train itself still roaring. "But not fast enough." I spared a quick glance over my shoulder, and caught my breath in my lungs at the sight of Ben bent over his rifle, clutching at one of her "Thorns" that lodged itself deeply in his thigh. A red crystal flashed at its center, even amongst the fast darkening stain.

_'Damn it!'_

"Back off and let me walk, and I swear I won't blow off another limb, and a bit extra besides." A quick curse sounded from the rogue, face paling at another flash from the weapon when he tried to pull it out.

"Try it. You have to know that if you do that, at this range, I won't hold back, and you won't be able to avoid me," I said, knowing the second the words left my mouth that they were hollow.

She knew that too, and didn't even bat an eye. "If you'd told me that a few months ago, I _might've_ actually believed you." She cocked her head to my hand with that sly grin I knew so well. "As things stand, however, I'm just not seeing it." My eye twitched angrily, and if anything, the smile only widened. "Besides, I don't think you're willing to test who's faster at drawing on their Aura... Or are you?"

"_Please..._" I said to her, face-to-face, her eyes staring back at mine defiantly. "Please don't do this... It doesn't have to be this way."

"You're right. It doesn't," she replied curtly, pushing herself forward so that my hand was physically over her heart now. "Come back with me... Back to the Hand. Even Vergil agrees you'd be an asset to us again. A bit of time and a mask would be all you'd need, too, until you could prove yourself again publicly to the rest."

"Right. After everything I've done? I seriously doubt it," I said sarcastically, pulling my hand away with a growl. "I didn't exactly leave on the best terms, not to mention everything that's happened since. Trappers attacking in broad daylight, involving civilians and hurting people. This mess..." I motioned to the case in her hand. "I can't be a part of it... Not anymore. I never should've in the first place. We're in the wrong, Liz!"

"You don't understand. Vergil's trying to change things, Joel. I mean really _change_ things! He and the Commander want to make being a Trapper something to be proud of. Help us use our talents to protect Remnant, in the ways only we can. Maybe we could even..." She faltered as I shook my head firmly. She laughed to herself shortly after, but there was little sign of mirth in her eyes. There was only anger, focus, and what almost seemed like regret. "...I heard about your new leash from our eyes and ears in Vale; the blonde." Her voice hardened to something akin to a snarl. "You have to know she won't she won't accept you in the end. Not when she sees what you really are: the Trapper."

"I know what I am, Liz... And so does she." I took another step back, gazing back at her sadly, my eyes almost giving her a pitying stare. "I'm a Huntsman-in-training at Beacon Academy. No more, no less. And I'm going to stop you. You, Vergil, Violette, and the rest of them. On my honor, I _swear_ on it."

"...If that's what you want to tell yourself!" She lashed out in an instantaneous flash of Aura, as a Thorn appeared in her hand, her finger crushing the delicate crystal within, before she struck outward with a flaming swipe at my throat.

I fell back with a grunt of pain, clutching at a searing burn that now marred the side of my now barren neck, staring blankly at the burned-out strip of the tracking collar clutched in her hand. The rest of it clattered lightly to the floor at my feet. A rappel line fell from outside the slowing train car, one that Briar wrapped her arm around firmly, giving me one last fleeting look.

"Just remember _this,_ Joel: I gave you a fair chance." And like that, she was gone, pulled away and out of sight, bomb in hand, leaving me alone, clutching at the side of the ravaged car.

I would've stood there staring at the retreating aircraft even longer, if a pained voice hadn't spoken up. "Psycho?"

I lurched out of my reverie, sprinting back to Ben, who by this point had managed to staunch the bleeding, at least. Thankfully, it seemed Briar had had better things on her mind then detonating the crystal. Or maybe she couldn't do it from this distance? Regardless, it was probably the luckiest break we'd gotten all day.

_'They took it; they took the bomb!' _I forced the thought from my head, Ben taking priority.

"Did she... What the hell just happened? Sienna...?"

"_Briar._" I corrected him, examining the leg. _'Good, it didn't clip an artery. Really lucky...' _"You just got duped, courtesy of the Red Hand. She got her hands on the prototype."

"Reika... They told me they'd let her go, if I... She seemed so... Fuck... _FUCK!_" His head slumped back, eyes screwed up in anger, aimed more at himself by the looks of it. "How could I've been so _stupid!?_" I gave him a sympathetic look, shouldering his rifle, before hauling Carson to his feet while acting as a support. "Damn it, Joel, I screwed up. I screwed up _big time!_"

"We can talk about it later. First, we have to get you back to the..." I paused, hearing the telltale whirring of Bullhead engines whirling above us, then off to the side... "_GET DOWN!_"

I pushed him back to the ground roughly, the rogue crying out in pain from his leg. It was, however, a far cry better than if he had stayed standing, as a flurry of Dust-tipped machine gun fire tore through the car, punching through steel like tissue paper, and tearing massive rents in the walls.

_'Of course they wouldn't leave the job half-done!' _I kicked myself mentally at the slip up, flinching back to avoid a round that bloomed in front of me. After a few seconds of sustained fire, the shooting ceased. The two of us coughed weakly, raising our heads slowly from the pile of dust and shattered debris that had fallen on top of us.

"Maybe they left?..." Ben said hopefully, hopes that were crushed as the car shook around us. as deafening booms shook the train. Something, missiles most likely, smashed into what was undoubtedly the ridgeline beneath the track, that was all that held us from a _very_ long trip down. A terrifying sense of vertigo shot through me, as the car began tilt and lurch to the side. All the while, rubble the size of Ursa rained down from above, threatening to cave in, even through the reinforced roof of the train.

"Me and my big mouth..." I heard Carson whine.

I put what Aura I could spare to the limit, sparks pulsing across my limbs as I grabbed hold of the bandit's poncho, dragging him kicking and shouting with pain and surprise towards the edge, even as the tilt of the car became less of a feeling, and more of a reality. Crates and shattered boxes slid across the floor, almost crashing into us a half dozen times in the few seconds it took to get to the torn-out ledge...

We paused as I saw the Bullhead move above us, sending another volley of missiles that devastated the rock face above us, causing an avalanche of rubble sliding like a tidal wave towards our half of the train, at speeds impossible to escape in time.

"Well, fuck me, then," Ben muttered, looking up at the oncoming death in stunned disbelief, before turning to face me, face shifting stoically with a sigh and a shake of his head. "Son of a bitch..."

I didn't know what to do, stuck here as we were. My Aura was depleted, and I weaponless and injured... I'd been in rough patches before, but even at my direst moments, there had always been something I could do. An enemy I could fight; an obstacle to overcome...

A flashing reddish light emanating from the back of the far-flung train, a far-flung scream of heart-wrenching effort, and a fiery crash sounding from up above were the last things I registered, before the oncoming tide smashed into the back half of the train, sending it and the two of us hurtling over the edge of the ravine, and towards the cold rapids below.

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"_Back off!_" I shouted, slamming fist first into overeager Grimm number twenty-four. It that had just crushed one of those new droids, and I manged to get it before it could sink its jaws into a screaming woman clutching a small child, blasting it into the building next to us.

_'This is happening; this is actually happening!'_

I waved off the mother's thanks, saying something clever like "Just doing my job, ma'am..." or "All in a day's work..." I then told her to get to a shelter, or at least indoors, as fast as she could, before rushing off to the next place I heard screaming.

'_These things just don't let up!'_

That they hadn't. CFVY and Atlas' reinforcement had taken out a good majority of the Grimm coming out of, or congregating around the Breach, but a fair number had already managed to work their way further into Vale before they'd arrived.

_'God, this is for real! This is actually happening right now...!'_

The nightmares had pierced into the heart of Vale, and more and more would continue to come, until the opening Torchwick and the White Fang had made, the hole we should have stopped from ever happening, was sealed again.

_'If I'd beaten that smiling, little... Could I have stopped this!?'_

I wonder if this is what Joel and the others that lived outside the Kingdoms had to deal with, the constant threat of Grimm at your doorstep.

_'And then there was that woman in red...'_

No. I couldn't dwell on it now. Not on that, what we could've done better, or what was already too late to change. Instead, I had to focus on dealing with the problem at hand. Like crushing that Beowolf's skull, for instance, before it could call to its fellows in the downtown districts.

_'And that makes twenty-five!'_ The number helped me focus, kept my mind off of everything else that could possibly be going wrong.

I'd just finished mopping up the last of the pack, when I heard that characteristic hiss, the shifting of scales on earth, and saw the dark shadow that fell across me, as an enormous, shifting, snake-like Grimm loomed over me, accompanied soon after by its pale white twin, their red eyes glistening with bloodlust. I had no time to wonder how a large Grimm like a Taijitsu had managed to slip past the Atlesians and the Beacon forces, before the dark head was practically on top of me, unhinging a jaw wide enough to swallow me whole, reminding me sharply of the Nevermore from Initiation.

"_Not happening!_" I screamed loudly to catch its attention in full, sidestepping the beast with the sort of instinctive inhuman grace and speed only Aura could provide, before unloading a shotgun-shelled punch to the side of its head as it passed. Of course, in my haste, I made the amateur mistake of forgetting that it could still counter, specifically by using its second head, which I had also forgotten. I found myself off balance when the white half struck from my blind side.

_'Damn!'_

_"Watch your head!"_ a booming distorted voice called over the clamor. I looked up to see a bulky, roughly-humanoid shape flying overhead to smash into the Grimm's triangular head, dragging it to the ground in a crush of concrete and jagged metal that cratered the street, and threatened to send us into the sewers.

I actually gaped when the dust and debris finally cleared enough for me to see my savior, stunned to see that it wasn't a Huntsman or Huntress, as I had expected, but some kind of robot, standing at least eight feet tall, and bedecked in white armor plating with red accents that was armed to the teeth. It sported what looked to be some type of cannon on one shoulder, and a missile launcher on the other, along with a machine gun on par with Coco's affixed to its right arm, which it was currently using to turn the Taijitsu's head into pulp upon the ground, before turning to face me with helmeted gaze.

_'It's not a robot... It's a **person!** In armor!' _I realized with a start as it leveled the cannon over its left shoulder in one hand, and fired with a deafening boom. The shell whistled past me to catch the other half as it tried to sneak up on me, obliterating its head in a shower of gore, leaving only a lifeless, already dissolving stump.

_"Targets eliminated... Allison, be sure to archive a note that the cannon shells tend to list thirty millimeters to the left. Probably a scratch in the barrel. Negligible, but no point leaving it alone if we can help it,"_ the voice said again, the helmeted head sweeping the perimeter of the battlefield, before resting on me.

"Uh... Hello." I waved awkwardly, shielding my eyes as the armored man used a small burst of what looked to be some kind of propulsion device to leap from the crater he'd made, landing in front of me with a heavy thud, towering over me as he straightened up. "Uh... Thanks for the save, big guy. Not sure what would've happened if you hadn't shown up."

_"You probably would've died,"_ he said rather bluntly, leaving me taken aback, and frankly a little annoyed, though I kept my face level. No use arguing with the giant scary robot man if I could avoid it, especially after seeing what he just did to the Grimm back there_. "Try to be more mindful in the future, Miss Long."_

"It's _Xiao _Long. Why do people always..." I began defensively, before looking back at robo man askance. "Wait... Have we... met somewhere?"

He shook his head, the blue visor covering his face depolarizing to reveal a pair of blue eyes. Very _familiar_ blue eyes. _"We haven't, but you've certainly met my brother. Jacob Ambrose; a pleasure. Joel's told me a lot about you."_

"...O-_oh!_" I blushed, trying my best to pass it off as exhaustion, not that that was too difficult. It had been a long day of constant fighting, and my head was still pounding from the crash, and the lack of sleep from the night before. "I didn't expect... That's, uh... That's a nice suit you have there," I said, wincing at how dumb it sounded. But hey, I didn't really expect my first impression to be so... bloody. I did my best to wipe what was left of the Taijitsu off my person awkwardly.

The young man raised an eyebrow, but examined a robotic hand all the same, looking thankfully more amused than annoyed. _"Thanks. It's one of the prototypes for the Paladin, but it was scrapped due to costs of production. Thankfully, when the call to deploy went out, the tech officer had one primed and ready to spare."_ He kicked a hefty leg at the stump beside us. _"This is my first live sortie fighting the Grimm outside of simulations... It's definitely a different world out here... And Joel **willingly** does this for a living?... Though I guess if it meant stopping things like this..."_ he added almost as an aside, shaking his head _"I can see the sport in it, anyway."_

"Well, take it from me, newbie, you're doing just fine," I laughed in an attempt to jump him out of his little mood, rapping a gauntlet clad fist on the hull of the exoskeleton. "Took that Taijitsu down like a pro. As for, Joel, well..." I wasn't sure if mentioning his brother was the best thing, judging from the sudden look in his eyes, but I carried on hopefully. "In my opinion, he'd be proud. Very proud."

_"I... Thank you for the praise, Miss Xiao Long. From what I've heard, you're quite impressive yourself."_

"Yang; just Yang. I think we're good on the whole first-name basis thing. Joel aside, you did kind of just save my life a minute ago," I chuckled, giving him a cheeky smile that had him blushing red even through his visor.

_'Aw, he's kinda cute.'_

_"O-of course."_ He bowed slightly, a move that was almost comical for the large suit to pull off, before turning and checking something on his screen._ "Speaking of my brother, I'd have thought he'd be with you. Busy?"_

"He's on a mission in the Badlands right now..." I replied, missing the shocked and annoyed look crossing his face as I pulled my Scroll from my jacket, and was thankful to find the small device still intact on his end. "He'll probably flip out once he hears about this. It's better if he knows we're all okay." I brought up Joel's number, Jake letting out what seemed to be a snort at the contact photo, which was taken when my boyfriend was sleeping, and I'd been feeling a little artistic. "Hey, Sparky! What's... Huh?" I brought the Scroll away, staring at the holographic screen in confusion.

A big red NO SIGNAL sign flashed, with an audio message playing over and over every time I tried. _"We're sorry. The address you've dialed is unavailable at this time... We're sorry. The address you've dialed is unavailable at this time... We're sorry..."_

_'Joel...?'_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Elizabeth "Liz" Briar - Brina Palencia

**_A/N: And Ben and Joel were lost never to be heard from again…or that's what's on everyone else's' mind at the moment. Are they actually goners? Well if you think about it I've already pretty much brought down a mountain on these guys and they didn't bite it so I doubt half a ridge and a few hundred feet of open air to land in cold Grimm infested rapids would come close to cutting it._**

**_In other news that chapter certainly came out longer than I expected because I never know when I can post nowadays between work and school. This stories pretty easy though and a lot of it kind of just wrote itself for a bit though stuff did change like how had the template of what I wanted to happen but I ended up moving Liz and Joel's past up a bit because I wanted to focus on action in the later chapters without the forced flashbacks and I thought it served as introduction enough. No cute dates for these two or sappy declarations of love, it sort of just happened between the two when they were at their worst. Sorry their first meeting in this story was a bit rushed but admittedly their situation sort of demanded it, train and attempted theft going on and all._**

**_My descriptive powers are less than ideal at times so for those wondering about her weapon she's remarkably similar to Joel in terms of throwing things as they had the same teacher but instead of knives her wrist guards eject little collapsible shuriken that unfold in her hand ready for her to use. The lights indicate what kind of Dust is embedded in the center for her to trigger at will allowing her to shock, blow up, or freeze whatever she's dealing with at range. That's not all she can pull off though and that Dust trick she used to burn off the collar is just one of her little surprises. Her brother Ed is another fun one but he won't be making an appearance for quite a while thankfully, I've already attempted to kill off two characters this arc I'm not looking to clear the roster just yet._**

**And finally Jake's suit's heavily based off the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I Prototype Armor from Halo Legend's story _Ghost, _Personal favorite and I've wanted to use it in a RWBY story for so damn long now and it just made sense as a feasible prototype for the Paladin for him to use to make him stand out.**

**As always feel free to leave a comment or a note and I hope to have the next chapter out soon. - Mojo**


	37. Chapter 37

**Edited as of (7/16/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

THOSE LEFT BEHIND

**_-Elizabeth Briar-_**

_"I'm a Huntsman-in-training at Beacon Academy. No more, no less. And I'm going to stop you. You, Vergil, Violette, and the rest of them. On my honor, I **swear** on it."_

I narrowed my eyes as I remembered those final words, the other occupants on the craft shifting uncomfortably, their gazes moving to the quivering form of the young soldier lying in a pool of his own blood, after he'd tried to sneak a peek while I was changing in the back after boarding, having wanted out of those clothes as soon as possible. He was twitching now. Probably wouldn't last much longer.

_'Or maybe you're just sore after... **NO**!' _I gave myself a good mental slap, pushing all thoughts of that white haired bastard to the back of my mind. _'__No use dwelling on a dead man...'_

My hand drifted to the blue and silver weapon hanging off my belt, after tying off the end of the worn purple cloth sash at my waist, tracing idle lines across the still warm metal.

"Ma'am we'll be landing soon! Still no sign of Strike Two's ship! And we haven't been able to pick anything else up on any of the backup channels!" the co-pilot called back from the front of the craft, gesturing to his radio. "Not even a signal!... Should we turn back and investigate!?"

I shook my head as I tied my hair back into a short ponytail, glancing at the silvery steel case that stood between two armed guards. "No point, is there!? Either they got caught up doing their job, and took out the rest of the train, or were brought down in the attempt! People were going to find out about our involvement, anyway! The point is we got what we came for, and they can't do a thing to stop us!"

It was a bit worrying, though. Joel and Ben were both capable in their own right, but if Strike Two had done their job, then that shouldn't have mattered.

_'Of course, something forced Lancaster to blow the whole thing early...'_

The newbie had only been an officially, blooded operative for a few weeks, running on his own vengeful fantasies after his brother died by the white-haired traitor's own hands, during that whole mess up in Mantle months ago, that had set everything tits up. Quality of training may have diminished due to lack of First Generation Huntsman-grade instructors, but the kid was hardly a novice when it came to combat. An overconfident little shit, maybe, but a strong one.

_'Too late to deal with it now. Focus on the task at hand.'_

The rest of the flight passed by quickly, the only snare being a flock of Nevermores passing a bit close. Thankfully, the automatic turrets the airship boasted dissuaded the Grimm from causing any real trouble.

_'And people actually **willingly** live out here!?' _I thought to myself, shielding my eyes as I stepped out into the harsh sun and whirling sands in front of the old SDC refinery where we had set up shop. We had repaired the old fencing around the two story complex, and turned the yard into a miniature air dock. It was a fine base for its purpose, at least after Vergil and I had swept it clean of its former inhabitants.

_'The Kingdoms think they have it bad, but some of the beasties out here...' _I shivered at the memory. _'To think people actually fight those things for a living. I'll stick to hapless thugs and scum, thank you very much.'_

"Welcome back," a distorted and, regretfully, familiar voice called out. Turning, I caught sight of Vergil, the Trapper seeming to live inside his armor, even in all this heat. Even I'd opted to do away with the sleeves on my own for this assignment. If the dry air bothered the blind man, he didn't let it show in his motions at least, striding forward completely at ease, sabers at his waist. "I trust everything went according to plan?...'

"Like you don't know already..." I grumbled, cocking my head back at the case now being offloaded by my team. "We completed two of our objectives, but were unable to secure the doctor, due to... unforeseen complications. You can thank Lancaster for_that_ little fiasco."

"I would, but it seems he's been left behind. A shame, too. The boy had a lot of promise, but I could tell, even over the comms, that he was letting his personal feelings get the better of him. A fact Joel's Faunus partner exploited, to some effect." He shook his head, but he wasn't fooling me. The masked psychopath had only allowed Robert in on this mission as bait, nothing more, using the boy's hatred as incentive. "Speaking of our renegade, you mentioned you fulfilled _two_ of the objectives. We have the case, and I see no doctor, so that must mean..."

"Yeah. I dealt with him; Ambrose won't be bothering us anymore," I said too quickly and with a slight tremor, cursing myself for such an obvious slip. "Scuttled his half of the train, at least while I was there, and left the rest of it to Strike Two. Whatever happened after that is on them."

Vergil nodded his faceless head, the red handprint staring back at me, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine. "As elated as I am to hear it, I must also admit to being surprised..." he said after a few moments, motioning for me to follow him back towards the main building. "As effective as you are, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have doubts sending you on this assignment, considering your previous relationship with the target... Not that I'm sorry to be wrong, of course."

I flared my Aura somewhat, shifting it so that it flared outwards like an angry flame, suppressing the urge to smile as he moved just enough away to be noticeable. "I handled it, no thanks to your mucking around. I was told that the newbie would be handling base operations, then you hoist him on me in the middle of an assault! You're lucky I came in through the back, or he could've screwed up everything! You _really_ couldn't have gotten anyone else?"

The asshole shrugged, actually shrugged, calling out a few orders to some soldiers on duty, before ushering them out onto perimeter duty, waiting until they had left, before speaking.

"You realize that with the losses sustained after Joel's capture, coupled with Capaneus, and now, from the looks of it, Lancaster, we now stand with less than eighty active Trapper Agents operating across Remnant, as we speak. Of that number, aside from the five or so First Generation left standing and the two of us, I would maybe consider barely a _dozen_ to actually be of any real worth... Perhaps Duo, if he wasn't so unstable...?"

"His name's _Eddy_!" I snapped at him, anger flashing sharply. "Seriously, you and those messed up little titles you give out... And you realize he can't help himself when he..." I seethed as he raised a hand to stop me, nodding in understanding.

_'Not like you lot did much to help him. You damn well **encouraged** it!'_

"Du... _Edward_ aside, I had actually thought to reach out to Ao and Plaga for reinforcement. However, it seems they've already been assigned a hunt regarding some high level White Fang enforcer thought to be operating out of Vale, at the moment."

"Well then I guess we got off easy. Probably would've strangled that witch with her own wires, if she'd pawed her way into this," I growled teeth flashing, the blue haired woman's smirking simpering face leaping to mind just in time for me to envision a few ways of smashing it in. Trappers were usually urged not to fight each other, and keep personal squabbles to themselves, mine and Joel's relationship before our little tryst a perfect example. Still, a girl could dream. The other Trapper and I had never seen eye to eye for various reasons.

_'Might've had something to do with her flirting with Joel towards the end while we were fighting.' _Sidling up to him right in front of me, sticking claws in where they had no place being...

"Here's hoping that White Fang enforcer tears her still beating little black heart out of her chest."

"Funny, I'd always assumed you two would've gotten along..." my comrade mused, halting as he promptly realized he'd said the wrong thing. "You just seemed to have so much in common. Especially when it came to your work."

I laughed mirthlessly at that one. It was a funny joke "Aside from having more balls then the rest of you lot put together, the only thing we had in common was we both got a kick messing with people's heads..." We'd moved to the back of the building, and were now working our way down the stairs to the basement levels, where we were keeping that mute little powerhouse we'd caught along with Carson. Reika Murasaki, if I remembered correctly. "Even then the woman had all the subtlety and craftiness of a sledgehammer with those truth serums, and... Oh, of course, how could I forget?" I pulled at a few straps on my armor, loosening it just enough to reveal a fair bit of cleavage without outright flashing him, before sliding up against him to grab at his arm, and pushing my chest into his arm. I might not be as "gifted" as some women, though I'd gained enough experience with the sleazeballs of the underworld to know how to use what I had.

_'Guy's shorter than Joel, but built like a brick even through his armor...' _A sultry smile on my face, as I continued to mock that dirty viper. ";Oh my, like what you see, big boy? Let me cozy in a bit closer, so I can...'"

"You're aware I can't actually see anything you're doing, right?" he retorted cheekily, tapping his helmet just before pushing me to the side, as he continued marching on. "An excellent imitation, though I think she still pulls it off better."

"Screw you," I muttered, redoing my armor. "Either way, we don't need her. Or Plaga; guy creeps me out like you wouldn't believe. Sorta like you, actually, without the whole blind thing."

"No wonder we got along so well..." he chuckled, as we entered the long corridor, the guard posted on prisoner watch leaping to attention with a nervous start. "Still, in terms of skill and usefulness, Ao's little serum included, the two of them are leagues above what we can expect from most of the others. They are people we need to make our goal a reality."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

We stopped in front of the now dented metal door, Vergil pausing a second, before turning to me. "Well that's a relief. It seems she's finally settled down. She's attempted to escape twice now, since you've been gone, so at the moment, I've ordered that all personnel are to stay out, unless accompanied by you or me. At least until she's done causing trouble, seeing as we haven't been able to get close enough to sedate her. Her Semblance alerts her whenever we try to get in while she sleeps."

_'What would the Hand do without us?'_

"Semblance? I thought she just had an Aura similar to Ed's? That was why you were so big on recruiting her, right?"

"I'll explain later. Just be aware that she's much more interesting than the reports had us initially believing."

The first thing I noticed about the room were the damages. From holes and scuffs in the walls, to the shattered furniture that hadn't been there hours before, when we'd first imprisoned the Huntress. Speaking of which, at the moment she was curled up in a ball, watching us from behind a curtain of raggedly chopped hair that fell now to her shoulders, rather than down her back as before, eyes widening when she caught sight of me.

"Trouble, you said? Seems that's a bit of an understatement..." I surmised with a quick scan of the room and the girl herself. She was relatively unharmed, except for the hair, which was likely Vergil's work. Probably tried to scare her.

_'Amateur.'_

"Hello, Miss Murasaki. My name's Elizabeth, but you can probably just call me Briar. Most do." I waved my hand at her, lowering it when I recalled I wasn't going to get much of a response from the mute. "You probably figured this out already, but we've met before in less... _pleasant_ circumstances." I pointed back at the swordsman. "Vergil here has probably explained the situation; how he wants you to join up and whatnot, serving as a 'shield of Mankind,' and all that fun heroic tripe. From how things look, though, I'm guessing you weren't that interested in the offer." I shifted my Aura somewhat, trying to come off as more concerned and charitable, though I was shocked to see her eyes narrow the second I pulled it off.

_'Oh... He was right; she **is** a strange one.'_

"I want to know why you seem so against it. It's a good offer, really. You get rank, which in the Hand can go a _long_ way towards a comfortable lifestyle, if you're willing to get your hands dirty. And from what I saw during your little scuffle with no-face, here, you were willing to do it in spades to take out the threat in front of you... You must have _some_ way of talking, don't you?"

"..."

Vergil clicked his heel against the ground impassively, standing well behind me to let me work. That, and he was probably nervous about setting off the little monster by getting too close.

"Can't be loyalty to Beacon or Vale... From the reports we got, you and Carson were sent there as little more than a jail sentence. Hell, you joining us would be a liberation, a fresh start without the law looking over your shoulder... Well, _we'd_ be looking over your shoulder, but that would fade in time. Unlike those suits in the Kingdoms, who want you to throw yourself against Grimm for the rest of your life. That's a lengthy death sentence, almost."

Her eyebrow and fingers twitched slightly, and I knew I had here cornered right where I wanted her. Especially when I mentioned her partner.

"Ben?" Her head shot up, violet eyes burning. _'Gotcha...'_

"He's a nice guy... Talks a bit much, but I can tell his heart's in the right place. Even a bit more cunning then he admits... But he has his weaknesses. Was willing to help me after I spun a little sob story, especially after I made it clear helping me helped you... Maybe you _love_ him? The dashing rogue with a heart of gold. Hate to break it to you, if that's the case, but he cares about you too... as a _sister_. He's smitten, but not with you; that's plain enough to see, if you know the signs."

I moved forward into the light somewhat, giving her the first clear glimpse of what hung at my belt. Eyes that were narrowed now widened in shock.

"You were probably hoping that he would pull off some daring escape, right? Hoping that you could hold out until he could call in the cavalry, weren't you? Unfortunately..." She didn't make a move. Fine. I didn't need her to, as pulled out the piece of collar I'd burned off Joel's neck, a small black half ring with spots of blood just visible on the surface, and threw it with a clatter at her feet. "They're gonna have a problem pulling that off... Especially from the bottom of a cliff. Sorry."

That set her off. The small fighter lunged at me with a powerful burst of Aura I hadn't fully expected, her fist almost reaching my face, until she was flipped over by my companion, and sent hurtling hard into the wall, with enough force to put cracks in the stone. She slumped to the floor limply with one last whimper.

"And after she'd just settled down, too..." the man said with a frustrated groan, pushing me outside, and slamming the door behind us. "I thought you had this in hand!?"

"I do," I shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at the door, where even now I could hear the sounds of sniffling. "She was resisting you because she had a place to go back to; a hope that she could be rescued. I _crushed_ that, and now she'll be more malleable in the future... At least after she settles down. Girl might be crying now, but she's stronger than she looks. This won't kill her, if that's what you're worried about, and if it does, then she wasn't worth much to you, anyway."

"Hrmm... Perhaps you're right about the girl... Perhaps..." he growled, putting a hand on the wall behind me, looming over me as his Aura flared coldly and furiously. "But why bring the collar back, and not Ambrose's _head_? If you wanted to go for dramatic effect, I can hardly think of anything better. And it seems you were close enough to pull it off..."

"He's dead, what's it matter?" I tried to force my way through, but the bastard didn't leave an opening for me to even try, mask staring blankly back at me, practically leaking malice.

"It _matters_ because you don't have a body to show the Commander! Now, I have to devote men towards finding one at the bottom of that Grimm infested ravine. And if by some chance the Ambrose _did_ survive... And he now lacks a collar..."

"Look, I know you gave him that funny little moniker because of how hard he was to put down, but I told you, already! He's...!"

"In the perfect position to rejoin us, now that Beacon and Vale's council can't keep an eye on his movements anymore. Rather _convenient_ for you, wouldn't you say?"

"He's _dead_, Vergil," I said, less confidently then I would've liked, breathing a short sigh of relief when he lowered his arm and stepped back. "He's not coming back. And even if, by some miracle, his ghost appears, then I'll just have to kill him again, won't I?"

"...For your sake, you'd best hope that's the case, and that the 'Immortal' truly is dead, Elizabeth..." he called out as I retreated up the stairs, resting a hand on his saber. "I _don't_ like having to clean up after somebody else's messes... I hope you are aware of that."

I felt a distinct chill run down my spine as the weight of his Aura let up, replaced shortly after by an uneasy feeling of being watched.

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"There, there, girlie... Just let it all out," the old bandit spoke up next to me, as I bent over the bucket yet again, emptying my stomach dry, and heaving even as I fought for breath, trying to still the shivering that just wouldn't stop, no matter how hard I tried, the smell threatening to choke my lungs of what air I had left. "That's it..."

While I appreciated the old man's words, deep down, at the moment, I was ready to throw him off of what was left of this goddamn train... Or at least I would've, if I hadn't overtaxed myself trying to save it, doing my best to keep that Airship and its impromptu avalanche from wiping it off the tracks.

_'**AND IT WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH!**' _I felt another sickening shift in the pit of my stomach, and bent over again, hot tears running down my face. _'Ambrose and Ben... Oh god... I-I...'_

I'd watched them when it happened, body feeling as if it were going to burst from the sheer effort of holding that much rubble back at once over such a large area, standing there unable to keep my friends from plummeting, even as I strove to drive those Red Hand bastards into their own mess, sending them down with explosive results.

_'I-I... I **killed** them... Like it was nothing... I...'_

"You can't blame yourself," Bill said tenderly, voice etched with compassionate understanding. "You'll want to. Dust knows you will, believe me. But you _can't_... It wasn't your fault. None of this was. It was..."

"I know who killed them!" I spun around, feeling as if my head had split open at the force of the shout, my throat burning. "I sent them hurtling into a fucking rock slide, remember!? Like swatting a damn fly!..." I'd been too absorbed in what I'd been doing, removing the annoyance, when they attempted to stop me...

_'Ambrose was right... Ambrose was **goddamn** right...'_

"It was just... I didn't mean..."

Everything was coming apart. The second I'd woken up after falling unconscious after my little display, the medic and Carson had explained what had happened. I'd thought the shock would've been the worst of it, my heart caught in a vice at the mere impossible thought that Ambrose was dead, let alone...

_"Means that nothin's ever gonna to happen to you, because I won't let it happen."_ I shut my eyes tightly, clutching at my sides to block it out.

The worst bit, and the current cause of my little episode, was Xiao Long's call demanding to know why her boyfriend wasn't answering her calls, and if he was alright, along with something else about Vale and Grimm I hadn't really been listening to. I'd been so caught off guard and terrified all at once, I couldn't even answer her, merely babbling something about interference, before hanging up and tossing the damnable device away from me as, if it had burned white hot.

"They hardly gave you much choice in the matter," the older Huntsman said blankly, running a hand through his shaggy dark hair, his eyes looking concernedly at me, just like...

_'Damn it, why didn't I... I never even...!'_

"They chose to do what they did, and you responded in kind to defend us. Dwellin' on the fact'll only make it hurt worse... And judgin' by the circumstances, I'm not gonna grieve over them. Not when we still have a job to do, so calm down." He took a swig from his flask, even as I stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief. I was especially surprised when he offered it towards me, the foul scent burning my nostrils.

"Calm down!?" I grabbed him by the collar of his coat, pushing him with what Aura I had left into the far wall of the empty car we were currently occupying, while Pips tried to re-organize his troops, the one's left anyway, and manage the half dozen or so prisoners not requiring medical attention, including that damned Trapper shithead. "Ben, your son, just went over a goddamned cliff, along with my partner! Doesn't that make you angry!?"

"...I'm well aware of what happened, girlie..." he growled back, his voice managing to be calm and ferocious at the same time. The anguish in his voice gave me pause, even as he got to his feet and straightened himself out, glaring back at me in a way that clearly showed the weight of his years.

_'He's felt this before.' _I realized suddenly, recalling Ben telling me, in painful detail, about what had happened to his baby sister all those years ago.

"And for your information, I'd like _nothin' more_ than to put a bullet in the knee of those responsible for putting my flesh and blood in harm's way, carve their names into their chests, and leave 'em as lunch for the Grimm, while listenin' to _every little_ second of it!" he admitted, his voice steadily rising as he finished his claim. "But I can't allow myself to feel that, and ignore the facts glarin' back at me!"

I flinched back, knowing at my core he meant every word. But what guilt I felt was overshadowed by my own angry confusion. "What are you...?"

"_Reika_," he shot back, raising a hand and gesturing towards the front of the train, and to the new center where we kept the prisoners under heavy guard. "When you got that one boy to talk, he mentioned they were usin' someone as leverage to force Ben to work with them, which means there's a very good chance she's alive and in their hands as we speak. I, for one, intend to put a stop to it." He was in front of me in an instant, lifting me to my feet, and steadying me, keeping his eyes locked on mine. "Now, I know it hurts, but you need to put it away for now, and focus on helpin' me. You're a hell of a fighter, and if your files are correct, you might be the key to findin' her. That's what my boy would focus on, and so would your leader, if the read I got off him was right. Not to mention we still need to retrieve, or disarm that weapon. No _way_ am I lettin' people like that hang on to somethin' so dangerous."

I pushed him off, growling under my breath as I looked back at the bucket hatefully, cursing my own weakness. "Look, I don't know how much you know about dogs, but scents don't exactly work like that. I need a trail; something to follow. I can't just pick her out from anywhere, and follow with my nose to the ground. Those guys flew here, meaning they could've sprung up from practically anywhere in this hellhole! I wouldn't even know where to start!"

He shook his head, a frown crossing his face as he looked me over, looking almost guilty. "No... But you're the perfect person to 'talk' to those who do."

...Was he actually... He couldn't _possibly_ mean what I think he meant?

* * *

"Oh, isn't this a surprise?" Lancaster piped up from his current position, leaning up against the wall, hands and feet cuffed in front of him, and flanked on both sides by his comrades, all in similar state, if less beaten up. "I'd hoped you had gone off the cliff along with the rest of the train, _dog_. Hope you at least got a good seat. From what I heard it, was a _spectacular_ show." I resisted the urge to break the little bastard's teeth in one go, as Bill knelt down before them after clearing the guards from the room. No..._That_ would come later. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Want an apology? Very well. Ahem... I, Robert Lancaster, am _very_ sorry I caused your _traitorous_, _murdering bastard_ of a teammate, and his blonde buffoon to go tumbling off that ledge. I really am. _Please_ forgive me?"

His men snickered, obviously impressed by the show of bravado. To my shock, and apparently theirs, even the Indentured Huntsman chuckled along with them, clapping his hands together.

"Funny! _Very_ funny! Though I wonder, were you perhaps aware that that 'blonde buffoon' happened to be my son, you oversteppin', overconfident little shit?" That shut them up, all of the soldiers' eyes shifting to their leader, who had gone red in the face with barely held fury, before smiling wickedly, spitting at the man's feet.

"Oh _that's_ rich. I just thought we were sending the fool against his own team, but his father!?... Vergil sure does know how to write a little drama, doesn't he?" I had no idea who this Vergil was, but judging by the way the others shifted uncomfortably, he must've been some big shot, or at least a figure most of them feared.

_'And he's responsible... Shelve that away for later. Let it guide me...'_

"You realize what a Trapper is though, right? I'd be a much busier man if I wasted time apologizing for every person's child I gutted, shot, or otherwise. You understand." He raised an eyebrow tauntingly, daring the Huntsman to hit him, practically begging for it. "So what do you want, huh? Revenge? The location to our base of operations to get your little bomb back? What are you going to do, old man!?"

"Honestly, I want to throw the lot of you off this train, still tied up, and watch you feel what my boy did at the end..." A few more paling faces, and even Robbie's little eyes flickered somewhat. "But you see, I have duties and limits as an Indentured Huntsman concernin' what I can and can't do with prisoners. Duties which require me to transport you to the nearest law enforcement office I can, which is in the next settlement on our itinerary, where you can be debriefed, resistin' for a few days most likely, until finally cracking once you know whatever information you have to give is worthless to us. Thing is, son... I want that information _now_."

"Funny how hard it is to work under rules and laws, isn't it?" one of the other prisoners spoke up haughtily. "Coward!"

Bill just shrugged, scratching his head idly as he looked back at me. "You have a point... My hands are tied, boys, and as the one who captured you, I personally have to escort each and every one of you from the hospital after you've finished recoverin' from your injuries. Such a hassle, but hey, that seems to be what's required of a public servant nowadays."

"Injuries?... None of us are...!" the boisterous soldier spoke out again, before the heel of my foot crashed down on his leg with a snap like dry wood, cutting off his objections with a shrill scream that filled the cabin, and sent his fellows, Trapper included, scrambling away as he thrashed and cried on the floor.

_'Ohhhhh **yes**...'_

"Like I said, I want that information _now_, without the bullshit. And while my hands are tied, hers..." He got up and patted me on the back. "...aren't, so she's gonna be the one having a pleasant chat with all of you. I'm sure you'll all be nice, and accommodatin'." He moved to the door, waving to us all, before giving me one last glance over his shoulder. "Pips gave us an hour before he needs them back in his custody. Play nicely, now."

And then he was gone, leaving me alone with this lot, my head swimming in a barely held sea of emotions. Rage, anger, excitement... I'd almost certainly have enjoyed the offer fully, if it had been any other time. This, though, was work, so I'd treat it as such.

"What, like I'm going to let some Faunus bitch beat me into...!" Robert snarled, even as my leg lashed out again, striking his jaw with a satisfying crack, that sent him to the ground in a crumpled bleeding heap, much to the shock and dismay of his fellow Red Hand troops.

_'That was for my team, you son of a bitch!'_

I breathed in, wiping the blood off my boot with the side of his head, giving him one last good shot to the ribs to make sure he was out, before turning on the others.

"Now let's see..." I sighed, cricking my neck with a satisfying pop, that set the whole bunch edging away even further. "I _technically_ only need one of you talking and conscious to get what I want." I looked at each one, cracking my knuckles and flaring my Aura. "The rest of you, well..."

With that, I gave them my best attempt at a smile, one that apparently did the trick, if the now acrid scent in the air coming from the one in the back was any judge, the one on the ground still whimpering as he stared at his leg, flopping about.

"Any volunteers?"

**-END**

CODEX:

**Trapper Operative Classification- **According to information provided by former agent Joel Ambrose after his capture, there are actually two, possibly even three generations of possible Trappers operating in the field currently as of this notation.

\- **Gen1 or First Generation: **Refers to the founding members that originally directed the HHF into the Red Hand it is today; the first Trappers. Almost entirely made up of former Huntsmen and Huntresses who had lost loved ones or homes to the White Fang. Technically the strongest, due to their prior skill sets, but limited in that they were more accustomed to Grimm, than Aura sentient targets, leading to many early losses in the field, and leaving little more than a handful left.

\- **Gen2 or the Second Generation:** Used to describe the next generation of operatives, usually comprised of adolescents with former combat training, who were trained exclusively by those of the First Generation to combat the White Fang and it's operatives in a variety of means. Taking advantage of the young recruit's development, researchers and trainers used a variety of medical, dietary, and applied Aura treatments in harsh conditions to improve their physical effectiveness, leaving a multitude of side benefits, ranging from more enhanced senses of smell and hearing, to an increased hardiness in weathering external damage, but resulting in numerous casualties and backlash amongst volunteers. Ambrose is one such example of a so called "Gen2," and medical examinations have confirmed many of his statements as fact.

\- **Gen3 or Third Generation: **The proposed future generation of the Trappers, comprised of recruits trained by those of the Second Generation, using streamlined methods with a higher rate of success, if less professional instructors being drawn from the Gen2s.

**A/N: Hey all, almost done with this arc and from their taking a little break from this story with maybe a few omake chapters until next season starts up and I get a better idea of what I'm working with. Kind of a slow chapter in terms of action, Briar after her victory and Max dealing with the loss of her teammates the best way she knows how. I've found this definitely the easiest of my stories to write and thanks to all of you for your support. Oh and Ao and Plaga are a pair of amazing Red Hand Trappers from The Baz and his story _The White Mask _that I wanted to include in this story at least_. _(Don't worry about what Briar thinks, she's usually like that with most everyone)**

**The Trapper classifications are just like Halo's Spartans in essence, one of the inspirations for the Trappers in the first place at least training wise.**


	38. Chapter 38

**Edited as of: (11/6/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**_(A/N: This chapter takes place at the same time as the last but from a different perspective.)_**

THE IMMORTAL

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

Pain is an odd thing.

Most people try to avoid it like the plague, rather than accept it, fearing it in all its forms, and fighting against it. Even while in effect, it has served to keep us alive and alert since the rise of the Grimm centuries ago.

Trappers, at least the ones I was trained alongside with, anyway, are taught and conditioned through more than enough continued exposure to embrace and use physical pain, pushing the discomfort aside through sheer willpower and applied Aura in a way that allowed us to keep fighting and killing, all the while sporting injuries that would slow, or put down even a trained Huntsman.

_'Doesn't mean I don't have my limits!'_

My mind screamed desperately as I finally managed to break the surface of the rushing waters yet again, gasping in another few quick breaths, before the currents forced me back under, my lungs and limbs screaming in protest at the sudden return to the cold depths for a scant few seconds, and a sudden sharper feeling in my leg.

_'So tired...'_

"_Psycho!..._" Ben was calling out weakly from somewhere off to the side, voice becoming more distant by the second.

_'Right... I pushed him to shore before we were completely swept up...'_

Leaping from the screaming metal coffin just before it had impacted, rogue cyborg in hand, had been my best, and only idea to get us out of that trap alive, though I hadn't exactly accounted for the wreck slamming against the cliffs on the way down, or just how strong the rapids were. My body struggled for just one more second of air, even as my vision tinged black...

A flash of blonde hair entered my consciousness that burned like the sun, lilac colored eyes staring back at me...

_'Come on! **COME ON!**_'

I wasn't going out like this. Maybe at the hands of a particularly nasty Grimm, or a lucky trained assassin. But drowning?... That would just be insulting.

_"Pain cannot defeat true focus, Joel,"_ the old words, _his_ words, rang out at the corners of my mind as I forced my limbs into motion, propelling me against the rushing tide, even as I recalled the pain associated with them. _"Flesh and bone are weak and breakable, but the trained will is a fortress of steel that can weather **any** storm. If you would declare that nothing can stop you, then **make it**so!"_

My limbs and chest ached terribly, the bruises and cuts feeling even colder as my Aura flared to life, giving me the strength to push forward.

_'I won't die here... I won't stop! I **won't...!**'_

After a few terrifying seconds where I floated in dark nothingness, my feet finally set down on solid, if sandy ground, my head bursting to the surface, fighting my way on hands and knees from the rapids, coughing up a lungful of water as I went.

_'Oh air... I'll never take you for granted aga... **OW!**'_

I grimaced at a continuing incessant pain from my leg, glancing down to find a pair of sleek, thin-bodied, fish-like Grimm flailing about, their small jaws clamped firmly down on the meat of my leg. They were not enough to be much more than an annoyance with my Aura up, and I didn't feel any poison pumping through the bite, but still...

With a snarl, I drew upon the full force of my Semblance, too tired to bother with control or holding back, skin flashing blue as I flash-fried the little bastards to a crisp from the inside out, their little bodies flailing once, before crumbling away into ash that blew off into the wind from heat and charge that left even the water that had coated me evaporating and sparking dimly. Looking over my shoulder at the rushing current, I spotted an entire school of similar creatures milling about towards the edge.

_'A few more seconds, and I'd have...' _I shivered, knowing that despite what Aura I'd managed to dredge up having probably saved my life, it would've done little against such an onslaught.

"_Ben!_" I called out, chest feeling like it had been caught in a vice.

_'Cracked rib or two, most likely... Light bleeding lacerations on hip and lower leg... My neck...'_

I counted off the injuries in my head, trying to ignore the irritation of the burn, and what that in itself represented, redirecting what I could to relieve the pressure and closing the worst of the cuts. Pretty light wounds, all things considered. "_Ben!_"

I found the soaked, and very pale Huntsman-in-training bruised and battered in his crumpled poncho, leaning up against a large rock just off the shore further upstream, arms, both metal and flesh, lying limply at his sides. What concerned me the most, however, was the fast-spreading red stain marring the inside of his inner thigh, where Briar's thorn had been embedded, the weapon likely having been ripped free during the fall and subsequent swim. With how he looked and the weight of that arm, it was a miracle that the man had made it to land at all, even with my help. Especially considering he'd managed to haul his massive gun with him, the weapon dropped to the ground in front of him.

"Heya, Boss..." The blonde grinned weakly, glancing up at me with fogged eyes. "You're looking, uh... Well, ya look like shit, actually... Sorry..."

"Look who's talking," I sighed, hands going to my waist and belt, relieved to find that the small box-shaped medical kit was still there and in one piece. It was built to withstand the harsh conditions that Huntsmen faced, after all, though I'd lost one of my knife dispensers in the fall, along with my Scroll. Extending a knife, I went to work, slicing away a strip of soaked cloth to reveal a deep cut that was still very much bleeding, before pulling the kit off my belt. "Damn it all..."

"W-why's everything gettin' so blurry?..." he grunted blearily, staring at me, as well as the cut, in confusion and mild interest. "I can't... Rrgh, can't feel my arm..." He shifted his right shoulder, the silver-colored prosthetic clicking uselessly. "...Red's gonna kill me... Gah, hurts like hell."

"That'd be the blood loss, I expect," I replied, unsealing the case to examine the contents, glancing warily at a few of the syringes. "As for your arm, well, you run it with your Aura, right? One that's currently the only thing keeping you conscious, trying to heal you as it is. Problem is, it won't finish by the time you bleed out... Sorry for this, by the way."

He shifted his head questioningly, before letting out a hiss as I buried an injector in his neck, and pressed the trigger.

"_OW_! What the fuuuuu_uuuuuck...?_" he moaned, head sagging back against the rock with a small smile as the drug began to circulate. "W-what'd ya just shoot me up with?..."

"Little cocktail they taught us to mix in Combat Medicine. Turns out you're lucky I didn't use it on Max, after all," I told him, tossing the injector away, before going through a checklist of what to do next, missing the pained look on his face at the mention of my partner's name.

After the fiasco that was our first mission, I'd thought it prudent to apply for the course after getting a description from Ozpin, looking to supplement what little I'd picked up at Aegis and with the Hand. The scare with Yang, and the situation at hand, only confirmed the need to do so.

"Blood coagulant and painkiller all in one. Still, I'm gonna have to stitch you up, so don't bleed out before your Aura recovers... Hey. Hey, press down right here hard as you can... Seriously, do you want to die!? _Harder!_" I chastised him as I felt him begin to slack off.

"Your bedside manner sucks, ya know that? Never be a doctor... _Ever._"

I shook my head, making quick work of the stitches with only minor lip from my teammate. "Doctor was never really in the cards for me. Can barely stand needles as it is. Only reason I picked this up was 'cause it's useful." I tried to calm my breathing as I moved to the last step, replacing the blood he'd lost quickly enough to help his Aura along.

Unwinding a tangle of tubing, I set to work rigging up an I.V., running one end from the former bandit's flesh and blood arm, before jabbing the twin into my own vein, flexing the limb and freeing the pressure, elevating it so blood could flow like a red snake. So far so good... As long as I could avoid shocking him in the process out of my own little panic attack. I could almost hear the child's voice again, urging me to leave him and save myself.

_'Shut up!'_

From what I could recall during those damned medical exams the Red Hands "doctors" had put me through, I was supposedly a universal donor, meaning more fun with needles all around, as I was used as part test subject, part blood bag. Didn't leave a great impression.

"If hunting Grimm hadn't worked out, there was the police, of course, though a part of me always kinda wanted to be a chef." The talking helped me calm down, and it kept the blonde awake, so bonus points for me. His face was already getting back some of its original coloring.

"...A _chef?_... You're kiddin' me, right? Like restaurant, funny hat, and everything?" He laughed, flexing the robotic arms fingers slightly. Definitely a good sign. "No shit?"

"It's true, asshole. Dad used to cook for us all the time, and I liked to help him out around the kitchen," I countered defensively.

_'God, when was the last time I cooked anything for myself or anyone else?... Before the Red Hand, at least...'_

After my parents passed, a lot of things I used to enjoy sort of just lost meaning after a while, falling off by the wayside. "He taught me a lot. Said I was pretty good, actually. And for your information, the hat's optional." It was one of the few times I could take pride in something I could do that was unrelated to fighting.

"Still a shock, though... You ever cook for Blondie? Romantic dinner in the gardens?... Somethin' like that?" he chuckled, the drugs taking effect as I shook my head, blushing slightly as I realized it hadn't really occurred to me, even after all this time. "Aw c'mon... You can fight, ya obviously impress her somehow, _AND_ you can cook her a nice meal whenever she wants. Face it, Psycho, you're set for life!... Better off than I am, anyway..." A sad look crossed his face. "You can at least do somethin', while I'm... _Damn..._"

"Compliments. Knew there was a reason I kept your smug ass around," I laughed, even though I wondered at that last bit, leaning beside him and relaxing, before looking back up at the still smoking ruin upstream from us, and then at the cliff above. "Alright, what's next?" We might have survived the crash, but this was still hardly an ideal situation. "You wouldn't happen have your Scroll on you, would you?"

"Nope, sorry... As for what happens next... That depends, doesn't it?... What do ya wanna do?..."

"Hmm?" I noticed him glaring at me, and then at his gun, metal hand twitching towards it, seemingly not so lifeless after all. "Don't even _try_ it." I could try stunning him, but with the drugs in his system, and how weak he was already, anything I did was just as likely to kill him than put him out at this point, even if I could trust myself to hold back.

"Reika... I think I know a way outta this mess. There should be a path up the ridge. We might be able to find a cache my dad's gang used to use for this route, that _MAY_ be able to help us... But if I tell you, I need you to promise me that you'll...!"

"Save her? I'll try Ben, but the bomb..."

"_No!_ If we're doing this, then she's the priority! If it comes down to a choice, I wanna know you'll pick her! _Promise me,_ Joel!" He gritted his teeth, eyes flashing dangerously. "I fucked up, but the least I can do is make sure my best friend has the best chance of makin' her way out of this in one piece!... And as much as it grates me to say this, that means I need ya to do it with me!..."

I hesitated, before sighing weakly, moving to cut off the drip. "I'll do my best... I'm sorry, but I can't promise more than that... Not in a situation like this."

I expected a metal fist to the face, at least, but I was surprised to see him relax, hand skirting back to his side with a guilty smile. "Well... Lucky me that your best is pretty damn good, isn't it?" he grinned, before slowly slipping off into a sleep.

As I sat there and cut off the drip, Carson began muttering something to himself. Listening closely, I realized he was sounding off a word continuously... A word that sounded vaguely like "Max."

"M-Max... Max... The girl I fell for is braver than that..."

_'...Ah, **hell...**'_ I thought to myself, quickly deciding to take a short rest, and deal with this bombshell later.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_How!?_ How'd she do it!?" I blurted out vehemently, anger both at that lying harpy, Sienna...no, _Briar,_ and at myself for falling for her sob story.

_'Duped completely, and it almost got the whole lot of us killed! **How!?**'_

I'd met and dealt with career liars my whole life. An occupational hazard of growing up the son of a successful bandit and criminal, I supposed. Some were enemies, or rivals Dad worked with begrudgingly to land a big score, or negotiate deals, while others had almost been like family, all of whom had had no qualms about weaving stories, or faking emotions to get their way. I'd prided myself on being damn good at picking them out based almost solely on my gut.

'_Then one pretty girl comes along, and plays me like a damn **fiddle!** Is it 'cause of Max, or...?'_

"I wouldn't beat yourself up over it." The leader cursed as he stumbled over my legs somewhat, forcing me to grab onto his shoulder even tighter. "She's damn good at her job. Let me guess: she was earnestly sad at first, before shifting into something close to a careful easy attraction? You felt obligated to help her, because you read no hint of dishonesty at all?"

"She fooled me completely... I mean there should've been a tick, or a tell; somethin' to give her away!..."

"Probably was. Thing is, a part of you just didn't want to see it, though," he interrupted, looking down at me with a heavy sigh, before continuing. "It's her Semblance. It allows her to alter her Aura signature and wavelength, or at least how others perceive it."

"And that means... what, exactly?"

"Well, you know Aura isn't just a tool for Huntsmen, right? Everyone with a soul has one, and on some level, most people are able to feel and react to the Auras of others around them, specifically those with training who are more sensitive to it."

"Like Reika?"

He nodded. "Sort of. What she does is on a completely different level, but the concept is the same. You know when you look at someone, and you just get a feeling? Something drawing you in, or putting you off? A good part of that is because of their Aura signature."

"So if she can change hers..." I started, realization dawning on me.

"She can literally change or affect your impression of her. Make herself seem honest, when she's actually lying through her teeth, or maybe shut you out so coldly with fear, that you can't help but want to get away from her. It's impossible to ignore or resist completely." I remembered that chilling feeling I'd gotten when I tried to attack her, that sudden rush of animalistic fear screaming for me to get away. "It's the perfect ability for someone that does what she does."

"...And you _dated_ her? Hell, and here I thought _my_ ex's had issues." He shot me a cold stare, and I could almost swear I felt a bit of static as I moved my arm. "Not that I'm judgin', but there's no shame in admittin' I like Blondie way better."

"She uses her Semblance to get close to her targets, which usually consist of high ranking smugglers, crime lords, and people that the Fang tolerated working with to get things done. Makes job interviews a breeze, when you can read what the person's looking for. Thing is, if she's working with Vergil again, then it means something's changed... She always was more on the fence about his ideals than I was. 'Preferred her freedom,' she said."

"And this Vergil guy... What's his deal?" I suppressed a growl. "He's the one that's in charge of all this, right? The one that took Reika, and stuck me with Si... Briar?"

"Short version: you stay away from him if you see him... Blind prick."

_...Blind!?_

I looked at him askance but said nothing. Surprisingly, on the list of things today, finding out I got my ass handed to me by a blind man wasn't such a big deal in the end. Still though...

"He's _extraordinarily_ dangerous, viciously determined, and _will_ eliminate you and anyone else that gets in his way without a second thought. Add on the fact he likes giving people stupid titles like 'The Immortal' in an attempt to sound poetic, and you have the makings of a perfect asshole."

"'Immortal...' Really?" I smirked, processing the new bit of information as we limped our way along the shore... Well, I limped, anyway. Ambrose was supporting me, as my leg was still weak. "Let me guess: the 'Unstoppable Force' was already taken, or did he just wanna get fancy?"

"He's the one who came up with it; not me," he shot back defensively, the faceless Trapper asshole coming to mind. "I was considered pretty durable, even amongst the Trappers. Coupled with my penchant for sheer dumb luck when it came to dangerous situations, and the nickname just sort of started flitting around. Always thought it was just a pretentious way of saying I was too stubborn to stay down and die..."

Is that what he called it? "Stubborn?" The guy had obviously never actually met himself. "Lucky" was a fair word for it, sure. I mean, we survived a goddamn mountain dropping on our heads, and that whole shit storm back at the gorge. But even so, the fact that he was standing now, carrying me along with _Glory,_ while I was pretty sure he was hurting pretty bad himself, was a testament to something almost inhuman about the guy.

_'What he did for Blondie, burnin' himself from the inside out on top of broken bones, just to save her... It was just...'_

It was heroic, sure, but terrifying at the same time. That the guy could push himself that far... "Always wondered how you pulled it off... The stuff ya do. Think you could teach me? Now, preferably, if you can? Ya did a good job, but it still itches like crazy." He'd need to pull the stitches out once my Aura had closed the wound, but until then, I was stuck hurting.

"You sure? It's a pretty simple concept, coupled with a bit of harsh Aura conditioning. And that's... not fun. _Trust_ me." I noticed the shiver that touched his voice at that bit, feeling myself cringe slightly. "It was developed in Bastion, where I'm from, and there's a damn good reason it's not done much anymore. Even there."

Sore subject. Noted. "Sounds pretty cold."

"So was the one who introduced it into the program..." he growled, a dark look crossing his face.

"How the hell could they have pulled this all off?" I shook my head, looking back at the cloud of smoke still rising lazily from far behind us. "Attackin' trains with Bullheads, buildin' unstoppable psychopaths... No offense."

He shrugged. From the looks of it, he felt quite the same. "The Hand 's a _lot_ bigger than most people think, having had the HHF's own structure to work off of before they militarized, and was organized and restructured accordingly. Orphanages, shell companies, military contracts. All those assets and wealthy donors didn't just disappear into thin air, but were either seized, or coerced into providing funding or support if they didn't just come over willingly, which, of course, most did after seeing what happened to those who didn't. Support staff, a legion of analysts and data miners, politicians and informants, etc. All working to move the cause forward. The regular combat force is actually the smallest group, if the most prominent, consisting of ex-military, recruited civilians, Huntsmen, and trainees. Practically anyone handy in a fight, and willing to go at the White Fang personally, with the Trappers acting as a sort of separate Special Forces group acting alongside them, covering the more important or dangerous targets."

"From the way you talk, and how they act, I'm surprised you lot aren't runnin' the show." Vergil had seemed in full command of the operation, not "acting alongside" anyone, or taking orders.

"We aren't technically in charge most of the time, but when you're one of the Commander's pet projects, you do tend to get a bit of leeway out of a sense of 'respect.'"

In other words shit yourselves as we pass and get in line.

"So there _is_ someone in charge, after all? And here I was thinkin' you lot just ran on hatred and angst. It's the black armor, I think." That actually got a light chuckle from the Huntsman, at least.

We'd finally managed to reach a patch of brush that, if memory served, would lead to the valley past the ridge, and hopefully the cache by night fall. Unfortunately, the dark clouds building above us signaled rain, and rain out here meant... Well, I just hoped we made good time, especially given the things that hunted by dark.

"The organization itself is guided by a board of handpicked individuals, either left over from the HHF, or those who came willingly afterwards. They handle a majority of the busy work involved, leaving military and public operations to one man: Lucas Violette. The man behind the militarization, the Trappers, and the one who... who recruited me and my friend Natalie in the first place..."

"Yeah... You mentioned that name to Briar back in the train, didn't ya? I take it that's not a normal thing, right? The big boss, himself, goin' through the trouble of pickin' up a few recruits?"

"He must've thought he was doing his nephew a favor, giving him the chance to get back at the bastards that killed his mother, as well as avenging his little sister at the same time..." He noted my dumbstruck expression and stopped, eyes fixed on the ground in front of him. "My uncle... He was a Huntsman trained in Bastion by my grandfather, and was one of his most talented students. He was almost like a second son to him, especially after my dad married his sister... He was a good man, once. Shared a lot of ideas with my father on how Huntsmen could better serve society as a whole, acting as more than just exterminators for Grimm, and taking a more prominent role in protecting Mankind at home by working with law enforcement... Then, when I was eight years old, his wife and daughter were killed in one of the earlier White Fang protests that had turned violent... After that, he just grew more and more distant, until one day he just... vanished... Family didn't really talk about him much after that, and everyone else thought he'd wandered off in the wilderness to die fighting Grimm... But..."

"But instead, he was buildin' his own private army." To put anyone through half of what Joel had apparently gone through was monstrous enough... But your own flesh and blood!?

_'What kind of sicko takes a traumatized kid, his own flesh and blood, and turns him into somethin' like that!? Teachin' him to ignore pain, and slaughter an entire race... That borders on bein' as cruel as the Grimm...'_

"Do the Kingdoms know?"

"Of course they do, not that it matters much. We weren't exactly close to begin with, besides a few months of him training me, along with my mom. It only got worse after I joined the Trappers. He thought any favoritism on his part would turn me weak, or stick me with enemies I didn't need. He'd probably take my head off nowadays, if he could... And I can't say I wouldn't do the same to him if I got the chance," he concluded, kicking at a patch of dirt roughly, before pulling me along. That was quite a story there, and not all of it sunshine and rainbows, if at all. "He had two Ambroses to choose from after the attack. I just happened to be the most useful to him at the time... And the easiest to control..."

* * *

**_-Roman Torchwick-_**

"What's the matter, General? I thought you wanted to talk?" I taunted the serious-looking man in the fancy white uniform standing just outside my little cell, grinning when I realized he wasn't rising to the challenge.

_'I never get to work with anyone fun, anymore. Too many yes men. Never anyone with a **real** backbone... Well, unless you count Neo and the Boss. Those ladies could probably dent steel just by looking at it.' _Ironwood, though...

"The Council has given me custody over you for as long as I see fit. So make yourself comfortable. I can be sure that you'll have plenty of time to... 'talk.'"

And like that, he left me alone in my little box to laugh and lounge to my leisure.

"Oh, wonderful," I sighed, before chuckling to myself. _'God, these idiots have **no idea** what's coming, do they?'_

Leaning back so I had a damn nice view of the setting sun, I relaxed for the first time in weeks, my part at least done, if with a few more annoying snags than planned... A certain red-cloaked figure chief among them.

_'Might as well relax... Looks like I might be here a while.' _Still, would it have killed the General to get my clothes washed, or maybe a new hat, at least? _'The boredom, too. He couldn't have spared a magazine, at least? Is that too much to ask?'_

I was just about to drift off into dreamland, when an amused-sounding voice called out from what must've been the cell next to me. "_You seem pretty calm, all things considered, neighbor... I heard some guards talking about what you pulled off down there... Think they might have it out for you._"

"Ooh, _scary!_ The guards might be mad at me!..." I called back in mock worry, wondering just who else might be worth keeping on an Atlesian warship for any long period of time, besides yours truly, that is. "Not my first stint in one of these. Think I'll manage just fine."

"_Thought I'd be neighborly, at least. Especially since you actually seem like you **want** to be here,_" the voice said again inquisitively. "_Being nice to the cunning mastermind with an agenda might have a way of paying back favorably, you know?_"

Smart and complimentary. I liked him more already.

"That would depend on what said person has on the table to offer, wouldn't it?" Might not be necessary to the plan, but anyone worth the General's personal attention would likely be worthwhile to have in reserve, especially seeing as I'd probably need something for that witch to keep her from roasting me whenever I saw her again. "If you've got a name or resume, I'm more than happy to start taking applications."

"_Alexander Capaneus. Alex to the ladies, and close friends, I suppose. Trapper of the Red Hand... Or I **was** until I wound up here, courtesy of a little mix-up downtown..._"

Trapper, huh?... Must be the one who blew up a city block trying to get at that Ambrose kid. Was all over the news for weeks, and, all in all, I was more than a little impressed at his presentation, which was a fun bit of chaos, if a bit sloppy.

"_One question before I go on... You work with any blondes?_"

My eyebrow raised at that one, but I'd play along. Crazy or not, the kid might actually be a decent diversion to pass time ,if nothing else. "Not currently, no... Preference?" Red's sister came to mind... She was involved in his capture, I recalled, and almost paid with her life. A wicked smile spreading across my face as the possibilities unfurled.

"_Nope, just thought I'd ask. So, do I have your attention?_"

I shrugged, even though I knew the boy couldn't see it, chuckling to myself, and wishing I had a cigar. _'This stay might not be so unbearable, after all.'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"What the hell was that!?" Joel whispered urgently as we ducked down behind a small stone archway leading into the valley, where even now the sun set in the distance behind the rain clouds, the air only seconds before having been pierced by an ear shattering, inhuman scream that sent the white-haired Huntsman into attack mode, as well as shivers down my spine.

Glancing up around at some of the plateaus, I stiffened in terror, pointing out to a skulking black form sitting atop a dual outcropping at least a few miles away from our position. To a pair of regular eyes, the shape would've been just a moving speck in the distance. But to my Aura-enhanced vision, I could just make out the details of the wolf-sized creature looking our way with a bone-white mask. Hunched down on four long, clawed legs, the thing resembled a disturbing cross between a hyena and massive lizard, with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, scaly skin, a row of spines down its back, and a long whip-like tail that ended with a single-edged blade-like appendage swaying back and forth.

"_Razorback..._" I muttered, voice hoarse and raspy. "There's a reason they call this stretch of land the Screaming Wastes. And spoiler alert: it ain't the wind."

"Dangerous then?"

"They're no Chimera, if that's what you're askin', but they're still nasty little buggers on their own, and in packs, well... You hear stories about settlements and caravans just disappearin'." I looked back, only to find that the beast had vanished, as if it had never been there. "The shriek's to alert the pack, usually about a dozen or two, sometimes more, that prey's been sighted, and to attack once the sun sets, so they'll have better vision."

"But doesn't that clue us in as... _Oh..._" Psycho cursed under his breath at the realization. Growing up in the Frontier, he'd probably know this fact better than most. Grimm, unlike regular beasts, rarely hunted using senses like sight or smell, until they were right on top of their prey. Instead, they were attracted to negative emotions: fear, anger, depression, worry... Such feelings drew them like moths to a flame, and this particular breed in the Grimm's menagerie of horrors were better at it than most. And, judging by the nagging sense of trepidation still instinctively needling me after that sound, they would have a damn fine scent to track once the sun went down in a few hours.

_'If the rain doesn't help them along, first._'

"Focus..." A rough shake brought me back as Ambrose pressed on, dragging me along with him. "So the're coming; big deal. In the meantime, we still need to get to this cache you say is around here somewhere, and figure out where we go from there, as well as where the Red Hand would be situated."

"But...!" I closed my mouth as soon as it had opened, knowing the team leader was right. Fretting about it would only make them able to find us that much faster, so focusing on something else... "I-it's at the top of that ridge, just up here." I motioned a metal finger towards a small cave tucked in along the ridge we walked through, which was in the middle of a half-circle of cliffs, creating a natural funnel with a basin just before the entrance. "Dad told me that he'd usually set these up with the purpose of keepin' Grimm out, if you had the firepower. It's high up, with a good line of sight of where they'd have to come to get ya. Good a place as any to make a stand. If we try and leave with a vehicle early, provided there's one to begin with, then they might just stalk and get us out in the open, so stayin' put's our best bet."

"And you're up to it?"

I tested my leg, unable to hide the hiss that issued forth. It was better, but hardly suitable for fighting. "I suppose... If worst comes to worst, I can take up a position in the cache, and stay off the leg so I can focus my Aura on aimin'. Thing is, you'd be stuck in the middle of it on your own, while makin' sure they don't get past ya to get at me." I shot him a worried look, and shook my head sadly. "It's the best I can think of on short notice. Sorry, partner."

"Then it's good enough for me. Just don't miss, and we might actually make it through the night," he said with a weary grin, before glancing out at the sunset behind us, a nervous anticipation in his stance that bordered on excitement.

_'Forget bein' a chef, this guy belongs on a battlefield_.'

He could deny it, or rationalize all he wanted, but the dogged will and enjoyment of the fight was almost palpable in the Huntsman, a trait he shared with his girlfriend. The only times I could ever confidently say I'd seen the man truly happy was either spending time with Blondie, while the others were in the thick of it, blood flowing.

_'Worst thing is it's gonna kill him one of these days... Tonight, even, if he isn't careful enough,'_ I thought with a slight chill as I felt the first drops of water begin to fall from the steadily darkening sky.

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'Here we go..._'

I took a deep breath, feeling the slight twinge of anxiety fall away, only to be replaced with a pounding drumbeat that rang in my ears, even as the air filled with a screaming choir of screeches and howls that drowned out even the pounding rain and thunder. Yang hated the rain because of her hair. I, on the other hand, found it calming, almost like a song.

_'Bastards certainly like to make an entrance, huh?'_

Looking over my shoulder, I saw the cave that was higher up on the cliff face, where I knew Ben lay prone just outside of the elements in a place, the space giving him the best possible shot. I signaled their approach. As if he needed any indication...

_'Pack of Grimm with little at hand, and only a few hours of sleep...'_

The cave had been everything Ben had promised, if sadly less than I'd imagined. A cache of weapons, supplies, and even a small buggy had been stashed toward the back of the small, if spacious tunnel.

_'Thankfully, not too far in. Ben was nervous with just that, and I don't really have much room to talk.'_

Unfortunately, what weapons were present weren't exactly rated for Grimm, but other bandits, and other dangers that plagued the wilds, with the big stuff usually harder to obtain. The two of us were barely able to scrounge enough Dust-tipped bullets for _Glory's_ long rifle form for a few shots. On the other hand, he'd more than replenished his supplies for the assault rifle form, and a few more of his "surprises," but of course, if anything got close enough for him to have to use those, then well...

_'Little less than two dozen knives... Then there's **Spark...**'_

I made a mental note, rolling the shoulder where the nasty, little, single-edged serrated combat knife Ruby had made for me as a "get well" gift while I was in the hospital was strapped in its sheath. The bandit had offered me my choice of the small armory, a few rifles and pistols, but I refused. My Semblance and gunpowder didn't mix well, and it wouldn't do to have my weapon or any ammo inside go off accidentally.

If every minor detail hadn't been enhanced by my Aura, I probably might've missed the pack, their dark hides blending in with the shadowy air and the dull landscape, which reminded me, with a spike of rage, very much of the Grimm from the cave._ 'Use that anger. Direct it...'_ Claws, seemingly unimpeded by the water, turned the once hard ground to a loose mud pooling at my feet. Ben had been generous when he'd said there would only be a dozen, two at most. From here, a quick estimate made me realize that there almost _forty_ of the bastards.

Unfortunately for them, the first line pressed a bit too deeply into the ground before them, setting off a chain of sudden bangs as they set off one of the blonde's more devious little tricks. Shotgun and rifle shells, of which there had been more than enough lying around in the cave, had been buried just above a nail pointed upwards, so it was just touching the striker. _"Toe poppers,_" the vindictive rogue had lovingly called them. A fitting enough name, as almost the entire first line toppled to the muddy floor of the canyon maimed, or, in some cases, even vanishing entirely as they died. Many more that weren't shredded to pieces stumbled, or leapt onto the improvised mines only moments later, disappearing in great flashing bursts of light, only to turn the rain crimson as pieces fell here and there.

'_The Kingdoms had better be glad he's on their side.'_

Three had managed to charge on past their wounded fellows, while the rest spread out to the sides in an attempt to get at my teammate, and avoid more casualties to the traps, only to have two of their number crash screaming down into the mush after a quick pair of cracks that gave the survivors pause.

'_Showoff. Didn't even use his Semblance...' _I felt a grin spread across my face at the display, before turning my focus on the three in front of me. _'My turn!'_

A pair of knives we're in the air within a second, even as I moved forward to meet them. A quick flash of static set my hair on end, and the hosts my knives had found collapsed, burned from the inside out.

The third leapt over the fresh corpses, claws lashing out in a swipe I just barely weaved past, my hands darting out to grasp the creature's neck even while I twisted around, snapping the monster's neck in one harsh motion. At my best, using fits of Aura-enhanced strength and technique, I could grapple Beowolves well enough. These things were half the size and weight, if a fair bit faster, but in my mind, much easier to deal with.

'_I can go even further, if I just...'_

I shook out my head fiercely, pushing back the temptation. Calm and focused; fight calm and focused. Yang had always tried to push me in our little sparring matches, wanting me to let loose, but this was what I was taught. Eliminate the enemy quickly, and efficiently...

The next few minutes passed in a whirling blur of blood, gunfire, and electricity, that ended with the last of the beasts pinned on the ground and thrashing about, only to stiffen and fall limp seconds later. Straightening up, I looked about at our handiwork, before letting out a ragged breath and swaying, shivering at the cold.

_'That was easy... **Way** too easy..._'

Ben's cry of alarm was probably the only thing that saved my life, a flicker of movement outlined in the flashing lightning giving me just enough warning to leap to the side in an awkward roll to avoid the large writhing shape landing on top of me, if not enough to avoid the raking claws that dug lightly into my back, piercing the armor like it wasn't even there. Grimacing and on my knees, I felt my breath catch at the sight before me.

Apparently, those before had been a first wave, small fodder to test us, while the bulk of their number scaled the cliff side, and leapt down to catch us off guard. Over a dozen now surrounded me, with a fair few racing towards a now-panicked Carson, who fired shot after desperate shot in an attempt to repel them. My focus, however, was on the creature in front of me, twice the size of the others, if not more, with more white plating in addition to the mask, a pair of bladed tails weaving behind it.

_'Alpha...' _A fearsome foe that, through years of conflict and slaughter, had evolved beyond its kin. Intelligent, and, above all, dangerous. _'And I thought drowning was terrifying...'_ I stared into the eyes of a living embodiment of death, chaos, and extinction...

The worst bit was that it didn't even bother to come at me itself, instead just glaring at me impassively while its pack descended on me in a tide of teeth and claws. Some fell to knives, those I could pick up and reuse, anyway, while others died, or were repelled by my _Conduction,_ the mere act of touching me fatal to the smaller ones. It was while I dealt with a particularly spirited one that the Alpha finally dashed forward with a deep roar, catching me off-guard as it swatted the one I'd been fighting aside like a child, claws raking above my head.

In desperation, I cleared my dispenser as I ducked, cursing as my last knife was deflected off its natural armor, leaving barely a scratch. Of course, in the rush of the moment, I'd forgotten the tails. Catching them in my sights, they quickly whipped forward, causing me to slip backwards enough to avoid the first, which would've bisected me. The second tail, however, clipped my brow just above my left eye with a blow that sliced through my Aura with a flash, and sent me to the muddy ground with hammer-like force, head pounding with every heartbeat, and blood pulsing in my ears...

"_JOEL!_" I could hear the rate of fire intensify, Ben's covering shots sending the large Grimm back a few steps. But it cost him, evidenced by him shouting out curses as he turned back towards his own situation, which forced him back into the cave to try and funnel them. Fighting my way to my hands and knees, I looked up at two encroaching little ones, the Alpha hanging back to watch me closely, a dark knowledge burning behind those red eyes.

_'If he holes up, Ben might be able to hold out... Especially if this Alpha only bothers with me...'_ my mind concluded morbidly, almost regretfully, red tinging my vision as blood poured from the head wound, which was only sped along by the rain. _'Wish I could've saved Reika, though... Helped Maxine... Maybe see Yang one last time...'_

I could almost hear that nightmare child cackling again, until another voice in my mind cut it off with a scream.

**"What'd I say about hesitating, dumbass!?"** my own distorted voice bellowed through my skull as my Aura flared a brilliant blue, sparks running through my limbs, and arcing out into the air. My limiters burned underneath my skin as they tried to contain the raw energy.**"Follow your instincts! Kill them all! You want to see your pretty girlfriend again, right!?"**

I drew _Spark_ from its shoulder strap, the dagger whirring and vibrating from the electricity, as the blade extended about half a foot in length. I lunged at the closest Grimm with an open-mouthed grin to perforate its wind pipe when it hesitated to approach me.

Its partner attempted to catch me from behind, but instead got a mouthful of thick wire, drawn from a line hidden in the base of the hilt that I finished wrapping around its neck and pulled, lifting the Grimm off its clawed feet with a roar of effort, before slamming the thing into the muddy ground, finishing it off quickly with a spark of Aura almost like an afterthought, while reeling back the wire in a shower of sparks. A low tone issued out from behind me, as the Alpha called back its remaining pack mates to its side. I let a breath go, gripping the weapon tightly as I felt the rain pound against my skin, the world possessing a detail only an Aura user could reach.

My chest felt compressed, my arms felt like lead, my head was fogged and heavy... I felt so _alive!_

**"_KILL!"_**

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'What the hell!?'_ I shivered, pulling the collar of my poncho against my nose in an attempt to shield myself from the rank smell of the Grimm as they dissolved, listening for any sign of the chaos that had happened outside only minutes before.

One second, I was up to my neck in snapping teeth and tail blades, ready to go down in one last standoff, and then the next they were just running. Those I didn't manage to gun down retreated outside to where Psycho had been overwhelmed. The screaming and screeching that had followed only intensified, punctuated by one last ear splitting howl that choked off mid-way, and a roar that sent shivers down my spine at the memory, leaving me alone with only the flickering light of the Dust lamp, and the steady pounding of the rain on the cliff face.

_'Maybe I should...!'_

My rifle was up the instant the shadow cast itself along the wall, my finger on the trigger, only to drop the weapon entirely as my team leader miraculously rounded the corner, soaked, muddy, and disheveled. A piece of his armored chest plate and an elbow guard was gone, and the sweatshirt he wore was rent apart, with holes showcasing dozens of small, fast-healing cuts along the chest and limbs. There was also a particularly nasty gash still marred his forehead, steadily leaking blood into his left eye, though the worst bit was that the man barely even seemed to notice it all, staring off into space as he was.

"Psycho... How'd you...?" He walked past me, moving to the small med kit in the corner, where he began working on cleaning the worst of his injuries. A twitching eyebrow, and slight switch of the fingers were the only indications that he felt anything at all, his eyes dulled from exhaustion. "...Joel...?"

"How long have you and Max been seeing each other?" I stiffened at the question, mouth opening to deny it, but I shut it quickly before I could say a word. Denying it would only make it worse, and whatever my issue with the Faunus was at the moment, I wouldn't write her off.

"...When'd you figure it out?"

"You talk in your sleep. Besides, it made sense, given how you two were acting before we left, and Max's reaction when you didn't show for the train." He finished tugging at the bandages he'd wound around his head, before removing his shirt to show massive bruising beneath scarred flesh. "_How long?_"

"We're not exactly 'together' together, if that's what you're implyin'..." I reached out to offer him a hand, but jerked back as a stray crackle of electricity set my hair on edge. "_Ouch!..._ After her little trick at the dance, we sort of made a run for it, and ended up on the roof of one of the buildings. Cue fireworks, and a few words that slipped out without me meanin' to, and we..." I didn't need to finish. Joel was a big enough boy to guess what had happened next. "She was the one that ended it the next morning. I'm the one that got hung up on it. If you have to be angry at someone...!"

"Oh, I'm _definitely_ angry. No doubt about that!" the man said coldly, closing up the medical kit. "You bringing the occasional Huntress around was bad enough. You _AND_ Max, though!? That's half my team at each other's throats, and me with no idea how it happened! You're damn lucky I ran into you before she did, or we could've lost half the train!"

"...She has more control than you think... And anyway, it's done now. No worries. I can try to..."

"_No!_ Now that I'm involved, you two _are_ going to talk, and work this out in whatever way you can! I'm not getting separated from Yang, and sent back to prison, because you two can't hold a damn conversation with each other!" I opened my mouth to argue, but felt the will drain from me when I noticed his teeth gritting together as he dabbed at a cut on his arm, exhaustion taking its toll after that kind of punishment, and the pain finally starting to show. "If you really do care about each other, then, honestly, I couldn't be happier for you both. As long as you're careful. God _knows_ she needs someone to vent on other than me. If not, though, I _expect_ you two to be adults about this, and work together again, because whatever shitfest you both had was getting annoying fast!"

"W-well... I suppose that's fair," I choked out after a few awkward moments, my leader getting up and moving to a spare bedroll I'd laid out, not even bothering to grab a blanket before collapsing down on it. "Look, Psycho... Joel... I'm sorry, man. I'll make this right."

"Yes. Yes you will... And one more thing..." The large man glanced back at me, blue eyes flashing in a pained, but vicious glare that rivaled any look of Goodwitch's, and promised retribution if ignored. "You hurt her, or pull any stunt to try and get out of this, and I _WILL_ bury you, Carson. _Understood!?_"

"C-crystal, sir," I nodded, watching the Huntsman drift off at last, before looking down at my prosthetic wearily, my leg itching something awful as I did my best to let the weight of the day drag me down. "Ya know, you're one terrifyin' bastard when you wanna be, Psycho."

"Don't remind me."

-END

_-**CODEX**-_

**Trapper Vitality**\- One of the most noticeable physical traits observed by survivors of Trapper attacks was that said agents seemed to possess an inhuman resistance to pain and exhaustion, taking horrible wounds in the pursuit of their targets. According to Red Hand defector Joel Ambrose, the technique is a Frontier mental and Aura-based technique developed in Bastion, the Huntsman's birthplace, and was introduced by the minds behind the Trappers as a means of increasing the effectiveness of their warriors. Details on the training process are convoluted, and, for the most part, mired in tradition and ritual, according to sources drawn from Bastion itself, but is purportedly an incredibly dangerous endeavor easily capable of breaking the prospective student's mind or Aura beyond repair.

* * *

**_A/N: This was a big one in more ways than one, Ambrose and Carson are back to the surprise of no one, a bit of Red Hand lore for you lot, Torchwick makes a new friend...lot going on at the moment. Only a few chapters left in this arc, two or three at most to wrap things up. I know I haven't been posting much on my other stories, this one is just way more fun to write at the moment and easier to spend time on. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I hope to have another one up soon. As for Joel figuring out his team's little drama the guy isn't an idiot, he has more then enough experience with tense relationships to put two and two together, he's leaving it to Ben though so its on that smug prick._**

**_Those of you who read LMNH my other story will recognize the Red Hand's leader Lucas Violette, cold and bloodthirsty and responsible for a lot of the issues in Joel's life at the moment and who will be making an appearance soon. I decided to make the relationship a bit more personal, made sense as to why he'd take interest in what was basically an above average student at the time. Joel himself does not view the man as family, at least not anymore, and would rather not draw attention to the devil in his family, guy has it tough enough. Just more backstory for Joel who if you think about it was sort of one dimensional, he's really really good at fighting and not much else. Cooking was just a fun way of giving the kid a casual hobby._**

**_Personality wise I've always tried to play off Ambrose as a guy who enjoys fighting rather than a full-fledged battle maniac, fighting calm and focused but he's had the killer instinct for a while. This little outburst is just one of his little moments of self-discovery about himself as he lets go that he's still getting a handle on._**

**_Joel's Semblance is one of the primary reasons the guy doesn't use guns much, I thought it made sense and I've had people ask me, hope this clears that up._**

**_Edit 10/6/2015- Hey all, this is just sort of a thing that's been nagging at me recently and I know this is months after the fact but I was wondering if people are liking how the Yang/Joel relationship is going. Honestly I started this fic alongside LMNH with Yang as the romance as I had already written the first with Blake. Personally I thought personality wise Yang and Joel seemed to work and I can't believe I never plugged one guest review that basically summed every reason for both options while I reach out to you all, still reading that one whenever I need inspiration. I could've written this either way and I'm pretty sure that's the reason I think back on it. Yang won by a landslide but that was only counting those who reviewed or pmed me which in comparison is a pretty small pool. Not regretting what I've written so far, in my opinion those two are sweet together._**


	39. Chapter 39

**Edited as of: (11/6/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

DROP IN

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

I was back in that same village once again. There were little ramshackle homes built close together, enclosed by wooden walls on all sides, that seemed tall enough to touch the slowly darkening sky in my child-sized view, towering above us, and keeping us safe.

_'But they didn't... Not in the end...'_

Figures walked the walls with rifles and crude weapons clutched in hand, on the lookout for any Grimm encroachments that might be present in the area. There was a tense air about them. Something was wrong, and they knew it, their movements brisk and rushed, with none of the usual jovial lethargy there usually was. I didn't know how, but I could just feel it...

"Reika-chan, where have you run off to, child?" a soft-spoken voice called from behind me over the light bell chimes many had put up on their homes, drawing my attention away from the wall to face an elderly woman, bent from age with greying dark hair, and kind violet eyes, wearing a worn hooded dress and sash. Simple clothes for a simple people trying their best.

_'Grandmother... The woman who raised me... The woman who **died** for me...' _Something was different about how she acted, as well. Cracks in the kindly mask she wore. _'Fear? Sadness? Exhaustion?'_My mind filled in the blanks almost as soon as the questions had arisen. _'An accident. Deaths, family members unable to hold their emotions in check. Beacons for the monsters outside the barricade...'_

The gaudy Kingdoms, and the mighty, if vain, Frontier settlements. The ones Grandmother had described in her stories didn't need to hold such negative feelings in check, their borders defended by devastating machines and valiant heroes: the Huntsmen. Father and Mother had been such warriors as well, defending our small enclave as we strove to avoid the Councils, which sought to control us, bind us, and keep us trapped behind their laws, and unable to roam the land as we wished, making a way for ourselves.

_'But Father died... In an accident, while on patrol... And now Mother's distraught, and we're vulnerable, unable to reign in our fear. Drawing the monsters outside...'_

A flash of sunlight, and a woman with hair as dark as the night was leaning over me, a silvery voice cooing in my ear as tears cascaded down her cheeks...

"There you are. I told you to come back inside before the sun set, did I not?"

At the time I'd felt little, my mind unable to comprehend the concept that my father wouldn't be coming home. But to everyone else, it had been almost like a death sentence. "But it hasn't yet!" I complained, mouth moving despite myself, small hands reaching down to grasp the patch covered ball from the scuffed earth, clutching it to my chest. "I don't want go inside, anyway... Everyone's teasing me!"

"Teasing you?" the elder said in a confused tone, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Everyone's looking at me funny, talking about me when they don't think I can hear them..." I kicked at the ground with an angry huff. "I hate it!"

"They aren't teasing, child..." She worked her way over to me, drawing me into a tight hug that forced my face into her skirts. "They're simply worried for you. You haven't talked to anyone else in..."

"I don't care!" I practically screamed into her dress, shaking my head roughly as I tried my best to fight my way from her grasp, her eyes widening at the unexpected force I exerted in my attempt, before narrowing in a sad stare.

_'The same look everyone else gives me... That pitying stare... **STOP IT!**'_

And like that, the scene shifted, fires roaring all around, sending up smoke that burned at my eyes. Screams and howls from Human and Soulless throats alike filled the air, as dark forms darted to and fro with abandon in a flurry of teeth and claws, rending flesh like paper. In the distance, I could see a single glowing figure in armor running to face the oncoming tide, arms encased in a segmented, violet-colored gauntlets and braces with small silvery white jewels embedded in the knuckles, as she swept through the Grimm like a force of nature, before being swallowed up.

_'Mother?...'_

Grandmother had me in her arms, tears in her eyes, and running as fast as her legs could towards the edge of the barricade, where a small opening could be accessed that would lead into the wilderness beyond. A last ditch effort to save who we could, while those left behind did their best to stall the tide.

We were almost there, within sight of the door even, when a small, black, feathered form swept down from one of the burning roofs, a flash of sharp talons, a tearing pain across my face, and a scream from the woman as we toppled over, my body sent sprawling into the dirt, watching hopelessly as the elder batted away at the small Nevermore that tore at her limbs, a hulking scaled Grimm noting her plight, and beginning its slow plodding way towards us.

Grandmother saw it, glancing back at me one last time with a desperate plea in her voice. "Run, Reika!_ Run!_" She was gone before I could even choke out a plea, waving her arms in an attempt to draw the beast.

I didn't see what happened when the monster reached her; I didn't need to. At that moment, I could see without seeing. Every blade of grass, every animal for miles around, every life around me being extinguished one after the other. It was like a blind person waking to see the world, only to find Hell in its place, the shock rattling me to the core, and chilling my lungs and heart.

_'I lost everything once... And now it's happening all over again... And I'm **still** powerless to stop it...'_

* * *

I awoke in the same position I'd been in for hours, curled up in the corner of the impromptu cell, tables and chairs shattered, along with cracks webbing their ways along the walls. I'd lost my mask at some point, and quite honestly, I couldn't bother myself to care, or feel much of anything else. Ben was dead, Joel was dead, and Maxine would probably join them, or already had, if Vergil and that strange woman with the shifting Aura were to be believed.

_'And they now want me to join them... Threatened me to...'_

Why was I still resisting? All I'd get was more pain. It was not as if they could take much more from me than they already had, though at least the blind man had forbidden his people from harming me unduly, or interacting with me in any way other than providing care or food. I suppose it was a credit to just how much his own soldiers feared the man that none had tried. The only Red Hand nearby was the one guarding my cell, and his friend patrolling the hallway, who would bring one of the Trappers down if I tried anything rash.

_'What would Ben do?' _I wondered idly, staring at the door as voices made their way through the thin slit between the floor and metal. _'Something bold and spectacular, probably... Making it look easy, as always...'_

"No way! She just gave that to you? The hell'd you do the pull that off!?" That was the sentry talking to the guard, his voice a mixture of shock and jealousy all in one, if his Aura was any judge.

"You know how these Trappers are. Crazy, the whole lot of them!" the one watching my cell shot back loudly, which likely meant none of said Trappers were anywhere in the vicinity. "All I did was ask what she wanted done with this one here, if she wanted some time alone, and she just threw it at me and stormed off, muttering about something!... Give me a sec... Here we go..."

A few whispered grunts and curses were punctuated by a cry of surprise, and the very familiar sound of a weapon extending. Joel's weapon.

The sentry clapped, whistling appreciatively. "Nice! Got a story planned out?"

"I'm thinking 'I took it off the traitor's corpse itself' will work out fine. The recruits won't give a damn about the details, and it's nothing I can't embellish, especially with this little piece right here." He must've been toying with some of the weapons features, because a second later, he let out a short gasp, as a sharp clang rang through, followed by a clatter of steel on metal. "There's the blades! Now, I wonder how he shoots them? I've heard the stories..."

I closed my eyes. _'My friend and leader's legacy, reduced to a trophy for bragging rights...' _I felt sick again, but fought down the feeling. _'Why?... Why do I even bother fighting on?...'_

_'...Because he would want you to.'_ My eyes shot open at the thought, glaring at my hands as they curled slowly into fists. _'Ben would never want me to submit to these bastards... My people wouldn't...'_

That little realization had come more recently as the dream became clearer. _'My people... The ones that wanted to be free, and paid the price for their dream.'_

With a sigh, I reached out with my Semblance in a flash of violet, uncaring if Vergil felt it or not, feeling my sense touch those in the base, the landscape...

_'...Huh!?'_

I couldn't believe it. I tried again, but couldn't help the smile slowly building across my face. Maxine, bloodlust almost palpable through her Aura, raced towards me at a speed that suggested a vehicle. An airship, maybe, which was surprising, given that little problem of hers. While even farther away than that was...

_'**No way!**'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"You know, it's funny..." I murmured under my breath, barely audible over the steady roar of the Bullhead's engines, and the muttered conversations of the Atlesian troops, though I was fairly certain that the former bandit leader seated across from me heard it. That, or he could read lips, anyway. "Our luck on missions, fighting regular Grimm, and assignments is just fine, but on these things, it's _always_ something... Always getting dropped in the shit, only to get out of by the skin of our teeth..."

"Luck's weird like that." I glanced up to find the man toasting me with a knowing look on his face. "Take it from me, girlie. I've had my fair share of both kinds of luck in my life, and the only thing I know for sure is that if there's a Lady Luck out there, a real one, anyway, then she's a total bitch, with a _nasty_ sense of humor..."

The words actually drew a chuckle from the back of the craft. I glanced from my spot to see Commander Altrosa pulling at those strange gloves of his anxiously, looking as worn out as I felt. Despite the delays caused by the assault on the train station, he and his aerial escort had actually beaten us to our destination, his forces having been further waylaid by the enemy as they tried to rejoin us, being forced off after taking heavy losses.

He hadn't exactly been thrilled at the news that our cargo, and a good number of his forces had been lost to the Hand and their trap. Far less so when he'd learned his teammates had been amongst the casualties. Suffice it to say, most of us were more than willing to give the man a wide berth, and wait for that inferno to burn itself out against our enemies.

"I can imagine," the man spoke, his voice rather calm for someone who looked ready to turn a man to ash at a moment's notice, his eyes burning behind his spectacles. Carson's teeth flashed at that, but he didn't reply, probably wondering just how good the man's imagination was. "But I guess our luck ran out..."

"Hey, sorry for asking, but how're you lot so sure we're gonna find anything out here?" Redgrave asked nervously, helmeted head glancing away from his console to look back at the two of us, his eyes focusing more on me than Carson.

_'Probably nervous at the amount of drink the man's managed to cram down since take off, the fact an Atlesian Specialist is stewing in his own bloodlust, or maybe just remembering how I could be mid-flight...' _I thought, cringing as we hit another swell, the entire canopy shaking around us.

"Not that I'm doubting you, or anything, but..." He had a right to be nervous, I supposed, only minutes earlier managing to fly his way through another sudden sandstorm, followed in short order by the sight of a massive herd of Grimm down below moving like a great black tidal wave "We sure about this?"

It had been a stroke of luck when I managed to get in contact with the pilot using the contact info Goodbitch had provided. After the abridged version of what had happened, as told by Carson, he'd readily agreed to fly us into hell itself, if because he felt he owed it to me and the others.

_'Though I suppose having a Specialist along for incentive can't hurt, either.'_

He and "Lucy" had been ready to go as soon as we pulled into the station, waiting only long enough for Carson and Altrosa to ensure that Poops had a firm handle on Faraday. No use giving the Hand another prize too easily, in case we screwed up. We then flew out with a crew of myself, the two Huntsmen, and a handpicked unit of a dozen soldiers now sitting or standing in the airship's cramped cabin, courtesy of the Lieutenant, armed to the teeth with everything the local Atlesian outpost could supply us with, short of AK-mechs and a Paladin... Not that the pink-haired Specialist Commander hadn't asked "nicely."

"Judgin' by what the lass here managed to figure out, we are, my man,' Carson answered as he clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention while a greenish glow exuded from his body, his Aura burning off the alcohol faster than he could drink it. One of his saving graces, obviously...

I could still remember the poor Trapper's words as I wrung the information out of him last night, his fingers broken, his eyes swelled shut, and tears streaming down his face as I showed some personal love to a particularly _delicate_ nerve ending located just above his eye.

"From what I know personally, there's a Dust refinery located in the approximate center of this region that was abandoned due to an increase in the local Grimm population. A perfect place for a set up like this. Close enough for the Bullheads they were usin' to travel to the tracks we passed through yesterday, anyway, without runnin' the risk of the larger Nevermore flocks comin' down on them. With a few fighters at the Trapper's level keepin' the beasties away, it wouldn't be too much trouble for them while they worked."

"We have no confirmation!?" Dorian asked in surprise, a few of the Atlesian grunts muttering amongst themselves. "How can you be sure this is the place, then?"

"It's what I'd do if I was them." He smiled at the younger man with a wink.

"Great..." I grunted, boot tapping against the hull while I ran a finger over the blade of my axe, feeling my Aura flow through the weapon as I had countless times before. "And here I thought all we had to go on was a vague description. Glad you're _so_ sure."

My Scroll buzzed incessantly in my pocket, Xiao Long or Rose again if I had to bet on it. Those two had been calling incessantly one after the other, and I'd long run out of excuses to throw them off.

_'I can give them blood instead...'_

It wouldn't bring my teammates back, but it'd have to do. I owed those two that much...

The Huntsman shrugged his shoulders lazily at the comment, as if brushing it aside, a pain shooting through my chest at just how much the action mirrored his son's in the littlest ways. "Trust me, an operation like this requires manpower, and space that would be easily unnoticeable in a place like this. People tend to know their neighbors 'round these parts. One of the prices of bein' so close-knit. Settin' up in a remote pre-existin' location close to the train route would be the easiest, and fastest means to avoid this, especially if said location had a reputation for bein' infested. This refinery is the only viable option that fits the description."

"I get it... Less chance of locals stumbling by on accident." The Specialist nodded his head in agreement. "Smart. _Very_ smart."

"And it makes for an easy excuse for why anyone that _did_ snoop around vanished without a trace," I added darkly, Redgrave shivering in his seat at the thought, before turning back to his work just in time to swerve and avoid the lip of a large mesa. "_WATCH WHERE YOU'RE FLYING, DUMBASS!_" I screamed over his hurried apologies and a few loose screams, clawing at the restraints keeping me seated while I did my best to calm myself down.

_'Annoying or not, I wish those two were here right now... Ambrose... Ben...'_ I shook my head clear of the offending thoughts, before glaring back at our impromptu commander.

"Anyway, do we have any sort of plan? You're the one who's more experienced at this type of thing." I spared a glance towards the Specialist, but he merely nodded once with a grunt of assent, too intent on his own hands to notice much else.

"That settles it. You have command, sir," one of the soldiers spoke up to Carson, clearly not looking at me. _'Figures. Save all their asses from a goddamn rockslide, and it's **still** not enough to show a tiny bit of appreciation.' _"Your orders?"

The scruffy man raised an eyebrow in surprise, tapping his brow with his current bottle, before shooting me a wry grin. "Fly in with style, save Huntress-in-trainin' Reika Murasaki, get our doomsday weapon back, and take down or capture anyone who tries to get in our way with extreme prejudice, with enough time to catch happy hour! That to your likin', girlie?" He must've seen the glint in my eye because he leaned back, grin spreading even further as he turned to the pilot. "Though that _does_ present a unique problem: gettin' in fast enough to get the drop on this Vergil character before it's too late for him, or any of the others, to do anythin' about it."

I flinched at that, thinking back to what we'd been told of the man. According to our captives, the man was one of two other Trapper-level operatives assigned to this mission, the other being a woman named Briar, who was likely the one responsible for what befell my teammates.

_'And I'll be sure to pay her back **personally** for that...'_

Whoever this Vergil was, however, it had been clear by the young man's expression and description that he was a particularly deadly bastard, even by their standards. One who possessed some sort of radar-like sense, similar to Murasaki's.

"Plus, there're no guarantees they won't be able to detect us with conventional means in the end, anyway," the big grunt sitting next to me spoke up, checking the sights on his rifle. We weren't exactly running quietly.

"Umm... I _might_ have a way of getting around that..." We all perked up at Redgrave's voice, unable to hide his hesitation as he checked a few gauges, giving the cockpit a quick once over, before continuing. "I-it's risky. Damn _crazy_, actually... But it might work! Though... she's probably not gonna like it... Sorry, kiddo." The man flashed me a weak thumbs up, and what was almost definitely an apologetic smile behind his helmet.

"...Go on..." the Huntsman asked tentatively as I curled up in my seat, a feeling of dread building in my stomach as he began to describe his plan of attack, almost freezing over when he went into the specifics.

_'Aw,** crap...**'_

* * *

"Hey."

One of the guards standing about in the center of the Red Hand's outpost turned to her companion, shifting the rifle she held in her sweaty gloved hands as she did her best to ignore the slowly building heat of the dawning sun beating down on them, cursing the Hand's penchant for dark[colored gear. To be honest, she had no idea why she was even out there. It was not as if anyone would ever bother to check this far out of the way, especially in a hellhole valley on the ass end of Remnant.

"Yeah?" her comrade asked, likely feeling the same way as he adjusted his helmet. "What's up?"

"...You ever wonder why we're her... Hey... You hear something?"

The soldier barely had enough time to register a sudden relief from the harsh heat, and looked up as a shadow steadily grew beneath the pair, followed quickly by the sight of a beat-up-looking, early generation Bullhead in free fall that managed to blast its engines to full with a deafening roar mere feet above their heads, sending both terrorists scrambling in shell-shocked surprise, especially when the sides slid open to a screaming guitar ballad that blared from its speakers. A figure with dog-like ears and a wicked-looking battle axe clutched in hand looked down on them with a gleeful, if somewhat greenish expression on her face, auburn hair drawn into a short pony tail that whipped behind her in the heavy windstorm the ship blew about.

"_'Sup, bitches!?_" she cried, leaping clear from the craft to land in a crouch in front of the pair with a heavy thud, followed in short order by a man in a dark-colored duster, a pink-haired man in white whose hands were on fire, and to top it all off, a whole strike team bedecked in combat gear. A duo of sharp cracks put the two down clutching at their knees, while the ship itself spun slowly, chain gun roaring as it sent the rest of those present sprinting for cover, before roaring off into the sky, leaving the fighters to do their work, the base already moving to respond to the threat as alarm claxons rang throughout the area.

"You ready for this old man!?" the Faunus asked, splitting her axe into a pair of heavy-bladed sub-machine guns, glancing around at those enemies moving to surround them, Aura flashing with a bloody fervor a she leveled them on both sides, while the strike team ran for defensible positions.

"Just try to keep up!" the man shot back cheekily, a smoking silver-colored revolver spinning in one hand, while his other strapped a flask to his belt. "Let's give 'em hell, people!"

_'How the hell's he doing that!?'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

I and a few others gaped in disbelief, stunned as the old drunk managed to duck and weave with inhuman speed through practically a field of gunfire on both sides, dodging bullets by mere degrees, all the while managing to dispatch his foes with almost lazy ease with non-lethal shots that set them wailing on the ground pawing at limbs. We steadily fought our way closer and closer to the large set of sliding double doors big enough to fit one of the Bullheads littering the area, where I would've bet anything was where they had the prototype, and, if we were lucky, Murasaki as well.

Altrosa, by comparison, was clinical and deadly, a quartet of fighters with smoking holes in their chests already on the ground. And the Specialist wasn't done by a long shot, flaming bow already tracking another poor soul.

"This is actually pretty bracin'!" Carson called back, before his head twitched to the side, seconds before a stray round whizzed past, the bandit not even looking as he countered with a shot of his own that sent a cry of pain up from their back line. "Been months since I've been in a decent firefight! How're ya doin' on your end, girly?"

"Give me a second!" I cried back at him, flipping over one of the katana-wielding, melee soldiers running at me, twisting in midair to leave a long gash across his back that sliced clean through the body armor the lot of them wore easily, before sweeping the rest from cover with a flash of effort from my Semblance, and a well thrown grenade from one of the Atlas soldiers. I kicked one of the stubborn pricks still struggling back to his feet across the jaw in a spray of teeth before he could lay hands on his weapon, to a resounding cheer from those on our side. The Hand operatives, at least those still conscious, either retreated back towards the main structure, or stayed down where our men could move to subdue them, or check on any wounded.

_'Payback, assholes! I'll make sure you never hurt anyone ag...!'_

I let out a startled yelp as a calloused hand patted down on my ears affectionately, the Indentured Huntsman laughing as I leapt away, clutching at them with a red face. "Not bad for a kid your age, though you depend a little bit too much on that little trick of yours to get the job done. I'd watch out for that. Don't want it becomin' a crutch."

"And what's that trick you've got going, huh? No way could you have managed to dodge like that without at least something going for you," I spat back, glaring him in the eye, which I noted to be glowing slightly. "Ben could slow things down; what do you do?"

"Such a bold question to ask out of the blue," he gasped sarcastically, laughing at the expression on my face as he looked to the two story building before us. "I can read the 'intentions of Aura.' Least that's how my wife described it when I told her. It's like a vague glimpse of how someone I see's gonna move or respond, like how they hold their rifle before they shoot it. Hell, she even called it by that: _Glimpse._"

"You can see the future!?" Altrosa snorted, wiping at his glasses with a dour air about him.

The bandit shot him a glare, before shaking his head, chuckling all the while as he strode forward, reloading his pistol casually. "If by 'future' you mean a 'split second glimpse of what a soul's most likely gonna do next,' then I suppose I can, in a way. Only works on people or animals, though, and it happens fast if there's more than one person. I've sorta just learned to react to it, rather than search out details, y'know? Actually focusin' on it almost blew out my brain in the beginnin'. Too much, too fast." He shielded his eyes, looking up at the double doors intently, before taking a quick swig from his flask, to the chagrin of most of the soldiers, especially after he offered it to them. "Definitely a trap."

"Future vision talking?"

"Gut feelin', actually. Doesn't take a Semblance to figure that out." He looked around at the field we left behind, noting the crates and boxes stacked near the remaining Bullheads. "Looks like we caught 'em as they were leavin'. I counted twenty dead, wounded, or otherwise out here, so we've got maybe five or six more probably waitin' inside, includin' the Trappers."

"Then we flash in, and sweep the place clean. We have the numbers advantage." Dorian ran up to us, followed by the seven men still deemed capable of combat, while those left kept watch over the prisoners. "We can take them quickly."

I appreciated the confidence and the desire to avenge his friends, but this guy had obviously never seen a Trapper in action. One of them had carved up a good number of police, property, and even beat Xiao Long in Downtown Vale, while I'd seen plenty of examples of how Ambrose operated on his best days over the last few months.

_'And one of the pricks in here is apparently worse than either of them...' _No, this was going to get bloody _fast._

"We'll go in fast. The longer we wait, the worse this'll be. Remember to stay together, watch each other's backs, and shoot at anything with a Red Hand print on it. Understood?" We all nodded, the soldiers bracing themselves as I opened the doors with Aura-enhanced strength, darting in along with rest of them into the shockingly dark space beyond, the dull lights of monitors, and small patches of sunlight peeking through holes in the walls being the only sources of illumination, and it wasn't much.

_'They blacked out the windows!' _I realized in horror seconds before the doors shut behind us, throwing us into even deeper darkness, at least to the Humans assembled. My own eyes allowed me some reprieve in the low light.

"Stay together!" Carson called, likely using his Aura to try and help his sight, my back pressed up against the closest soldier, while he and his fellows fumbled with their helmets. I clutched for _Cerberus' _haft, eyes scanning the room for any sign of movement, practically invisible. I couldn't even smell them, though I felt instinctively that we were being watched by something...

Altrosa's hands lit up, but even that seemed barely able to penetrate the darkness around us. If anything, it only managed to distort my night vision with the action. "Find us a light switch, people. Visuals?" A trio of negatives rose up from the troopers that had already activated their gear, and I was just about to respond as well, when a flicker of motion, and a slight creak from the ceiling caught my senses.

"Above; they're on the ceiling!" I called out, before something that, in a terrifying instant, reminded me of those wraith-like shadow Grimm fell amongst us, a shine of flying steel flashing, before I felt something warm splatter against my face as I turned, eyes widening in shock to see the soldier behind me, minus his head, slumping to the ground, and the thing that had caused it gone, while another Atlesian turned my way, gun leveled.

"Stop, don't fire!" Altrosa tried to shout as his flames extinguished themselves as something knocked into him. Of course, it was too late, however.

"Contact!" the soldier screamed, almost pulling the trigger on me, only to be put back by spinning projectile that lodged itself in his armor, the resulting flash of an explosion burning its way into my eyes as the weapon went off, taking the terrified man with it.

Cries from all around me rose up, filling my ears...

"_STOP IT!_"

I lashed out with my Semblance, the room flooding with light as I blasted the windows outward with a wave of force, catching my first glimpse of our attackers. A female figure stood atop one of the refinery's conveyor belts, wearing dark, short-sleeved armor with a short purple sash wrapped around her waist that matched the highlights in the dark hair that framed the hand-printed mask she wore, and spilled part way down her back. The same woman I recalled seeing from the train.

Her comrade, in contrast, was still among us, wearing a worn-looking, full-bodied armored suit, and a faceless helmet that turned to face me inquisitively, swords clutched in both hands with one currently stabbed deep into the Commander's side, while the other was currently locked with Carson's revolver. And by the strain evident on the man's face, the Trapper was winning the deadlock quite handily.

**"That was certainly an interesting trick..."** he murmured in a deep, distorted whisper, breaking the lock with the Huntsman, and retreating before those of us left could riddle him with bullets, the Specialist falling to the ground groaning. The masked man leapt back a short ways away from his comrade, head cocked. **"Was that a Semblance, or something different? Hmm..."** My ears flattened against my head, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, as the feeling of being watched intensified, a cold chill running down my spine.

_'So this must be Vergil...'_

**"Quite the little monster we have here..."**

**"Worry about the details later,"** his partner spoke up in that damned voice those masks gave them, a few more of those strange projectiles appearing in her hands. _'Is that Dust?' _I thought, noting the small multi-colored crystals embedded in their center. **"We need to focus on entertaining our guests here."**

**"Indeed."**

I was ready to leap forward, but Carson held me back, eyes fixed on the faceless swordsman with a mix of fear and determination. "Don't be stupid. I'll take that one. You try to keep a handle on the girl in the meantime. The rest of you!..." He turned to the three Atlesians left standing, motioning to the wounded Huntsman. "Get him outta here!" They seemed reluctant to leave us, helmeted heads shooting glances at the Trappers, the girl waving back at them menacingly. "_Move!_" That got them running, dragging the groaning commander away, and falling back to the doors, struggling to get them open, before tumbling out. The doors shut with a slam behind them, effectively locking us in.

**"Well?... Are you attacking or not!?"** the masked woman laughed, her whole demeanor shifting on a dime, the scent of blood wafting off of her, just as it had for Joel in the beginning. **"...Or do we come for you?"**

"Good luck, kid..." Carson murmured so only I could hear, clutching the heavy pistol in both hands. "Here's hopin' the old broad's not too stingy this time."

**"...Carson, right?"** The man looked up at the woman who had leapt down from her perch, a hand on her hips as she landed on her feet. The purest picture of arrogance. **"William Carson... We were warned about you during our briefing, and even got to review some of your exploits. In fact, I'm actually quite a fan of your work... Your son gave me a better picture, of course, but to see you in person... Not hard to tell why little Benny didn't quite measure up. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I see."** She let out a dainty little laugh that was twisted into something plain demonic through the mask, before looking me up and down. **"And you're... Maxine Argus, right? Joel's partner, I recall. That's something we have in common, actually... Well... _had_ anyway. Shame about your teammates, and all, but it was for the cause. You understand, right?"** She gave me an apologetic shrug, but I could almost feel the smile spreading across her face. **"Now that I think about it... that makes _two_ members of AMBR I've crossed off. You should've seen the look on that white-haired fool's face; _priceless_. Maybe you'll at least die on your feet, rather than begging like a _dog_... Oops! Too personal?..."**

"Don't let her rile ya up," Bill warned, reaching out towards my shoulder to steady me, but cursed under his breath as I marched forward towards the bitch, her stance shifting just slightly in response. "_Oi!_"

"So it really was you, then!? The one who...!?" I was shaking now. Not in fear or sadness, but rage. Near catatonic levels of anger coursed through me, every nerve in my body screaming for blood. "Back off, Carson. She's _mine_," I growled, voice cold as ice as I brought _Cerberus _to my shoulder.

**"_Ooh!_ Confidence. I love it!"** Briar cackled, three of those projectiles I'd seen hit the soldier appearing in each hand from a launcher inside the wrist guards she wore. **"How you little Huntsmen think you're _so_ invincible, right up to the moment before the end. That look of grim despair. It's _priceless_. Benny squealed like a scared little kitten before that rock slide, probably thinking of that girl he..."** She paused when she saw me shivering, cocking her head towards me, before a short gasp of realization hit her. **"You must be her, then! The one that had him so caught up. What a shame..."** I saw red, blood boiling to have her throat in my hands. **"Poor, love-struck fool..."**

"_SHUT UP!_" I screamed, eyes ablaze as she lazily flicked her hands towards me, sending those spinning blades of hers flying with a whistling that stung my ears to hear, overriding the sound of her partner shouting a warning that fell on deaf ears. Grasping outward instinctively, I caught the blades mid-flight seconds before they hit, crushing and bending them into scrap, before the crystals inside detonated feebly. The Trapper looked taken aback by the display, while the faceless swordsman looked my way with more interest than ever.

"I'm gonna make you eat those words, you murderous, little _bitch!_" I growled, feeling the rush of murderous fury escalate as my Aura was brought to bear, the entire building almost seeming to shake around me before I leapt forward, my axe cleaving downwards towards her neck. "_BRING IT!_"

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

_'These Auras... Bill and Max!'_

I got to my feet seconds before the vague sounds of shouting and shooting permeated the air. Ten signatures entered the building, encountering the Trappers to start with, falling to six within seconds of the encounter. Now four we're retreating quickly, leaving the two stronger pulses to face the assassins.

_'I have to help! I have to let them know...' _We had hope racing towards us, but only if those two survived the first few minutes. I knew Bill could likely handle himself; the man had always been hard to pin down. But Max...

Glancing up at the door to my cell, I redirected my Semblance's attention, focusing on the two guards outside, who were cowering outside, debating between going to try and help Vergil versus following his orders.

"What the hell's going on out there!? No one's picking up on comms!" the sentry said, his voice tinged with fear. "Last thing I heard was something about Atlesians and Huntsmen. I signed up to fight White Fang; not the fucking Kingdoms!"

"Hey, Huntsmen or not, they won't stand a chance against those two. You've seen them work!..." the guard replied hopefully, only to be shut out by his friend.

"Yeah, I remember when there were _three_ of them assigned with us! Where the hell did Lancaster end up, huh!? They aren't invincible, and here you are holding a dead Huntsman's weapon! How do you think they're gonna react when they see that, huh!?"

"S-shit! J-just shut up, okay!? I didn't ask for this thing!"

It was almost sad to hear them, especially knowing what I had to do, but then I recalled how they'd joked over the details of Joel's "death," and that made it easier. Moving to the door, I began to bang on it hard, startling the two out of their little stupor. The sentry moved to the door, judging by the signature on the other side.

"W-what the... Oi, _stop that!_" I kept it up, making sure the noise steadily rose in pitch and intensity, until I heard banging on the other side this time, a small hatch sliding open to show a helmeted face. "I said stop that, you little...!"

With a flash of violet-colored Aura, I kicked forward with all the force I could muster, blowing the door off its hinges, and into the wall on the other side. A hand fell out from behind it limply, while his buddy backed away, gaping at me.

"P-p-please don't hurt me! I never wanted to... I didn't mean... D-don't hurt me!" He fell on his knees, hands clasped. "I'll mend my ways, I'll leave the Red Hand! I'll even..." he choked up, following my hand as I pointed to the blue and silver weapon hanging off his belt, shivering as my eyes narrowed menacingly, "Y-you want this? Here, take it! All yours!" He held it out to me gingerly, arms shaking as I relieved him of the burden, examining the weapon closely for signs of damage. _"_There, see? All bett...!" I knocked him out almost as an afterthought with the end of the weapon, sprinting towards the set of stairs that most likely led to the main building towards the others.

I could feel Aura's clashing above me, dust falling from the ceiling. _'Maxine. No doubt about it now...'_

No one else I knew, short of maybe Yang or Nora, could make this much commotion, though the way her Aura felt was off; more violent. Focused on one steadily shifting spot. A door stood above me at the top of the stairway, dim light pouring through the creases between door and wall, the smell of outside air thrilling me to no end. With another burst of Aura, I barreled my way through the door with a crash of metal, falling into a wide factory floor with machines and cylinders towering on either side, and towards what must've been the front...

_'Well, there's the source of the shaking...' _I thought dryly as I saw Max carving a path through the factory's rusted machinery with an almost feral look on her face while pursuing a retreating Briar, who threw blade after blade at the Dog Faunus, only to have it caught in midair to either be crushed, thrown back her way, intercepted by a random piece of debris, or knocked away by her axe.

Meanwhile, Bill clashed with Vergil, the two Huntsmen-level fighters weaving back and forth in an almost more impressive display, with the swordsman on almost a constant offensive. The former bandit gang leader was barely able to duck and sidestep his blows seconds before they landed, all the while firing off the occasional bullet that would either be deflected off a saber, or barely graze the masked man's dark Aura.

In one terrifying instant, I thought the older man had made a mistake, stumbling over his own feet, and allowing his opponent to close the distance. **"You're fast, Huntsman..."** I could hear the twisted voice murmur as he moved, weapon stabbing out towards his heart. **"But not fast enough! _This ends here!_"**

"Oh really?" And there it was: William Carson's sarcastic response filling the air as he twisted into the strike so he stood face to face with the faceless visage, the sword grazing through his Aura to cut lightly into his side, while the Huntsman angled another gun that had appeared from the inner linings of his duster's sleeves. It was not as large or powerful as the piece in his main hand, but at that range, it wouldn't much matter. The man grimaced painfully, with a look of triumph on his face. "Still have enough in me to keep you on your toes, kid!" He pulled the trigger, the Trapper kicking the old man away before the shot could do more than scratch his helmet. The Trapper ended up with his back to the large double doors. "Lively one, aren't ya? Those are some damn fine reflexes ya got there! With trainin' like that, you could make a real name for yourself."

**"I fully intend to. Sadly, you won't be around to see it!"** He lunged again, forcing the man into a deadlock with both blades in an X-cross on both sides of the man's neck, the metal barrel of his gun the only thing holding death back. I was in motion in an instant, my glowing fist slamming into a hollow drum to get the whole room's attention. Max, Briar, Vergil, and Carson all turned to look at me in surprise. Well, Vergil seemed to get what I was going for, his head turning to look back at the doors only a few feet away. **"What...!?"**

"Reika!" The old man's face dawned at seeing me alive and mostly unharmed, before frowning as saw me pointing to the door wildly. "What the... Is that polka music..." He suddenly realized what was about to happen. "_Oh shit!_"

Those were the last words I heard before a deafening boom resonated across the large chamber, as something blew a hole in the wide door, sending Max and Briar tumbling, while the other two braced themselves. The chaos was quickly followed, however, by the roar of an engine, with polka music blasting in the background.

As it approached the blind Trapper, a familiar, unmistakable voice bellowed, "_'SUP, __BITCHES!? PAYBACK TIME!_"

-END

**_A/N: What's up people, sorry for the cliffhanger but the other half of this chapter ended up being a whole thing in itself and it just felt way too long to stuff into one and this half was already done. Should have the other half and end of this arc out shortly when I have more time, homework and classes are a bit hectic. After this I have another sort of mini arc before volume 3 content, not anywhere near as long as this one I hope. After that I'm sort of wondering if I should end this one and go straight into sequel story territory with Redemption covering the time between the first and second season with this new one covering the third and, Roosterteeth willing, anything else in the future._**

**_This is just sort of a thing that's been nagging at me recently and I know this is months after the fact but I was wondering if people are liking how the Yang/Joel relationship is going. Honestly I started this fic alongside LMNH with Yang as the romance as I had already written the first with Blake. Personally I thought personality wise Yang and Joel seemed to work and I can't believe I never plugged one guest review that basically summed every reason for both options while I reach out to you all, still reading that one whenever I need inspiration. I could've written this either way and I'm pretty sure that's the reason I think back on it. Yang won by a landslide but that was only counting those who reviewed or PMed me which in comparison is a pretty small pool. Not regretting what I've written so far, in my opinion those two are sweet together but I'd always like to hear your opinions._**


	40. Chapter 40

**Edited as of: (11/7/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

AMBR REUNITED

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Okay... So remind me again why the more injured of us's luggin' around the heavy as hell launcher!? My leg's killin' me!" I grunted, hefting the heavy weapon to sit more comfortably on my metallic shoulder plate, sighing my way down the sight towards the fast-approaching site, noting the sleek Bullheads and heavy wooden crates.

_'Looks like I was right 'bout this place. Thank you, Ma, and your obsession with maps!'_

This place had been the best possible location for the Red Hand to set up shop, nice and tucked away in a remote, yet central location. "Shit, hold her steady, would ya!? You don't want me missin' with this thing!" I nudged the white-haired driver, who was currently pushing our little borrowed vehicle at close to eighty and climbing, while seeming to, at least to me, hit every goddamn pothole from here to Vale.

"The handling on this thing is a bit tricky! The damn thing has _six_ pedals!" he screamed back over the rushing winds and music, swearing as he swerved to avoid what very well could have been a Death Stalker nest. "And do you really want the guy who habitually sparks in high-pressure situations to hold the explosives!?" He held up a hand, tiny blue sparks arcing their way between his fingers, apparently a little side effect of him pushing himself last night. "No!? Then shut up and aim!"

_'Looks like someone didn't sleep well,_' I thought with a noncommittal grunt, glancing once again at our target.

"So how do ya wanna handle this!? Worst case scenario has us rushin' headlong into a hostile base filled with people out for our blood, one of which has already tried to kill us, and came damn close already, and simultaneously stoppin' said people, and savin' our teammate, while _ALSO_ disarmin' or capturin' a live weapon of mass destruction! That about it!?" I went off, having to take a short breath to finish it all, before screwing my face up in indignation. "Seriously, what was Muscles and Tryhard's thing, again!? 'Junior goddamn detectives!?' I'm callin' favoritism!"

My leader let out a short laugh that didn't disguise the short twinge of pain I caught at the corner of my eye, especially the dirty blue bandanna wrapped around his head that was crusted with dried blood, the wound beneath it likely not even half healed, with his clothes and armor in tatters.

_'Joel's pushin' his limits, and so am I... Sort of hopin' for a miracle here...'_

"That sounds about right! Music still sucks, though!" he remarked as he pointed at the radio. "Seriously, Ben!? Your dad's gang couldn't find any better music than this old crap!?"

"Bite your tongue, Ambrose!" I retorted, gesturing at the art coming out of the speakers. "This here's a part of my childhood! Only those who've listened to it extensively can appreciate it, unlike you, the uninitiated!"

I meant it, too. Aside from swindling people, robbing trains, and other things Badlanders did for entertainment, this was one of the things I enjoyed from my childhood. Most would've disagreed, but they didn't have nostalgia towards this music like I did.

"Whatever, man!..." He shook his head, likely still coming to grips with my choice in music. "Get ready! Looks like we're gonna have company!"

I looked up ahead, and sure enough, saw a bunch of figures about the area, with Bullheads docked around the compound. Using my goggles, I spotted the figures closely, noticing that they were walking around each other in a huge group.

_'Are these assholes leavin'!?... No... Wait a second!'_

"Hey, Psycho, those aren't Red Hand! It's the Atlesians!" True enough, at least half a squad was standing around a group of bound individuals in familiar dark armor, those that were left were milling around, most likely, watching the building nervously. "Looks like they did some of the hard work for us!" They also might've seen us, as a few shouts rose in the distance and... I had to twitch to the side to avoid a stray round pinging off the canopy of the roller, swearing loudly. Yeah, they were shooting at us.

_'**Great...**'_

"Well, we not stopping, so why don't you make us an entrance, already!"

Holy shit. I could've sworn I saw a smile on the crazy bastard's face. I touched my own, and realized I was grinning like an idiot as well. _'God, I love this job sometimes!'_

"Keep us steady!" I ordered, sighting down the scope as we reached the edge of the compound, relieved to see the soldiers scurrying to the side once they realized what we were intent on doing. With a smile, I pulled the trigger and activated my _Draw,_ the force of the rocket flying off, sending me tumbling back into my seat laughing as we roared past the screaming onlookers, the explosion showering us in a wave of heat that roared before us in a beautiful display.

_'Can kinda see why Max is so crazy for them, now...'_

As we passed through the cloud, I could just make out the room before us, instantly catching sight of Max and who could only be Briar in mid-combat. The Faunus girl stared our way with mouth agape in confused surprise, eyes wide. A mask-less Reika, along my father, were there too, just before us.

_'What happened to her hair!?'_

Another person, who was getting way closer to us as we approached with the car, was..

"_'SUP, BITCHES!? PAYBACK TIME!_" I shouted manically, Psycho reading my mind on what I'd intended as he caught the faceless Trapper on the hood of our roller with a satisfying thump, and a deep cry of surprise as he vanished underneath us. "_Nice!_"

Not nice, I learned a few seconds after, as a hand popped over the front, driving a long saber into the engine block in a storm of sparks and screaming gears.

"_BAIL!_"

Like I needed Joel's warning, my body already tumbling out the side while Joel leapt out of the other towards Reika, the now-smoking vehicle slamming headlong into the side of one of the processing belts with a loud crash of shattered machinery, reducing the machine, and all around it, to a flaming mess, filling the air with smoke.

_'Why do I somehow not think that'll be enough?...'_

I grimaced, getting to my knees painfully, only to look up and see those familiar, reddish-brown eyes staring down at me in disbelief and shock, their gaze pushing all thoughts of the current situation out of my mind. My heart pumped in my chest loudly enough for me to hear it, before she offered a hand towards me.

"Uh... Hey, Max!..." I waved a mechanical hand awkwardly, shooting her what I hoped was a casual grin as I took her offered hand with the other. "What's up?"

The closed fist came down when I was halfway to my feet, catching me in the jaw so hard, my Aura snapped to life instinctively in an attempt to heal and rebuff the damage, with little success. I fell back on my ass to the cold concrete ground beneath me, before looking up at that wonderfully beautiful, if horribly livid face above me. "W-what the _hell!?_" Wrong words to come back with, judging by the kicks I was now receiving. Not aimed to maim, or do serious damage, mind you, but it still hurt. "Max, what are you...! _Gah,_ hey!... _Stop that, will ya!?_"

"You! _Unbelievable!_ _ASSHOLE!_" she screamed, punctuating each word with another kick, breathing heavily when she finally calmed down, or at least her version of calmed down, anyway. Her fists shook as I fought my way to her feet. "'_What's up!?_' _That's_what you lead with after you fucking fall off a goddamn cliff, and leave me all alone, thinking you two idiots bought the farm!? What's wrong you!?"

I rubbed at the freshly growing bruise gingerly, anger spiking despite myself along with joy. Typical. Just amazingly typical, Max...

"_Me!?_ What's wrong with _you!?_ I'm injured, in case you hadn't noticed!" I gestured to the rip in my thigh, where a long, vividly red gash was present, not to mention the myriad of bruises, including this new little addition. "Hell of a way to greet someone! And by the way, you're makin' it sound as if I _wanted_ to take that plunge! It hurt a lot, goddamn it!"

"Aww, did wittle Carson get a boo boo?" she said in a mocking childish tone, eyes narrowing as she noted the healing cut. "I thought my friends we're _dead,_ and now you suddenly just pop in, and expect me to just act like nothing happened!?"

"I didn't expect ya to react like _that!_ Some people hug it out all teary-eyed, or...!"

My pistol was in my hand, and cleared of its holster within an instant, firing off with a loud bang, as the ten millimeter shell caught the flying blade hurtling towards her in midair, knocking it away at the same time Max caught another with her Semblance a few seconds before it reached my skull, flinging it off to the side, where both exploded with the force of a grenade.

**"_DO YOU MIND!?_"** we both screamed in unison, green and brown eyes boring into the Trapper's mask with enough force to put her back a step in surprise. A flash of anger played out behind that visor, before being replaced with a mirthful look of pure disdain.

**"_Wow_. This is just... _Wow_."**

**"_SHUT UP!_"** We glared at her, and then at one another, before shaking our heads, and raising our weapons on our mutual opponent.

"We can talk later. Right now, all I wanna do is teach this little witch a lesson about fucking with AMBR..." the girl beside me growled excitedly, eyes flashing as her gun clicked, almost as if agreeing with her. "You in? I've got her half shut down already."

"Hey, we already took down her scary partner, right?" I shrugged, looking at the pistol, before unshouldering _Glory's _main body, assault rifle form primed and ready. "How hard could this...!"

At that moment, a screech of metal cried out over the commotion, as a screaming Vergil literally chopped and sawed his way through the car, his armored body gleaming with that grayish Aura of his. His faceplate was then fixed on my team's leader as his shoulders heaved with effort, bits of armor seeming to burn.

_'**Weeeell...** **Shit.**'_

Joel got shakily to his feet, a relieved look crossing his face when Reika held out what could only have been his weapon. How she'd gotten her hands on it, I could only guess...

**"Now, I can get why you'd think my friend over there is the more dangerous one..."** Briar spoke up, watching as her partner fought his way from the wreckage towards a bloodied Ambrose and a disheveled Reika, the older Carson already leaping to their aid. **"But thinking I'm half beaten already? That's just _insulting,_ you little worms."**

Her hands crossed, going to a small button that was placed near the elbow of her bulky wrist guards. A whirring noise, almost like a blender, suddenly grinded away, as she held both arms out while brightly-colored grains poured from the guard's vents.

_'Dust she keeps around...' _I realized, breath catching somewhat when, instead of pooling on the ground, the grains began to glow with a malevolent, multicolored Aura, shifting and undulating around her in a dense cloud of reds, whites, yellows...

**"You lot haven't seen anything yet!"** she announced grandly, a dozen clumps of the red cloud splitting off from the main group, coalescing and igniting into balls of flame that shot towards us almost faster than I could track.

_'Welp, didn't see that comin'...'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Thanks," I muttered with a cough, accepting my mute teammate's hand as she helped pull me to my feet, the girl having saved me just in time to avoid being skewered on the end of one of those damn sabers.

The Trapper was currently being held at bay by the older Carson, though I could tell the pressure was starting to overwhelm the older man despite his assailant's injuries. He ducked and weaved just enough to avoid death, while taking whatever shot he could get. Noting that I was alright, Reika nodded, and leapt back into the fight, my silver knife clutched in her hand as a substitute weapon, doing her best to act as a distraction.

_'Not like you're doing much better.' _The thought came with an angry grimace and a twinge of pain from just about everything. My ribs, my arms, my head...

What's worse was Liz seemed to have busted out her big guns, Dust roaring around her in streams of fire, ice, and lightning, as she struck again and again, keeping both of my teammates running around, trying to their best to fight back, only to have their efforts impeded. Carson's shots deflected or dissolved in the Dust, while Maxine was too busy dodging to focus her Semblance.

**"Is this all!?"** a cry of pain rose up from ahead of me as Bill fell back, bleeding from a deep cut across the chest, his Aura unable to deflect the damage completely, only to be kicked back by the blind madman. **"Beacon's made you weak, Joel! Weak, and dependent on others for strength! Did you throw away your honor, along with your duty!?"** Vergil roared, intercepting an angry swipe from an enraged Murasaki, redirecting the force of the swing past himself as he used her own power to send her hurtling into a stack of monitors set up further inside. **"Get up, Ambrose! I won't have you die on your knees; I _will_ have my glory!"**

Honor?... _Duty!?..._ _GLORY!?_ My former comrade had certainly seemed to have taken uncle's teachings to heart... _Duty!?_

"You've done enough! Try and find the bomb if you can; we'll distract him!" I called to the Huntsman, a concerned, if pained look crossing his face, before he nodded, clutching at his wound as he ducked away, leaving us to face Vergil on our own. "As for you, asshole, my duty was only ever to protect others from the White Fang! To keep them from hurting anyone ever again, or taking away their loved ones!" I snarled, using _Circuit _as a crutch to pull myself to my feet, my Aura sparking as I went. "I failed in that, and only became what I hated most!"

**"You had strength!"** He swept forward, his other two opponents forgotten in the sudden clash of steel on steel, his blows falling like boulders, with only my staff to stop them from bisecting me completely, his goal being to push me back to my knees. **"You were feared and respected, yet you threw it all away! And for _what!?_"**

Something inside me had shifted last night, rage and exhilaration filling my body as I stared at my enemy. "I was a _murderer!_" I countered him with a low growl, tapping into my Aura to force him back with sparks coursing down his swords, barely avoiding electrocution, though I noticed his hands twitching somewhat from the attempt. I hardly cared, rushing into an all-out assault against him, as my staff split into its dagger/rope dart form, using the silver line connecting them to catch, or counter any attempt at resistance. "I took a parent's life in front of his child, and then watched her die!"

Right in front of me. _"One less breeder..."_

I wasn't fighting with calm skill or focused technique, as I had been trained and encouraged to. These were instinctive motions focused only on defeating the opponent before me as quickly as possible, taking risks and hits both that left bleeding cuts, and even more bruising across my body. All in the pursuit of driving him back... And it was _working_, much to Vergil's surprise, as he sidestepped into his guard, letting the path of his sword just graze the thin Aura barrier on my shoulder to reform the compressed staff, bringing the short silver-blue baton up in a vicious rising backhanded strike that cracked his faceplate, and sent him reeling with his Aura flashing fiercely.

"And now I have a team, friends, _and_ loved ones, who fight alongside me!" He looked ready to respond, only to fly back as Reika slammed into his side, an audible crack sounding from his chest plate as he fell back. "Good job. You alright?" I asked, the girl giving me a thumbs up, before looking back at the Trapper now getting to his feet, killing intent rolling off his Aura in waves so tangible, I didn't need a Semblance like hers to feel it.

"Not even man enough to face me on your own... Fighting like a crazed _animal..._" he growled, his voice no longer distorted, but still deep and raspy. My blow must've taken out his mask's audial functions. "_Pathetic. _And you _dare_ claim kinship with my master!? _WEAK!_"

I gritted my teeth as pain shot through my mental barriers, exhaustion both of body and Aura starting to wear me down, and almost costing me my life as the Trapper almost seemed to appear in front of me, swords sweeping towards my neck, only to meet air as my diminutive teammate pushed me aside, catching his weapon on the small knife she held, much to the swordsman's building fury.

I fell hard, rolling towards the center of the room, blood dripping down from underneath impromptu bandages I'd wrapped on my forehead last night, and the bandanna I'd used to cover them. Red dripped into my left eye, along with a sobering realization, as the sounds of an explosion, and a cry of anger from Max, rang out behind us, as well as the sound of crashing metal.

_'We can't win like this... Even if we were fighting one on one, and at my best, I don't know if I could've won against him. Add the fact that I can't coordinate with Reika as well as I need to... But maybe...'_

My thought process was cut off by a pained hiss, as Ben rolled beside me, poncho shouldering at the fringes as he brushed off a patch of ice that had latched itself to his shoulder.

"Guessin' yours is bein' a pain in the ass, too?" he joked, patting at the burning edges quickly before they could spread any further. "You could've mentioned your ex was a _Dust mage._" Looking over my shoulder, I could see Max, or at least where I thought Max was. The space was barraged under a storm of ice, fire, and lightening, held back by the Faunus' own will, but even I could see her strength flagging.

"She's been practicing. She wasn't able to handle nearly that much Dust when I left," I replied, glaring at Liz, the girl cackling as she sent attack after hate-filled attack at my partner. "It's the same weakness, though. Trick's to get close."

Ben shot me a dubious glare, motioning to his rifle. "Not sure if you've noticed, Boss, but that's not exactly my strong suit. And Max is too busy keepin' the worst of it back, I doubt she'd be able to get anywhere cl..." His eyes widened as he realized what I was implying, a grin spreading across his face. "You're crazy, ya know that? Bastard's already wiped the floor with me once, not to mention that little trick of his that lets him see everything I try to pull comin' from a mile off..."

"Not everything." I tapped the side of my head intently. "He's got great senses, even sharper than mine, but he's not infallible. The trick's getting past his guard. Fight dirty; unconventional."

"Is that all?" he groaned, patting his leg as he clapped me on the shoulder. "Why not? 'Bout time we started workin' on maneuvers. Show that bitch the meanin' of _Shock &amp; Awe!_"

"...Really? That's the _best_ you could come up with?" I laughed despite myself, chest constricting painfully at the effort. "You're slipping."

"_Mad Dog_ just sounded kinda offensive to her. And hey, least it's better than the one you gave us! _Partners in Crime_; how generic and borin' can ya be?"

"Shut up and kick his ass for me, will ya? Then I might think of something better," I groaned, rolling my arm as I picked up my weapon, watching as Briar charged up another bolt of lightning, feeling the call of that energy pulling at my Aura. "I want this finished up, Ben. _Fast._"

"...He's the one who cut her hair, right? The one who got in her head? I can see it..." Ben deadpanned, suddenly serious and all focus, watching as his friend and partner twisted and weaved through his flurry of cuts, rips and tears in her clothes beginning to show where the weapon had pierced Aura. I nodded, keeping an eye out as his metal fingers curled around the stock of his gun, green eyes flickering coldly. "Yeah... Consider this thing _finished._"

I was in motion without any further delay, sprinting towards the spot where Max knelt, taking a running leap just as the Trapper fired off her spell, eyes widening in shock and horror as she tried and failed to redirect it at the last minute. What I felt next was pain. _Incredible_ pain. It struck me as I caught the arc of lightning in my open palm and fell to the ground, grunting as I felt my nerves burn and my muscles spasm as the arc worked its way down my limb and through my chest, letting my Aura feed on the ambient Dust and raw energy, until...

_'Oh, **hell** yes!'_

Power coursed through me, my arm lighting up as I twisted my Aura into the shapes needed to direct this energy. My limiters burned, but it was a good burn; a comfortable one.

_'Jake must've modified the limiters...'_

I swore next time I saw him I was going to hug the big lug, even if it embarrassed the hell out of him. It was euphoric, better than I'd ever dreamed,. Could all elemental Semblances draw off Aura like this, or...?

"Ambrose?" Maxine's voice snapped me out of the high. Thankfully, too.

_'Lost myself there for a second...'_

I gave her a confident look, one that just seemed to spring on my face. "Welcome to the party. Careful, this one's a bit of a wild one. You feeling okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry about that. Stupid plan, but glad it worked out..." I got to my feet and shook myself out, feeling my Semblance dancing along my arms.

_'Bit numb, but nothing out of the usual...'_

Sparks visibly leaped off me as I looked over at Liz, noting that she'd gone rigid, masked face watching me warily. "Thanks for that, Liz! I almost forgive you for that stunt you pulled on the train." My eyes then narrowed dangerously. "Now, give us the weapon back, and leave peacefully. It's the only way you're both getting out of here."

**"Joel..."** She tensed up, the Dust swirling around her like a cloud of hornets. **"I have a better idea. You can either join back up with us, under guard while we take care of these annoyances before any more show up, _or_ I can finish the job I started, and leave _more_ than just a little love bite!"**

I felt the small burn on my neck twinge slightly. "Never was able to win an argument with you..." I lamented, taking a low stance while sending a short signal for Max to follow and cover me. "For what it's worth... I'm sorry it has to be this way."

**"Cute, cause I'm _not._"** More of her shuriken-like blades appeared in her hand, her leg shifting backward. **"Marigold isn't here to stop me this time!"**

"Good! Then you don't have to be embarrassed when we crush your ass!" A huge chunk of masonry tore itself from the ceiling, forcing Briar to roll to the side to avoid it, only to bring her Dust to bear to block Max's sudden onslaught of bullet fire. "I don't know what your history is with her, Ambrose, but this bitch is _mine!_"

She charged forward with me close behind, ducking or simply forcing aside storms of fire, while batting away the ice with her axe. My former partner switched back to her Thorns, but even those were knocked aside by the sparks of electricity I let off. I felt more energized than I'd been in months.

_'This is gonna hurt in the morning...' _I lamented, sending forth a blast of static energy that punched a hole in the cloud of Dust she was using as a shield, just long enough for Max to leap through, delivering an Aura-fueled roundhouse to the face that sent Liz and her mask flying in different directions, the infiltrator sprawling out in a pile of crates.

"Better?" I asked, high-fiving the Huntress as she stepped back, apologizing when she winced back, her hair frazzled.

"It's a long healing process..." she shrugged, glancing at our opponent as she got up wiping, blood from her nose. "But I look forward to it!... And... It's... _It'sgoodtohaveyouback!_" she said quickly, words jumbling together under her breath as a flush crawled up her cheeks. "I'm still pissed, though, being left all alone... Don't pull that shit again! Either of you, got that!? I want a story, and no more talking about that stupid water foun...!"

I held up my hands in defense, not able to help the laugh as the Canine Faunus angrily shouldered her axe. "I get it, I get it!... I owe you one."

"More than that! Now shut up and focus! She's not done yet."

True enough, all the ambient Dust left in the room began to swirl around Liz, as small glyphs appeared before her hands, her face twisted in fury and concentration. "No... but you two _are!_" she shouted back, Aura forming a multicolored cloud around her, as the Dust surged forward in a tidal wave.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_''Fight dirty.' Right... Nice plan, Psycho!'_

I internally cursed Ambrose, ducking underneath a sword strike that carved a deep furrow in the metal wall behind me, before rolling away to avoid my would-be killer's foot, as it left a similar dent where I'd fallen. Reika was at my side in an instant, coming down from behind him with enough force to crater the ground beneath her, and force the Trapper back a ways, a move that would've likely ended it there, if not for the eyes the prick seemed to have in the back of his head.

_'For a blind guy, he's remarkably observant...'_

I tried to squeeze a few shots off in quick bursts, but everything I threw at him was either blocked or dodged in short order. And unlike those swords, I was quickly running out of ammo, even with the supplies I'd picked up back at the cache.

"So Ambrose sends the Fool and the Sensor to face me now!?" Vergil announced broadly, arms splaying outwards in a sign of challenge. "Come then, if you dare!"

_'Okay. Grandstandin' and confident... Use that fact against him!' _Easier said than done, especially when the one you were fighting was stronger than you, faster than you, and more..._ 'That could work, actually... Sorry, Red...' _All I needed to do was put on a good show.

_"Follow my lead,"_ I signaled to Reika, passing it off as adjusting the grip on my gun, before sprinting forward, firing off three short bursts. According to the leader currently leaping literally through ice and fire behind me, this guy could see three-hundred-sixty degrees in all directions down to the smallest details. Hopefully, he wasn't keyed into the hand talk at least. "Like I said, it's payback time, asshole!" It almost wasn't fair how easily the man sidestepped or deflected the bullets racing towards him, moving almost faster than my Semblance could track.

_'Please work!'_

Reika tried to intercept him, only to have a rising knee crunch into her Aura, staggering her, before she was knocked aside in an almost perfect copy of the move that the man had used the night we were captured.

"Why you...!" I set my weapon to full auto, spraying the space where he'd been standing, only to feel my lungs constrict as _Glory _clicked empty.

"You have courage and spirit, Benjamin. I'll give you that..." The murderer stalked forward sheathing on of his swords, his remaining weapon shining in the dim sunlight. "Intelligence as well. I'd be tempted to ask that you join our cause, if you weren't so unpredictable. At least die on your feet with dignity..."

"Not interested!" I whipped up the steel butte of my gun, lashing out with the intent on smashing in his cracked face, only to have the larger man knock it away with Aura-enhanced strength with a blow that knocked me of balance, before driving a gloved fist right into my stomach. My body reeled back, depositing what little breakfast I'd managed to choke down before the drive onto the floor.

"You son of a...!"

Refusing to give in, I reached for my belt towards where my spare pistol was hidden, but it was too slow, as my Aura flagged in its control and fumbled the grab, my eyes widening when I noticed the metal appendage clattering to the ground, my legs giving out from underneath me as scalding pain seared through my shoulder.

_'Damn it!...'_

In that moment, I felt I could see so much all at once. The frayed wiring sparking from my damaged shoulder blade. Reika's face paled as she looked up from her place a few yards away to the weapon being raised slowly to my throat.

"A shame, truly. To be ended by nature of a handicap..." he growled, weapon poised to strike me down, the point just kissing my Aura. My partner moved to charge, but I caught her eye, practically begging for her to trust me "You fought to the end, and provided a fair battle. For that, I'll make it quick." He raised his saber high in the air. "Any last words?..."

"Yeah... Fightin' fair sucks," I smirked, hooking my foot underneath the arm, pushing my Aura through the silvery hunk of metal and wiring, and kicking the severed limb upwards towards his face, as I rolled backward in one smooth motion. Well... as smooth as one could be with one arm coordinating things. The man moved in an instant to slice the slow projectile before it could touch him, but the damage was done, a hand flying past his face, clutching a primed Argus-brand flashbang in its metal grasp, middle finger flipping him off, with the pin lying where I'd been sitting a second before.

"_YOU...!?_" he screamed, but whatever insult or curse he would've shouted was thankfully drowned out by a deafening boom and a flash of light that set my ears ringing painfully. To the Trapper, though...

_'That was for hurtin' my partner, you son of a bitch!' _I thought as a satisfying scream of agony rose up from the man as he dropped his sabers, now clutching for his face as his enhanced senses quite literally exploded. _'And that's ain't even the fun part...'_

Reika had moved the second she realized my plan, catching the flailing Trapper with a clothesline to the throat that sent him flying against a metal support column, denting it a good way, only to be forced to the ground as the small girl worked out her anger atop her former captor, landing punch after punch, even managing to slice through the Aura on his leg, inflicting a deep gash. Just before she could land a finishing blow, however, she was kicked off, a snarling Vergil getting to his feet with a crack in his mask, which revealed a single, sightless, milk white eye.

"How _dare _you!? _You INGRATES!_" His hands glowed with Aura, blasting away Reika with a nasty punch to the ribs that left her coughing on the ground weakly, drowned out almost by a surge of Dust rushing towards our other two teammates as we spoke, forming what almost looked like a great multicolored Taijitsu. "That I could be wounded by such a...!" He let out another wordless scream of fury, before he was before me in a flash, hauling me up by the throat in a grip that pierced through my weakened barrier in less than a second, slowly constricting the life from me. "I'm going to make you _suffer_, Carson!... I'm going to kill Ambrose and his animal of a partner, before making sure the last thing you see is...!"

"_HANDS OFF MY BOY!_"

A shot rang out, catching the Trapper in the Aura barrier of his arm that made him drop me in alarm. He spun around to catch sight of my father, propped up against a far table, with one arm pressing on his wounds, while the other held his pistol shakily, before firing again into the air with a flare bullet, this shot whistling and sparking loudly enough to draw the attention of the one going after Psycho and Max, the Taijitsu reeling back towards her defensively. Made sense, I supposed, seeing as the man had his arm propped up on a now-open case. A _very_ familiar one, with a countdown display ticking down...

"Good! Now that I have your undivided attention..." He looked around the room, meeting everyone's eye, before tapping the case with his foot. "This case has a failsafe trigger that activates and primes the prototype if opened without the proper codes, which I'm guessin' is partly why y'all haven't left yet. A failsafe I've just _activated..._"

"Are you _insane!?_" Briar called the man out, her eyes drawn to the time which had just reached sixteen minutes. "There's no way you just...!"

"You're free to check..." He gestured to the bomb with his pistol. "But I think your time would be better spent leavin' the students under my care be, and flyin' as fast as you can, as far as you can, on one of those Bullheads still out there. I've ordered the Atlesian's to let you through, but time's tickin' fast."

"And what's to stop us just killing you all before leaving? I do have Ben, here, at my mercy, and I'm sure the others will fall in kind." He tightened his grip, my eyes now looking warily at him as he took a step toward me again. "I could snap his neck in a heartbeat, like swatting an annoying fly..."

"Try it, and I put a Dust round into this thing!" Dad angled his gun down at the prototype, barrel pressed against the casing. "Won't be as big a boom, but if Faraday's to be believed, this is still more than enough to take out this whole area!"

"You're bluffing..."

"And _you_ now have _fifteen minutes_ to sit around and find out! Or you can leave! You really wanna take that chance!?" His stare never wavered, fixed on that one milky eye for what seemed like a few hours passing in seconds. The Trapper, after a good while, finally stepped away from me, moving to retrieve his sabers.

"Vergil, what're you...!?" his partner called out, only fall silent as he raised a hand her way, his eyes shifting to face AMBR's members in turn.

"This isn't over... Not for you, Ambrose, and _certainly_ not you, Carson." I flashed him a cheeky smile and a wink, tempted to wave with my remaining arm for emphasis. He let his gaze pass over me to fall on Reika, her eyes glaring at him behind the now shortened locks of hair. "I'm sorry things had to end this way, Miss Murasaki. We would've loved to have you with us..."

"_LEAVE!_ **_NOW!_**" And miraculously, the pair left, heading straight out the door past a pair of cowering soldiers.

Briar then looked back at Joel one last time, seeming almost... sad.

"...You're sure?..." she asked him, cocking her head back at the airship behind her being readied for launch. "Remember what I said. They might play nice, now, but they'll _never_ forget what you were."

"..._They_ might not..." the Huntsman agreed solemnly, giving her one last smile as he leaned on his staff. "But _I_ can... Take care of yourself, Liz... And for what it's worth, I'm sorry things ended the way they did..."

She nodded, spinning on her heels, and sprinting to the ship seconds before it roared into the sky, leaving us standing there awkwardly, and, in my case, breathing out a sigh of relief.

_'Things were a little touch and go there for a second...'_

"If I see another Trapper ever again... it'll be too soon," I exclaimed, before looking back at my leader apologetically. "No offense, Psycho."

"I'm a _former_ Trapper, but whatever..." he waved off, before turning to Dad. "Alright, Carson, thanks for the save. Now can you shut that timer off? They're gone."

We all looked around at the older bandit, my heart falling as he shrugged apologetically. The calm was instantly replaced by an overwhelming terror, as the time clicked to twelve minutes.

"_Yeaaaah,_ about that... We... _might_ have a problem."

-END

**_A/N: Back to back releases in celebration of the new season! Bit of a wrap up chapter_****_._**


	41. Chapter 41

**Edited as of: (11/7/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

ENEMIES IN THE SHADOWS

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Okay, the two of you need to shut up right now, and let me concentrate!" I screamed over my shoulder at my two teammates, the pair of them shutting up to let me work with my hands as they skirted over the various wires and triggers littering the device.

When Bill had revealed that his little bluff was more than a bluff, we'd, of course, handled it like any sensible person would... by which I mean Carson practically faints, while Ambrose and Murasaki rounded on the man angrily. Meanwhile, I'd had the intelligent notion of trying to disarm it, seeing as our escape options were a little moot at the moment. And if I was going to die anyway, I might as well be elbow deep in the most destructive single force on the planet made by Man.

"Whaddya mean it's grounded!?" Bill growled at the elected squad leader for the Atlesians, with Altrosa slipping in and out of consciousness, in no state to be making calls, as the soldiers just finished inspecting the remaining airship the Trappers had left behind.

"T-the Hand were in the middle of refueling, sir..." he stammered out as the timer his nine minutes.

_'Stay on top of this. Argus... Now what does this wire lead to?'_

I ran a finger along the four wires, two red, one blue, the other yellow and black striped, leading from the timer to further within. Cutting one of them would likely be the best bet to disarming the thing.

_'Wouldn't want to have to take the whole thing apart if something screwed up in transit...'_

However, the problem was that they wouldn't want to make the wire leading to the detonator too obvious, in case it fell into the wrong hands.

"Even if we could get one of the prisoners to tell us where the fuel is, we have no way of completing the process in that amount of time, or letting us escape the projected blast radius!"

"Well then call Redgrave back! You can still manage that at this range, can't ya!? Get his ass back here, double time!"

"Even if he pushed his admittedly ancient airship to the brink of its capacity, we still would have to wait for him to get here from his position, which would take more than half this time already, and we'd have to leave prisoners, sir! No way is that bird flying with as many people as we have!... Not that I'm opposed to leaving..."

"Never mind, soldier. Just stand by and keep 'em controlled. We'll handle this... How's it goin' over there, girly!?" he shot back at me, meanwhile trying to get Reika off his case. "Yes, I know it was stupid... Yes, I'm a complete idiot... Missed ya too, kid... Don't worry, I think she can do this, too... Least I'm hopin'... Anything from Faraday!?"

"Comms are still down, sir! Interference from the region!" another soldier piped up.

"_Girly!?_"

"Working on it!" The timer hit eight minutes, as a bead of sweat ran down my brow, while Joel was leaning over my shoulder.

_'If he even tries touching this thing, sparking as he is...!"_

"I think Atlesian standard has them making the detonator one of the red wires, usually..." my leader commented, motioning towards the top two crimson colored strips. 7:30 now... "It might be why they have two of them. Fifty-fifty chance?"

"Why don't we just pull all the wires? No way we can miss like that, right!?" Ben added hopefully, skirting around to my other side, his green eyes watching the countdown nervously. "_Right!?_ I've already been blown up a few times in my life, and would rather not be caught up in another one, if I can help it!"

He sounded scared. We all did. Hell, _I_ was terrified.

"Or it sparks another failsafe current somewhere in the device, which will in turn charge the detonator," our team leader rambled off, muttering under his breath how a single strong dampening pulse from his Semblance might short it out. It might work... Or kill us all. One of the two.

"Okay, pullin' all the wire's a bad idea. Don't do that," the sniper said quickly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You got this, Max. I know you can do it."

Great, now I'm blushing. Nice... I appreciated the support, don't get me wrong, and the whole emotional rollercoaster of finding out that these two were still alive had mostly faded into a dull disbelief by this point, now that the fighting was over. That still didn't stop me from elbowing the both of them in the face at once, sending them sprawling back in alarm.

"First off, that's Mistralian standard, Ambrose, so don't distract me, and keep your sparks to yourself! I already I know I can do it, and if I don't, well... Well, at least we won't be regretting it long, right?" I shrugged, smiling a bit at the skittish grin he plastered on his face.

_'Alright. This thing doesn't have an obvious cap, so no chance of removing whatever's inside...' _I'd identified the detonator, or what I thought was the detonator. _'This thing makes Bastet's bomb look like a toaster...' _Of course, that particular beauty had been a jury-rigged set up, like most of my own. This one, unfortunately...

_'I've got this! C'mon!' _I pulled a wire, the blue one. This made the timer speed up, now faster than before. _'Well, crap...'_

"Is that supposed to happen? _Please_ tell me that's supposed to happen!?"

"Ben, I swear to all that's holy, I'll...!" I snarled, not even able to finish, leaving Ambrose to deal with the sniper.

_'Okay, that didn't work...' _We just ticked past four... _'Maybe I can use my Semblance to cover the blast?... No, even if I hadn't been blasting it off all day at full, I wouldn't be able to stop something like this... Maybe it's a dud prototype!?... No, that's dumb.'_

Three wires left... and, wow, is it getting faster?

"Max, I'm sorry, okay!? For how things went. I just... I-I should've understood that you... I'm sorry, okay? I wish we could've just done things right, and...!" Ben murmured from behind me, before I put a foot in his face. Mine must have been so bright scarlet by this point, I was surprised my ears weren't steaming.

_'**Now!?** Seriously, he wanted to bring that up **now!?**'_

Of course, seeing as we might not get another chance... That idiot! Snarling, I pulled the black and yellow wire as I spun around, shoving a finger in his chest that sent him, and me along with him, tumbling off balance onto the floor, with me on top of him.

"Okay... Not the best time, I know, but isn't this a little much?..."

'_I can kill him. Right here and now. They'd never find the body... Oh right.'_

"'Not the best time!?' _No shit!_" I shouted, completely incensed. "Maybe a minute left to live, while I'm trying to disarm a doomsday weapon! Then you bring _THAT_ up; are you _serious!?_"

"I didn't wanna go out without sayin' it, okay?! And it's not as if I've exactly had many opportunities to get the words out, between the Trappers, gettin' blown off a train, racin' across half the Frontier to try and... Wait... Did you...?"

We looked over at the bomb, the numbers now flashing 00:00:05, 4, 3, 2...

Ben wrapped his remaining arm around me, putting himself over me in a vain attempt to shield me as I shut my eyes, Joel sitting down on the ground, resolutely looking exhausted, while Bill held Reika close and then... Nothing, nothing at all.

"Are... Are we dead?" I heard Ben murmur.

I opened my eyes slowly, watching the timer flashing 00:00:00 again and again on repeat, with no explosion. _'No way...' _I held up the wire in my hands, laughing despite myself. _'I actually did it!'_

Ben sagged weakly into my chest with a relieved sigh, before realizing where he was promptly, as I threw him off.

"Good job, kid." Bill walked over to help me up, glancing at Ben sympathetically. "Sorry about the boy. Didn't realize you two were..."

"Just shut up; everyone just shut up, right now!" I pleaded, sincerely wishing I could just sink out of this little bit of awkwardness.

"Uhh...?" The Huntsman backed up slowly, probably wondering what was up with me.

"She's fine, Dad... That's just how she shows affection. It's complicated, but you get used to it," Ben remarked, rubbing at his head as he propped himself up on his knees, giving me a smile. A smile I found myself returning.

_'I have to talk with him sooner or later... Come to terms with what happened. I know I do... But for now, he's alive. We **all** are.'_

* * *

**_-William Carson-_**

"Funny... If someone had told me I'd be standin' in a situation like this a few years back, I'd have probably asked them what they were drinkin'... if just to see where I could get my hands on it," I said wearily, leaning back against the wall of Spire Point's medical center, listening to the sounds of laughing and bickering issued from the room behind me, where Joel and Ben were assigned.

The two were lucky to be alive, but their bodies were deemed in need of proper medical assistance while their Aura's recovered before they could even think of making the trip back to Beacon.

"The times have really changed..." I tugged at the collar I wore around my neck, feeling at the faint scar tissue underneath. Thankfully, the wounds I'd received earlier had healed up a bit more nicely. The two were inside now, along with Maxine, while Reika had sprinted out minutes before with a paper clutched in her hand, heading to the CCT. At least according to what she told me.

"Like you need any more help in that department," a firm, business-like tone replied as a woman sat down next to me, tan-skinned with vivid blonde hair cut short in a pixie cut, and sporting a grey colored two-piece suit, glancing up from her Scroll, my report, or attempt at one as she had put it, in full view on the screen.

"Honestly, would it kill you to cut back? I'm starting to see how you could've thought activating a potential superweapon was a good idea. You smell like a brewery."

"Nice to see ya too, Abby. Likin' the new look," I commented, reaching to take a swig, only to have my arm pulled back. "Do ya mind if I don't wanna discuss work? I've only just been cleared, and I'm swimmin' in painkillers." She grimaced, letting go, but I didn't finish the motion, just letting my hand fall to the side. "So how's negotiations with Atlas goin'?"

"You just said you didn't want to talk about work..."

"Right. _I_ didn't wanna talk about work. But seein' as yours seems to double as a social life, nowadays..."

"...Fine... I've almost gotten the SDC to agree to a resource exchange, even if Jacques' fighting us tooth and nail for it. By this time next year, we should have some of those fancy new robots watching our settlement's borders, and an updated CCT system. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction." She tapped her Scroll, bringing up a note signed by Winter Schnee herself, if the signature was correct. "I appreciate you speaking to the General on my behalf. I'm not sure how things would've gone without his support."

"Don't mention it. What they give us is gonna help a lotta people," I nodded as a particularly loud cry of pain rose up from inside the room, Ben's voice, followed by more of Maxine's mad cackling laughter.

_'Boy sure knows how to pick 'em, doesn't he...?'_

"While we're on the topic of Atlesians, did Pips _have_ to handcuff the boy to his bed as soon as he arrived?"

"You're talking about Ambrose, the former Trapper-level agent whose tracking collar was destroyed while fighting said Trappers, who he admitted to having a personal relationship with?..." she read off summarily with a resigned shrug. "I can see where his paranoia is. I don't agree with it, but he isn't my purview. He's lucky he isn't in a cell. Altrosa's doing, as I understand it. The lieutenant was spitting coals."

"The boy came back, probably saved my life along with his partner's, and, accordin' to the statement, Ben's life as well. Kid deserves a drink, and a good night's sleep; not a trial."

"Like I said, I don't have authority over that," she repeated, leaving us in an uncomfortable silence, before she spoke up again. "...How is he? Ben, I mean. Is he...?"

"Fine as can be expected, I suppose. I was afraid losin' his arm again might upset him, but it seems that's just become one of the occupational hazards of bein' a Huntsman. I'm more afraid of this 'Red' person's reaction, more than anythin' else. You'd be proud; he's growin' into a fine young man, and smarter than you'd ever believe. Heh, almost seems downright responsible now... I think he made the right choice, sendin' himself and Reika off to Beacon."

"I notice he didn't come up in your report much at all."

"Circumstances beyond his control. Apparently, he's worked somethin' out with his leader. Somethin' about 'owin' him a free pass,'or somethin' like that... You sure you don't want to see him?..." It was too much to hope for, and her eyes voiced her thoughts well before she had to put them into words. "He needs to hear it from you... Boy thinks you gave us up."

"...Annabelle might still be alive if I hadn't convinced you to consider a truce with the Law Keepers... If I'd _just_ realized what their plans were, before they'd..." I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her before she could carry on, my mind slipping back to that awful day.

"They were your friends... You couldn't have guessed they'd turn it around on us. Besides, from what I hear, you've done a damn good job makin' most involved pay for it," I said solemnly, motioning back to the door. "But Ben _deserves_ to know the truth of it... You're his mother, and you convinced them all to give him that surgery, after I let him..."

That explosion; that colossal error that had left our boy in the rubble.

She cut me off, shaking her head, before pulling me into a tight hug, kissing my cheek softly, before drawing back. "I don't have the right to call myself a parent... Honestly, I don't even think I could face him now, after all that's happened... Sometimes I wonder if I ever will..." She gathered herself up, gazing at the door mournfully with a sad smile, before turning to leave. "He's alive, and by the sounds of it happy. All in all, I couldn't ask for more than that... Take care of him, will you?"

"Always have..." I chuckled as our son's laughter poured into the halls. "You'd be proud of him... He's come a long way."

I pulled out my Scroll, near obsolete and limited as it was, and pulled up a picture that Reika had sent me once she worked out how, which showcased AMBR together as a group in some restaurant in Vale. With a ping, I sent it off to her, her own Scroll buzzing as it got the message.

"...Maybe once my sentence's up, we could..." She'd already rounded the corner and was out of earshot, the clicking of her heels on the tiled floor, and the warmth on my cheeks the only sign she'd been there at all.

* * *

**_-Lucas Violette-_**

"...So it was almost a complete loss, then?... With _nothing_ to show for it, Vergil?" I asked dispassionately, aiming the question towards the Scroll on my desk, where my student had just finished relaying his report, staring out at the bustling city beneath me, where little people went about their lives blissfully unaware, and at peace. "We devoted _three_ Trapper agents and a full unit, along with vehicles and supplies, towards obtaining the prototype weapon... and you're telling me that, with all of that, they were _still_ unable to retrieve it?... You even lost Lancaster to the Atlesians."

**_"The fault is mine, Master..."_** the distorted voice spoke back in a deferential tone, though I could still detect the undercurrents of anger and shame underneath, along with the pain at how low my voice had been.

_'That they could've inflicted such damage is shame enough...'_

**_"I should've had the device shipped to the designated location as soon as it was in our possession, but I let my personal feelings get in the way, feeling it was a better use of our time and resources to try to confirm Joel Ambrose's death before leaving the area. It was an amateur error, and I accept full responsibility. I underestimated their resolve, and was caught off-guard because of it..."_**

"...You sought to confirm the death of a traitor, and wished to meet him with full force. An admirable show of loyalty..." I replied with a sigh, lamenting the loss, but accepting the reasoning behind it, if flawed. "From what I can tell, much of the fault lies with Briar for not confirming the kill when she had the chance, and instead going off an assumption. She will be reprimanded appropriately when the time comes. For now, return here to recover, and consolidate the remaining Second Generation forces we have left across Remnant. I want a full headcount by the end of the week, along with trainee assessments for possible replacements from our pools."

A tall order, given the scope of our work and the nature of the Trapper unit, in general. But I trusted Vergil's ability to see it done._** "I'll have it done in half the time, Master. I will not fail you again... I**_ **swe****ar**_** it,"**_ the blind student declared, before disconnecting the call, leaving me alone with my uninvited guest.

"Well, well... Quite the loyal little trooper, isn't he?" a low feminine voice spoke up from across my desk playfully. "Does he sit on command, too?"

I turned to face the amber-colored eye of the dark-skinned woman it belonged to, the other closed with a scar that ran down her face, bisecting it. As usual, she was wearing the gaudy, well-tailored, thick red jacket and clothes she'd used during her time as the "Bounty Huntress," peering back at me slyly with a dazzling white smile.

"Really, that must be such a hassle, having someone dogging you like that. 'Master' this, and 'Master' that." She played with a strand of curly black hair that hung across her face, the rest drawn back in a long ponytail of beaded braids that fell to the middle of her back. "I do hope you'll go easy on Lizzie, though... She's had a hard couple of months..."

"I'll be sure to take that into account... As for Vergil, at least the boy's _loyal,_ which is more than I can say for your two protégés, Marigold," I countered, taking the seat across from her as I sifted through the stacks of papers littering the desk. Mission updates, resource delegations, public forums, etc.

_'I miss the simpler days, where all I had to worry about was Grimm and the occasional criminal cartel.._.'

That had been before the White Fang... Before Rachael and Robyn... Patrice... I ran a pale hand through my slicked back brown hair, fingers tracing the steadily lengthening lines of grey that were beginning to show at the temples. Another pesky reminder of age slowly creeping up on me. "Though what else could I expect, with a mercenary like yourself watching over them?"

Her eye flashed violently, but the smile never left her face, merely shifting to a more relaxed stance. "Do recall, Lucas, that I was never one of those little cronies you had running around at your beck and call in the beginning. You hired me for a service: training two young Huntsmen of my choice to hunt people down at your beck and call. I accepted because, at the time, I believed in your vision. That's that. I was never one of those... What do you call them now? 'Gen 1s?'" She put her legs up on the desk, deliberately over the folder I'd just fished out. "Considering one of those kids turned out to be your cute little nephew, I think I honestly should've charged more." She shot me another smile, before glancing out the window over my shoulder. "And for your information, Joel left on his own accord. My teachings had nothing to do with that little choice, or what's resulted of it."

"I wouldn't insult the boy by assuming he could be so easily swayed. He's old enough to make his own decisions, and accept the consequences of his actions. And, foolish as they are, I can admire his conviction. He has much of his father and grandfather in him."

"And to think I used to wonder how you two were related..." she chuckled, a card having appeared in her hand that I kept a wary eye on, watching it flip and flutter between her fingers. "Then I noticed how stubborn you both were, and it just clicked!"

"He gets it from his mother, I assure you," I said dryly, not rising to the barb.

"And that doesn't bother you?... Ordering a death mark on your sister's son?... Training a warrior who would like nothing more than to end the life of your own flesh and blood for your pleasure?"

"The boy is not your son; neither is Briar your daughter..." I spoke up firmly, hand drumming lightly on the desk as I wiggled the file loose from her leg. "They're soldiers under my command... Or at least the girl is. They aren't children to be..."

"Well, _someone_ had to treat them like they were! Especially with some of the nightmare fuel you have running in this building!" she growled, smile gone to be replaced by a sharp frown that made the back of my hair stand on end.

_'I'd almost forgotten the feeling. Fear...'_

I stood my ground, dark eyes meeting hers calmly, trying to ignore the fact that the woman who sat before me had a kill count as impressive, if not more so, than my own. That she was one of the strongest Dust mages on the face of Remnant, with what could only be a crystal hanging off her ear right now, along with a few other jewels likely spaced across her person, that were all capable of leveling this building floor, at least.

"You have half the Kingdoms out looking for you, while the other half wants you dead... If I wanted, I could make a killing here and now, depending on who I went to with your head." The card stopped moving, held between two outstretched fingers. I was tempted for a second to bare the compressed swords hidden up my jacket sleeves, but resisted at the last moment. "Hell, I'd have given them this location already, if I wasn't certain you had a dozen just like it somewhere else."

"Then why haven't you?" One second. That was all I needed to end the Huntress if push came to shove. The only problem was a suitable opening...

She shrugged, actually shrugged. The card vanished from her hand, as if it had never been there to begin with. "Because, while I don't agree with your methods all the time, your lot are at least making a dent against the Fang... which is more than I can say for the Council and their own forces. You want to stop those bastards from hurting anyone else, and so do I... We can have our own little showdown after they're good and in the ground. Agreed?"

"Agreed," I nodded, relieved to see the accursed woman put her feet down as she got to her feet, stretching with a loud sigh. "I trust you can find your own way out _without_ dispatching any more of my guards?" I added, glancing around her at the smoking hole she'd made of my office door, the groaning bodies of my "elite guards" lying on the ground, or attached to walls encased in ice. "Really, a call would've sufficed. Less clean up as well."

"It would, but it just doesn't have the same flair. Don't you think, V?" she said, moving towards the door, before pausing abruptly, looking around with a burning look in her eyes that could've cracked steel. "Now listen closely... While I'm not sure your toy soldier will care much, being who he is and all, just make sure that anyone who messes with _my kids_ knows they're messing with _me,_ personally... So Lizzie better be alright by the end of whatever punishment you have cooked up. Same goes for Joel the next time they try to drag his friends into our battles!"

And like that, she was gone like a shadow back into the night, leaving me alone in the cold room, the muffled sounds of the city below my only company as I went back to work, a smile on my face.

_'An incredible woman... If only I could make her come around to our side fully...'_

"...Glory to the Red Hand..." I sighed, smile slipping away as I went back to running this war - my war - switching my Scroll to broadcast mode to see a pair of anchors discussing the upcoming Vytal Festival. They discussed high profile teams, the recent issues with the White Fang attacks, and what General James Ironwood's response would be, especially in regards to this Breach the animals had caused. The whole event had been publicized, talked over, and scrutinized by every major network and information source on the face of Remnant.

Already, we had reports of new potential recruits being drafted almost faster than we could supply and arm them in their thirst to get back for the attack. Our power was growing with each passing moment...

"Glory to the Red Hand, indeed..."

* * *

**_-?-_**

"You know this can all end, right now, if you just tell me what I want to know, Human. It's _that_ simple." I crouched down to face the portly man bleeding from a broken nose all over the floor in front of me, clean shaven face the purest picture of terror, as he took in my masked visage, framed by the dark-auburn hair that hung to my shoulders in a wild mane, the harsh-lined dark red tattoos I wore along heavil- muscled arms that my sleeveless armor showed off, and the scars earned from battle after battle against those strong enough to leave them. Reminders of how I was weak once. Oh, so weak... "I _really_ hate having to ask twice... Now, we paid you good Lien to keep eyes off Mountain Glenn. _ALL_ eyes."

"I-I don't know w-what happened!" the man pleaded, actually managing to fight his way out of the grip the two Faunus at his sides had him in, wrenching his arms free to fall face to the floor in front of me. "Pwease, you havfe to believfe me! There shouldn'th have been anyhone anywhere near thhose ruins; not even Huntsmen! I havfe no ideah why those students were...!"

I cut him off the second he tried to meet my gaze again with that sniveling face, backhanding him so hard I could hear the bones in his neck crack, before his body slumped to the ground lifelessly, the soldiers taking a step backwards as I stood up, cricking my neck irritably, before noticing the gory mess coating my covered fists.

_'If he really knew anything, he'd have either been screaming it by this point, or he was tough enough that he'd take it to the grave... No use wasting time...'_

"Clean this mess up, and ready the next one. Looks like we've got a _long_ night ahead of us..."

I motioned towards the fresh corpse absently, stripping off the gloves, before wiping my hands on a towel one of the other grunts brought forward, his pale-faced fellows scrambling to fulfill my orders as quickly as physically possible.

"And can someone get me a goddamn air freshener, already!? Smells like rotting pig in here!" The one with the towel, a young man with tusks, coughed once, but said nothing else. Smart kid.

_'Just keep getting younger and younger, don't they? Maybe I'm just getting old_.' I'd heard the higher-ups had been stressing recruitment more and more, but this was getting ridiculous. _'So a bunch of students took out the whole of the Mountain Glenn op, and set it off early, huh? God, that's just sad to think about...'_

"Commander." I turned around, tossing the towel back at the boy as another masked figure entered the room, a thin-faced woman with sunken golden eyes, pale skin, and dark-colored feathers in place of hair. "We've word from Vale. Urgent business." Obviously referring to the Breach that had occurred in Vale _way_ before schedule the day before, which had set the entire chain of command scrambling to figure out exactly what the hell had just happened, the whole lot of them sending me whatever and whoever they could to find any possible leaks that might've caused it.

_'No one too important, of course. Only the ones they don't expect back after I'm done.'_

"Walk with me, Falkner." I motioned for her to follow as I made my way into the darkened corridor of the office building we were currently stationed in, similar bases dotting a hundred cities all across Remnant, all steadily working towards the uplifting of Faunuskind, and the downfall of the Human-driven Kingdoms.

_'Least that's the official story. Haven't been too sure these past few months ever since that red woman showed up...' _I shook my head out with a growl, scratching at the tattered ears atop my head. _'No use complaining about it. Those in charge seem to think she's worth helping. Doesn't matter what I think... Probably wouldn't care what I had to say, anyway.'_

"So how are things looking so far? Casualties?"

The bird woman pulled a Scroll from her belt, flipping through it with a lazy finger. "Almost. The total loss was in large part because of the Grimm. The only survivors we know of are those who weren't directly on the train themselves when it left Mountain Glenn. Also, getting information out of those who didn't desert at the first chance has been... interesting." I raised an eyebrow, which she seemed to pick up on, even if she couldn't see it past the mask, a smile tugging at her thin lips. "Apparently, the entire thing was mucked up by a bunch of kids, an old man faster than the eye can see, and a flaming corgi."

"One of those too-crazy-not-to-be-true situations, then? Confirms what we know on this end, anyway... Bunch of kids and a flaming corgi..." I couldn't help but chuckle at the mess.

"Either way, those that are left have lost their head, and are running blind with Atlas breathing down their necks. Seems Adam Taurus is taking control of the situation, and he's requesting..."

"Never known the little monster to '_request_' anything. He _wants_ the Hound's to help keeping order in the ranks during the transition," I finished with a toothy grin, stepping into what amounted to my office, which was a mountain of paperwork sitting next to a disassembled bladed shotgun covered in designs similar to those on my flesh. "Makes sense, I suppose."

The Blood Hounds. A simple name for one of the most brutal enforcement forces the White Fang fielded in its little crusade, handling the dirty work most Faunus lost sleep over with gleeful smiles on our faces, and bloodlust in our hearts. One the Fang's more successful answers to the Red Hand, and others like it, who thought we weren't willing to go the extra mile for effective troops. Interrogation, assassination, elimination, and the toy Trappers liked to think they knew: pain. We understood the best ways to inflict it on our foes, at least the ones we'd gotten our hands on before the end. We'd been sure to educate those kids properly before we sent them back to their friends.

"Always liked the kid. Damn shame I couldn't permanently make him one of ours, but it seems he's done well for himself, in any case."

"He was so cute back then, too. Never knowing when to hold back. Always the little artist..." Falkner reminisced, blushing lightly underneath her mask, before a scowl wiped it clean. "Then that little kitty came along, and stole him away..."

"I wouldn't mention her to him. Probably still a sore spot. That is unless you wanna become one of his next pieces?" I chuckled, remembering the last time I'd seen the boy while I shifted through a few of the papers, troop movements, details from prisoners' command thought pertinent to ongoing missions, while trying to forget flashes of other paintings, these not done in blood, a little girl's laughter at my praise. "...Track down Charlie and Boris, and have them get the troops together. Anything else?"

She nodded, flipping to another note in her Scroll, a quizzical look dawning on her face. "Yes, actually... It seems some of the analysts found an entry in one of the Mountain Glenn systems that referred to you, or at least something the former head of operations there thought you should be made aware of personally."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It has to do with the false Trapper attack that happened a while back during a recruitment gathering. Apparently, one of those involved identified herself as a 'Maxine Argus.' Some Faunus half-breed with highly destructive powers, working alongside... Sir?" She faltered as I dropped the stack of papers and clutched for the desk, as if to steady myself. "...Commander Conan?..."

"...What was that?" I asked slowly, calmly, with enough cold fury to force her back a step. I could smell the sweat dripping from her brow. Her fear... "Repeat that again!?"

"M-Maxine Argus, sir... I..."

"...For your sake, forget you ever heard that name, and get out right now." If only this woman weren't so effective, this would be all the easier to deal with...

"C-Commander?"

"**_GET OUUUUT!_**"

If she didn't get the message before, then the desk crashing and making a large hole in the wall centimeters from her head screamed it loud and clear. The Hawk Faunus darted as fast as her legs could carry her away from me, as I tore the small office apart in my anger, screaming in bloody rage.

"Maxi..." I groaned, slumping down to the floor in the middle of the wreckage, reaching into my armor to grab for the small locket that hung next to my heart with one hand, feeling for the small ring that hung next to it, while the other went to Falkner's discarded Scroll, eyes widening as I read the late Lieutenant's report regarding the young woman, her strange powers, and her attitude in battle... "What the _hell_ are you doing in _Vale!?_"

Last I'd heard, she'd been studying safely in Mistral, where the White Fang's interests weren't as prominent. Away from where her power might get her caught up in all this... Away from me.

'_I told those suits to watch her... I told Carmen! I'll **gut them** all for this!...' _The tattoos began to glow a brilliant scarlet as the Dust sparked within me, cracks spreading across the ground as my Aura began to, literally, carve its way through the floor.

"...Sorry, Sophie... Seems our little girl took after me in more ways than we thought, after all..."

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Lucas Violette - Troy Baker

Fortuna Marigold - Cree Summer

Erika Falkner - Monica Rial

**_A/N: Whew, okay this arc is finally done in one of the longest if not THE longest release to date (Wasn't sure where I could begin splitting this into chapters), with only a short little interlude before we enter Volume 3 proper which is finally out after so long. It won't be a long one, just some set up for AMBR and a way for me to see how the season goes before I start putting stuff together._**

**_It does raise an interesting point that I've been juggling around about whether to end Finding Redemption and go into a sequel with this one covering one and two while the next covers three and beyond, hopefully more to come or keep going with this story and keep it all together. I just realized that according to the length I have about 2-3 books or more worth of words in here as it is. Just something to consider cause this thing is getting huge. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll be sure to have some more out soon. -Mojo_**


	42. Chapter 42

**Edited as of: (11/7/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

TEAM SBLE

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"You realize I could've just sent it over to you at Beacon, right? It would've saved you the trip," Jacob noted to me as he keyed in a code on the small number pad before him. The large steel door before us opened with a barely-audible hiss to reveal the wide lab space and testing grounds within, that also had a rather nice window side-view of Beacon, and scenic Vale in the distance. "Not that I'm complaining. Things have been a bit dull on my end, now that the Breach has been cleared up, so all I have on my plate is drone programming. Honestly, though, I would've thought you'd want my head after, uh... Never mind... I like the new look, by the way. Er, what you've done with it I mean... Um..." He gestured to my shortened hair, now hanging just above my shoulders, framing my now mask-less face. "Anyway, as you can tell, I've been hurting for some actual face-to-face company, so it's nice to see you... No offense, Allison," he added quickly over to his watch, a guilty look on his face.

_"None taken, sir. I've taken the liberty of moving your scheduled meeting with General Ironwood back an hour,"_ the hollow-sounding voice issued from the watch, the screen pulsing slightly, almost like a heartbeat. _"You also have another message pending from a Joel Ambrose. Would you like to...?"_

"Hold it, would you?... You'd think after a few dozen dismissals he'd get the damn message..." the young man sighed irritably, before realizing whose company he shared. "Look, I'm sorry about requesting to bring the weapon here. Hell, I'm sorry I even had to help design the thing in the first place! But with things the way they are..." He shrugged, moving further into the room towards a small, locked metal case on the desk while continuing on, "it's just better off here, where the General's forces can protect it until it can be sent back to Atlas, rather than stuck in some far off lab, where anyone with half a brain could get their hands on it. I _am_ sorry you lot got dragged into the middle of it, and I'm..." He breathed out, panting slightly with his face flushed as I glanced back at him smiling, with my eyebrow quirked in amusement. "You know what?... I'll just stop filling the silence now, and move on..." He went back to his work, keying in another code on the storage device itself, before using his Scroll to unlock it.

I nodded, remembering why I was here in the first place. Moving quickly to his side, I peered over the lip of the container to see what lay within, nestled snugly in the cushioned lining.

"When you sent me the approximate location, and described what you were looking for, well..." he began, lifting the gauntleted arm brace from within, the violet-colored metal glinting in the dim light, while the inset Dust crystals at the knuckles, and along the length of the piece, almost seemed to absorb it with a silvery shine. "My people said it took a while to track down, but they found the site."

A village burning. People screaming as they ran. Wooden houses crashing down around us...

"It was almost exactly as you described. Took some digging, but we, uh... we found this shortly after arrival. I-it was damaged, but I've done my best to..." he trailed off, noting the shimmering look in my eyes as I reached out, running the tips of my fingers over the last remnant of my mother. "We marked the site down in our records... We buried what we could, after determining identity."

There was probably not much left to bury, at this point, though the gesture was appreciated.

This thing was at least more than a decade old. A decade at least had gone by since that day. A decade since I'd made my way through that forest, avoiding the blank spots around me as I walked towards the light for what must've been days...

"It's a real piece of work; the arrangement of the main crystals, along with those forged into the weapon itself, form an almost lattice work of..." He coughed, realizing that he was probably the only flesh and blood figure in the room even capable of understanding half of what he was about to say. "...The closest thing I've seen like it was a shield that the Trapper Alexander Capaneus, the one that attacked Joel, used. The weapon was mangled almost beyond repair by Miss Xiao Long during the attack, but it was described as being able to use various Dust types to absorb the energy of forces acting upon it, and redirect it back outwards... This does something similar, if a bit more... simplistic... if you can call brute forcing the laws of physics to your favor 'simplistic.'"

I picked it up, surprised at the unexpected weight of it as I slipped it over my arm. I was surprised to find that it fit, before realizing that if the scientist had worked on it himself. That was to be expected.

_"How?" _I asked, the boy having picked up enough of the hand talk to understand. Only Professor Goodwitch had picked it up faster, if less completely.

"Think about it like this..." The boy looked around the small space for a moment before shrugging, punching his fist into his palm hard, wincing somewhat. "I just punched as hard as I could, but it was stopped by my palm that met it with about as much force, thus softening the blow. Well, this gauntlet takes that returning force, absorbs it in a reaction powered by your Aura, and then redirects it outward in barely under a second." He noted the look on my face, scratching at his brown curls absently. "...You hit whatever it is you're hitting way harder. And with an Aura-fueled strength like yours..." The realization dawned on me a second later. "Simulations have you being able to blow a hole through a Boarbatusk easy, with enough force left over to dent the living hell out of anything behind said Boarbatusk. Though there are risks, of course."

I nodded, channeling some Aura into the brace, only to leap in surprise as its sections clamped down around my arm snugly. It wasn't uncomfortable, though. I had a bit of trouble moving my hand, somewhat. _'Mother might've been like me... But she still died...'_

"When in ready mode, it needs to lock your hand still, or you'd probably shatter your own bones by accident, Aura or not..." he noted when he saw me struggling with it. "And for all the destructive power it gives, it's still effectively a one-shot kill that leaves no room for error. It absorbs the force, so you won't be flying back from the recoil, or able to move much for a short while afterwards. So if you miss, or if your target somehow survives or has back-up, you'll be a sitting duck. So choose when to use it wisely. Maybe start carrying a pistol around again, like your old weapon, to give you some degree of ranged offense."

He was using his lecturing voice again. I'd noticed it during the few short calls we'd had since I first asked him to track the weapon down for me back in the Badlands. He's switch into it occasionally, and would probably have gone on for hours, if something didn't stop him. Thankfully...

_"Professor, you have a notification from General Ironwood. He requests an update on the status of the new targeting software for the AK-200 series,"_ Allison spoke over her maker, watch screen pinging with a sudden alert. _"You also have a meeting with Doctor Faraday to discuss proper disposal methods for the..."_

"Ugh... Tell the General progress is going to be delayed a bit due to an unknown bug in their system parameters; one likely carried over from the 130 series. Let him know I should have the issue dealt with by tomorrow, and to expect maybe a five-point-three-two percent rise in accuracy, overall. I'm smart; not a miracle worker. As for Faraday, you can let her know..." He turned to look at me guiltily, an apologetic look clear on his face. "Sorry, Reika, but I'm going to have to cut this short. The General's under a lot of pressure to cover security for the Festival, which means I'm under a lot of pressure to keep his troops working as efficiently as possible. You understand, don't you?" He whispered into his watch, lowering his arm as a small ping issued from my Scroll to signal a new message. "I've cleared a few dozen of the old 130s for you. Mostly show models and unarmed, but more than enough to give you a feel for how things work. They should be showing up in a few minutes, so just flash the boys the message... There's also something else I felt you should probably have along with that..."

I pulled out the device, fiddling with the holographic buttons with some difficulty, until I realized the trick for disarming the gauntlet. I brought up an official-looking requisition form and something else. Hesitating for a second, I opened it to reveal what seemed to be personnel records. Two to be exact. The attached pictures put a hitch in my breath.

"...The Kingdoms keep a public record of info they have regarding population counts and marriages, even those that leave, or whoever they can profile from beyond their walls. It's for trade and supply purposes, like who or where needs this much, and whatnot... Anyway, I've made sure they won't forget about these people, though. I've created a memorial file, so... so... I-I'll just leave you alone to..." He stiffened when I caught him in a crushing hug, face digging into his side as he tried awkwardly to return it, looking more than a little flustered as he stumbled off, muttering into his watch.

I just stood there for a long while, staring at the photos. Even as a few coverall-wearing workers dropped off the mechs, shooting nervous looks my way, but choosing to let it be without issue.

_'I look like Mother...' _I thought, comparing myself to the woman in the photos, who had long, black hair that fell around her face, and curled towards the ends, with large violet eyes. _"But I have Father's nose...'_

Both Huntsmen had trained within Beacon years ago, but had become involved with one of the many groups that wished to settle beyond the Kingdoms. This group had aimed to draw aid from the Badlands, but had settled too far beyond their borders. _'They couldn't have helped us...'_

It wasn't easy to read. Some of it left me crying, and others angry at what they had done. Regardless, I couldn't help but be grateful for the chance to know.

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Ah... What the!?" I woke up to a mind-numbing headache, the familiar sight of Murasaki's bunk looming over me. Only problem was, I couldn't quite remember how I could've ended up back in the room. And something smelled off. Different...

_'Last thing I remember I was stepping into the hospital to visit Sonia... Then...'_

Nothing. I recalled putting one foot through the sliding glass door, breathing in the sour antiseptic odor that seemed to permeate the halls, right before my mind just blanked. I tried get myself into a sitting position, but my arm gave out under me, sending me tumbling to the wooden floor with a loud crash, punctuated by a few choice curses as I blew some locks of hair out of my face... Before noticing from the sudden cold that the clothes I'd been wearing to the hospital had been replaced by barely more than a carmine colored bra.

"_Son of a...!_"

"Maxi, you alright!? I heard...!" My head shot up at the unfamiliar voice, as our little boundary blanket was pulled aside in a hurry by a chestnut-haired boy in grey colored sweats and a black t-shirt, with bespectacled yellow eyes. Eyes that were currently in the process of popping out of his skull, even as he tried to cover them with pale, long-nailed hands. "Shit; sorry, _sorry!_"

"Who the _hell_ are...!?" My face flushed scarlet with embarrassment as I followed his point of view, which was followed quickly by a spike of anger. I reached out towards my Semblance, intent on crushing this strange intruder into twitching little... "Huh?" I muttered in pure surprise as I reached tentatively outwards with my Aura, and found... _nothing._ The power that had been so present since its discovery, even to the point of no control, was simply absent. The shock of that fact was so palpable, that I just sat there, staring off as the strange boy scrambled back behind the curtain. "W-what the hell?"

I could still hear him rattling around behind the curtain, scrambling back into the top bunk by the sound of it. _'What's going on? Why does it smell so weird in here?' _It made no sense. After months of living in this space, my teammate's sense had pervaded the room in a way that should've been unmistakable, even days after they'd left, especially seeing how Ben would leave his clothes everywhere on the boy's side. _'So why the hell can't I pick him up in here? His scent's just **gone.**' _I rattled around through my drawers, finding some shorts and a custom shirt with my emblem on it stuffed within, along with more than a few unfamiliar get ups I had no recollection of owning. Even some cutesy-looking blouse with lace.

"Look, don't kill me, okay!? I'm sorry; I didn't mean...!"

Maxi... He called me Maxi. Only a few people had ever called me that, or _were_ allowed to call me that...

With a snarl, I pulled the curtain aside, gaping at the strange sight before me. My teammates had never been much for decorating; hell, the most Ben had ever put up were a few pinups or newspaper articles, while Ambrose hadn't really had much to begin with since leaving prison, trying to fill his stark sleeping space with books borrowed from Belladonna, while littering his wall with some pictures. All of it, however, was gone, replaced by what amounted to a brightly lit tent, similar to what Rose had set up in her room, where the chestnut had taken shelter, and a dimly-lit space ornamented with strung up lights, where a muscular boy in cargo shorts and a tank top, maybe a year or two younger than I was, with shaggy, raven black hair hanging in his face, peered back at me from behind a magazine with verdant green eyes.

"Do I even want to ask?..." he intoned in a smooth, probing voice, turning back to his reading with a sigh. "Cut him some slack, will ya? He was just worried if you were okay or not. You sounded pretty bad." He shrugged as a strangled sound of agreement issued from inside the tent, before looking up again. "You _are_ okay, aren't you?"

"What the hell _is_ all this!?" I growled, taking a step back, keeping an eye on both as his buddy stuck his head out of the tent, looking more wary than afraid now. "Who are you two, and why is all my stuff here!?"

The pair glanced at each other, clearly confused, before the glasses boy spoke up warily. "What're you talking about? You live here." He gestured around the room, and then towards himself, grinning broadly, still not even bothering to crawl back down from the bed. "Karl Lovat. Your teammate, remember? We went out last night to celebrate our first mission. You were practically trying to rip my head off, after..." He trailed off while holding his arms out, smile vanishing as he caught sight of the look on my face. "Uh... I don't think she remembers... Ed?"

His buddy shook his head, looking me up and down curiously in a way that had me shifting uncomfortably. A fact that, if anything, only served to make me angrier. "No idea. What'd you lot do yesterday?"

"Nothing! Just a few drinks..."

This was getting ridiculous, and none of it was helping my headache, a pain that was almost close to splitting at this point. "...Okay. Ha, ha! _Real_ funny. Where the hell's Carson, and how much did he pay you guys to mess with me?... Or are you guys just doing this to screw with AMBR!? 'Cause when Ambrose finds out...!"

I thought we were past this. The hate mail and the sabotage, at least. Hell, after Ambrose's little stunt with the Trapper, we were almost popular.

"'...AMBR?'" Ed asked me, putting aside the magazine now, "What are you talking about? Who's Ambrose?"

"Joel Ambrose. My partner, big guy! White hair, sorta hard to miss in a crowd!?" I listed off on my hand, backing off towards my bed as Karl crawled his way down slowly. "For God's sake, he was a fucking Trapper! How the hell can you not...!?"

"Alright, Maxine, if this is some kind of joke, you can stop now. It's not funny!" Karl growled, using my full name, for the first time showing off a pair of nasty incisors as his eyes turned to slits.

_'A Faunus...' _I realized with a start, looking around for something, anything to fend him off in case he attacked. _'No axe, no Semblance... **What's happening!?**'_

"A _Trapper!?_ That's just going too far!"

I glanced behind me, up towards Murasaki's bunk, and felt my heart stop. Where once there had only been a picture of AMBR stuck to the wall, there was now a whole board tacked to the wall, covered in a spread of photos. Some of them had two boys behind me, and even a few with what was clearly me thrown in. What caught me off guard, though, was the very familiar figure featured in the majority, especially one of the four of us seated in front of that weird fountain in the plaza, labeled "Team SBLE."

_'T-that's not possible...'_

"What's going on with you lot?" a new voice called from the doorway as it clicked open. A voice I hadn't heard in months, and, honestly, hadn't thought to hear again.

_'This isn't happening... How the **hell** can this be **happening!?**' _I pulled the curtain the whole way, with enough force to tear it from the ceiling. The thin material fell to reveal a pretty, if surprised, young woman with large blue eyes, sporting Beacon's uniform, her black hair done up in a messy bun, while the rest hung to about her chin, framing her face... A face that, last I saw, was thinner and pale, not sharp and full of life. "Max?"

"..._Sonia?_"

It was her. It was really _her._ From how she stood looking at me with her own head angling towards her side, down to her scent, like the air after a spring rain. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd breathed it in, the fragrance having long faded after she'd been admitted. Sonia Bordeaux was standing in front of me, awake, and with a concerned look touching her features.

"H-how...?"

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Karl Lovat - John Burgmeier

Ed - Johnny Yong Bosch

Sonia Bordeaux - Christine Marie Cabanos

**_A/N: For Sonia's hair, think Morrigan from Dragon Age._**

**_Lotta questions with this chapter isn't there? This is the first chapter of the last act before I start with the season 3 storyline, potentially the last in this story if I choose to split it off for a sequel and it's going to be a wild one. Sorry for the length but it just seemed like a good cutoff point and I haven't had as much time to right aside from these little bursts._**

**_Thank you to those who offered suggestions for Reika's weapon, I talked it over with the friend she belonged to in the first place and she put together this idea with some of your input. Apparently based loosely on a concept from Rurouni Kenshin, trying to read it now cause the idea sounded cool when she explained it._**

**_Also gonna curb this now, Reika and Jake, at least for the moment which may or may not change, are just friends. Bonded at the dance over a shared awkwardness dealing with people. Jake, in his mind at least, owed her a favor for the whole bomb thing which he helped make even if he wasn't the one that sent them. And yeah Reika is getting more comfortable without the mask, she's had bad stuff happen but she's handling it. - Mojo_**


	43. Chapter 43

**Edited as of: (11/7/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

TWISTED REFLECTION

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"N-no... That's... That's not... _How!?_"

"Maxi?..." Sonia, or the thing with Sonia's face asked with a tremor of worry in her voice as I took a few hurried steps back, actually tripping back onto my bed in an attempt to put some distance between me and... and whatever the hell this was. "Maxi, what's going on? Guys!?"

"She just woke up like this," Karl spoke up, eyes still thin slits, though Sonia's presence seemed to be calming him down, if only just a little. "I heard a thump from her side, and went to see if she was okay. And then, she goes and freaks out! I thought it was because she was..." He glanced at her, cheeks flushed as he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head out, before pressing on. "It's not important. The fact is, you're the only one she's even recognized so far. Maybe she hit her head?"

"Shut up! Just _shut up!_" I screamed, drawing their attention as I locked eyes with my cousin.

_'How is this possible!? Maybe one of those Wraith things survived the blast months ago, and tracked me to the hospital!?... No. No, it was broad daylight when I walked in...' _Whatever those Grimm had been, they'd been unable to take even the faintest ray of sun without setting their skin sizzling. That brightly lit waiting room would've wiped it out. _'Unless they evolved... Changed, somehow... Maybe...' _The headache was similar, and getting worse by the minute the more I dwelled upon it. However, it hadn't restricted my Semblance like this before. _'And why would it leave my memories this time? And my Aura...' _Looking back, I recalled a certain feeling, those beasts draining at my Aura... None of that was happening here…

"All of you, _back off!_" Ed was on his feet now, too, as both he and Lovat glanced towards Sonia, waiting for her move. "What the hell's going on here!?"

"You two weren't kidding..." I heard Sonia murmur under her breath. _'Damn it, why does it have to sound like her!?' _"Look, Maxi, I understand that you're scared right now, but you need to know we're your friends; your teammates. Team SBLE. Do you remember who, or where you are right...?"

I laughed sarcastically, more on instinct than anything else. "My name's Maxine Argus, kickass student of Beacon Academy, and member of Team _AMBR._" I stressed the team name, my cousin just looking surprised and more than a little alarmed at the outburst, while the pair behind her exchanged this "She's crazy" look between them. If anything, it made this whole situation even worse.

_'I'm **not** crazy!'_

"The team made up of me, Ben Carson, Joel Ambrose, and Reika Murasaki! Not you lot!"

How many times back in Mistral had we dreamed about this after entering combat school?... Well, the blue-eyed girl standing before me had dreamed. I just nodded my head and said it sounded amazing. That I'd want nothing more to be on a team together with her, and fight together against the Grimm or other teams in the Vytal Festival. Anything I could to make the dream of the girl who had followed me into the often-difficult life a Huntress a reality. It was also just so I didn't have to be alone. Still, she pushed herself day after day...

"I think you ought to lie down, or at least check yourself out in the infirmary," Ed motioned, Karl nodding in agreement.

I ignored the both of them, too wrapped up with justifying this to myself to care. "And that name SBLE? Doesn't even work! Where do I even fit in that? M? Nope. A? Nuh uh! That doesn't fit either!"

"Bordeaux..." the other girl replied, pulling her Scroll from her blazer pocket, tapping a few buttons on the screen, before tossing it to me in a lazy arc I had no trouble intercepting.

Scrolls were amazing little devices, despite being a bit too fragile for my tastes, which made life quite a bit easier through a myriad of small functions. One of these was one available only to team leaders that showed the profiles and statistics for their teammates, data which could be used to strategize for team formations, or work on shoring up weaknesses. Ambrose had used it a few times, though I'd never paid much attention beyond the initial explanation, too busy with my current drawing to care much.

"Maxine Bordeaux... You haven't gone by Argus in months. Not since we finished the adoption procedures, anyway. I was of the opinion you wanted to be rid of it."

And there it was: a full profile for _Maxine Bordeaux, _complete with a picture of me posing for the camera, with what seemed to be an honest-to-god smile on my face. _'Adopted?... Aunt Carmen had been adamant about going through the process, but after the accident, she had just...'_

I saw my hands trembling, and forced it to stop, taking a deep steadying breath in the process. According to this, I'd been partnered with Sonia for months now, Team SBLE near the top of the ranks, at least where grades were concerned. Although... _'I don't recognize a lot of these teams...' _In fact, a lot of teams I should've been seeing like RWBY, JNPR, and even CRDL weren't on the list. The most glaring absence of all was... _'No AMBR... Not even anything close...'_ The actual content of the folder was even stranger. History of violence and aggressive behavior present and accounted for, even a bit about what must've been my Semblance. But according to this file, the power simply vanished after an accident months earlier that almost brought down a building back in Mistral... The same accident which should've put Sonia in the hospital, leaving me unable, or unwilling, to access it since.

_'Would I even want to, though? If I had the option?...' _Why am I even debating this? Dangerous or not, it was as a part of me, like my own ears. It was not something to be ashamed of. _'...But if it were gone...'_

"I'm sorry... But there isn't an AMBR anywhere on that list. Though I don't have access to records outside of our year, that still wouldn't count for you," the raven-haired girl replied sympathetically. "Whatever's going on, though, we'll help you work through it. As a te...!"

I shoved past her, practically blowing the door off its hinges in my attempt to clear the room before they could even register what I'd done, let alone stop me. I sprinted down the length of the all too familiar corridor, running past confused and startled students. _'Even the room location is the same! But how!? No! Don't panic! I need to clear my head first, and find a way to string things...'_

My thought process was immediately cut off as I barreled headlong into what felt like a mobile brick wall rounding the corner hard, sending the both of us to the ground in a daze.

The voice let out a groan, that sounded almost like... "Ah... What hit me?"

My eyes shot open as Yang Xiao Long spoke up in a pained grunt, shaking her blonde head out as she raised a hand to her hair protectively, letting out a relieved sigh when she found it unharmed. She looked the same as ever, dressed in her gear, as if she'd just come out of practice with her team.

"Wha!" _'Wait, that's Arc's voice! The hell!?'_

I vaguely registered a flustered Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc rounding the corner after her, looking concerned. They were dressed in their usual combat gear as well. "Yang, this is why I keep telling you not to run in the halls. You need to be more careful!" Nikos said sternly, hands on her hips like she was chastising a small child. Meanwhile, Arc moved to my side with a concerned look on his face.

_'No recognition again... Why do they look like that?' _The trio before me just looked... tired and beaten down were the only ways I could describe it. There were rings under their eyes, and even the usually-immaculate Nikos was looking on edge.

"You hit her pretty hard..." the blonde boy called back at them, waving a hand in front of my face that I knocked away almost on reflex, a move he flinched away from.

"I know, I know. My bad, Vomit Boy," Yang shot back at the knight, before finally turning to face me. "Raised my Aura at the last second before you hit me. You alright?" She got to her feet, taking the hand Pyrrha offered, as Jaune held out his for me.

I was on my feet in an instant, startling the lot of them, and practically throwing the boy aside. My hands quickly found Yang and gripped her shoulders, probably way harder then I should've, judging by the sudden pained look on her face. But I couldn't help it due to the desperate joy at finding familiar faces... Ones that wasn't supposed to be unconscious, anyway...

"Xiao Long! Where the hell's Ambrose!? I need you to tell me where he is!" I practically begged the Huntress, shaking, even as I said it, at the look of utter confusion on her face. "Ambrose! Where is he!?"

"...Who?"

The word hit me like a freight train, sending me back a step as I let go of a relieved-looking Xiao Long, who was rubbing her shoulders while glaring at me warily as Nikos stepped between us. The crimson haired champion's stance had tensed, ready in case I moved again, which was an oddly scary sight. All of this, however, was out of mind in an instant.

"But he... How could you not!? Joel Ambrose is your boyfriend! You two were practically...!"

She wasn't joking. There was no hint of deception in her voice, or mirth at some joke. "Look, I don't know who you're talking about. Sorry," she cut me off, definitely looking uncomfortable now, if she hadn't been before, letting out a nervous bit of laughter as she put a hand on Nikos' shoulder to calm her down. "I've never dated a Joel before, and the name Ambrose isn't ringing any bells."

Well, there was _that_ hope dashed...

"What about Ben Carson!? Rose worked on his arm; maybe she knows... Or maybe Arc!?" Something was off about the Huntsman-in-training, his eyes widening like a mouse.

_'He's acting like he used to before Forever Fall...' _We might not have been around to see it, thanks to that disaster of a first mission, but I'd heard the story enough times. Jaune Arc slayed an Ursa Major, taking lessons from Nikos, and actually gained some measure of confidence in himself. _'Sure, he still screamed a lot, and was generally a bit of a wimp. But he'd at least **try.** This kid looks like he'd piss himself if a Beowolf sniffed in his direction.'_

"H-huh? W-what about me?" The knight was back up, rubbing at his head awkwardly, while Yang's eyes flashed scarlet for a second, setting me on edge.

"Wait, how do you know about Ruby?"

'_OH, **C'MON!**_'

My head almost felt like it was splitting at the seams, forcing me to breathe deep just to try and work through the pain. It was so intense, I missed the large hand shoving me away hard enough to send me back to the ground on my ass, as Cardin Winchester towered above me, looking every bit the smug armored prick he usually did. _'Well, at least some things are the same...'_

"Mind explaining why you're harassing my teammates, freak?" he growled condescendingly as he made to stand in front of the two girls, probably thinking he looked heroic...

_'Wait... His **teammates!?**'_

I looked from the blonde and the redhead, then back to the ginger, trying to wrap my head around this. JNPR and RWBY hadn't been on the list... And now I realized why. The teams didn't exist... because they formed up differently.

"Well? What's your problem!? You deaf, or are those things on top of your head just for show!?"

"Back off her, Cardin. She was just asking me some questions. I think she's confused, or something," Xiao Long spoke up quickly as he raised a leg. Probably to kick at me, knowing him. "It's not a problem."

"S-she's right; no problem at all!" Jaune added while getting in front of him, quivering under the look the other boy gave him. "We had it handled, man. It's cool."

"I saw her attacking you guys. This freak has to learn her place, anyway, and it's my job to make sure you two are safe. Can't trust Jauney boy, here, to do it," he talked back after pushing Arc aside with a mock friendly clap on the back, giving Xiao Long, or bits of her, the sort of leer that probably would've been close to a fatal mistake if Ambrose had been around see it. Honestly, knowing her, I was surprised the brawler wasn't fighting back, though I could tell she wanted to, merely curling her hand into a tight fist that shook with suppressed rage. "Now as for you..."

I gritted my teeth in a growl, ready to show this jumped-up, racist prick why not to mess with me all over again!

"Thank goodness!..." The moment was lost, my head turning round as Sonia ran up to us, catching me in a tight hug. She was panting and red-faced, but looked relieved to see me, followed quickly by her... _my_ teammates.

_'No, no, **no!** That's **not** my team. And that's **not** Sonia! That thing's wearing her face; that couldn't be her!'_

Still, she seemed relieved... At least until she noticed my present company. "...There a problem here, Winchester?" Her tone was calm and measured, but layered in veiled menace, especially when I could tell she noticed the leg dropping back to the ground. It was one of the things that she seemed to have in common with Ben. She was outwardly carefree and sociable, but also able to switch on a dime to this incredible, beautiful, menacing...

I shook my head, almost able to cut the present tension between the two with a knife. Sonia was bad enough, but then I noticed the others. Karl picked at one of his incisors with a sharply-nailed hand, while Ed cracked his knuckles, exuding an unsettling Aura that was almost as scary as Pyrrha's had been, if that were possible.

"'Cause it looked like you were about to kick my partner, my _SISTER_, just now. That can't be right, now can it?..."

A flicker of fear briefly passed through Cardin as weighed his odds, which were not good, considering it was looking as if his teammates weren't going to have his back. _'...**His **teammates... Shit, that feels weird. Using that term with them...'_

"'C-course not! She just ran into my teammate, and started going off on her! You understand I can't just stand by, and let someone attack my team," he countered with a false nobility that oozed with sarcasm, his eyes flickering towards Lovat with a disgusting level of condescension. The Faunus responded with a stern growl that had his eyes back to slits. "Not my fault you can't keep your pets on a leash. I'm almost tempted to ask for an apology."

"Don't push your luck, prick. I've got this handled." The team leader stood up to stare him down. The sight would've almost been comical, seeing as she came up to maybe the lower end of his chest in height, and was unarmored. But the effect was spectacular. "Now back off before someone does something we all regret..."

I began to notice just how many eyes were on us at the moment, a few students milling about to look at the commotion.

"I suppose you do have a point there... Why start anything now, when the tournament's so close? Least that way, when I show those freaks of yours some manners, we'll have the world's biggest audience for it. C'mon, you lot!" he barked at his team before stalking off, dragging a defeated-looking Jaune Arc behind him by the hood.

"Just ignore him. The guy's a jerk, but well..." Yang apologized as she made to follow him, giving me a curious glance and a small smile. "Look. I hope you can deal with whatever's going on, and I'm sorry I couldn't be more help." She gave the rest of my team a nod, while Pyrrha said something to a similar effect, bowing as they retreated after Winchester's retreating form.

"W-what the hell?..." I muttered, unable to keep it in anymore, hating the panicked quiver in my voice as Sonia glared after them. "W-what was that!?"

"Team CYAN..." Ed piped up, probably just feeling it better to explain to me at this point, rather than assume I knew. "Led by Cardin Winchester. A first grade asshole, but the rest of his team's not half bad. Not sure why they put up with so much of his shit, though."

"Rumor is he's got something on Arc, but no one can prove it. He keeps the other two in line by threatening him. Shame, really, especially for Xiao Long and Nikos," Sonia sighed wearily, dropping the murderous persona she'd assumed at the drop of a hat as she turned to look me over. "Of all the people you could've run into... And who's Rose? That seemed to freak Xiao Long out more than just a bit..."

"It's her younger sister!..." I growled, grabbing for my legs as I curled up, doing my best not to look at any of them. "Fifteen year old leader for Team RWBY, and Arc over there's supposed to be leading his own crew!... T-this is all wrong..."

"...You realize how crazy that sounds, right?" Sonia bent down on her knee in front of me, gesturing towards the other two who nodded, who went to shoo off any onlookers still hanging around. "Professor Ozpin letting a _fifteen year old_ girl into Beacon Academy, and have her _lead_ her own team?... And I'm not even going to get started on Arc. I mean, he seems like a decent guy, but I can't see him as..."

"That's Ozpin's whole thing! Weird decisions that seem fucked from the start, but actually have this odd way of working out in the end, even if no one gets them at first! Old bastard's practically prolific at it!"

The small quirks I saw as she reacted to what I was saying, how she held herself... It was all her down to the smallest detail. Even the things I never noticed until she was right in front of me, that I'd completely forgotten.

"Sis..."

"It's not right..." I said again, barely in a whisper, gripping my head in both hands as it pulsed again painfully, eyes watering... "_It's not right!_"

"...Then tell me how you think they should be, so I can help you through it."

The raven-haired Huntress drew me into a hug, one I couldn't help but fall into, as I began to talk. I told her about me, about AMBR, about everything... All while she listened intently, holding me when I just couldn't help myself.

* * *

The rest of the day had passed with one drastic surprise after the other, Sonia thankfully not hauling me off to the infirmary after I'd begged her not to, despite Karl's urging. She decided instead to spend the day helping me remember what I'd apparently 'forgotten.' That, of course, meant that we'd first have to prove that what I was saying wasn't real. A fact made all too clear in the public records present in the library.

I must've spent hours poring over the CCT news records, trying to find some mention of the events of the last few months, and found practically nothing. No Torchwick mentioned anywhere, and no attacks by Trappers. No mention of any Ambrose, beyond a list of prominent families in the Frontier City of Bastion, and a small link to a memorial page for what must've been his family, and a few other survivors of an attack by the White Fang, but, overall, little on Joel himself. Meanwhile, Murasaki had turned up nothing. Karl and Ed had marched off at one point to cover for us, though I think it was more that I kept referring to Ambrose as my partner, the Red Hand apparently being a sore subject with him.

_'Sonia didn't believe me, either... Hell, she had trouble picturing Ozpin letting in a girl early, let alone a murderous criminal like the Trapper as my teammate.'_

The worst, by far, however, had been finding Ben's obituary. It had described in detail how a body had been recovered from a horrific train accident. How the great bandit William Carson, himself, had come forth, claiming it as his son. He turned himself, and his whole gang, in in one foul swoop. The "_Greatest Victory for Justice in the Frontier the Region has Seen in Decades,_" the Kingdom's analysts had described it. Sonia had to pull me out of the library kicking and screaming after I'd thrown the mounted monitor out of a window in raw fury, wishing I could've just torn the building apart brick by brick.

Ben, who was all wide grins and cheeky remarks, was dead and in the ground as of a few months ago... And the Kingdoms at large were celebrating it.

_'No... He's **alive**. He's talking with Ambrose over that whole mission fiasco back in the dorm; the **real** dorm...'_

All in all, it was no surprise that I wasn't exactly in the mood for traipsing around Vale while Sonia pointed out certain landmarks, or told stories in an attempt to "help me remember" the various stunts we pulled, which, in comparison to the shit I'd dealt with on AMBR or working with RWBY, just seemed tame. Almost boring in comparison.

We'd both dressed in our gear for the excursion, mostly because I just wanted the feeling of something, anything familiar. Surprise, surprise, I found my axe sitting in my assigned locker, but it was smaller, more like a hatchet, that could turn into a stubby submachine gun. Made sense, I supposed, seeing as how my Semblance's passive abilities were the main reason I was able to hand the larger model as easily as I had been able to, guiding the large blade almost like an extension of my arm.

_'At least my clothes are similar...' _Though it had taken an alarming bit of time for me to find something that hadn't been seemingly influenced by the Bordeaux. Lovely girl, though she liked lace a bit too much for my taste, or at least what seemed to be my current tastes, in whatever little show this was.

Sonia herself was wearing a short sleeve outfit similar to the one Rose had worn during our little stealth mission, though with blue replacing red, sporting a frilly chest piece, and a single dull grey shoulder pad with her floral vine emblem embossed on it, rather than a cloak as Ruby had used, with a bandolier of Dust vials hanging at her waist, along with a thin-ridged sword breaker on her right side, with a half-cylindrical guard, and a trigger mechanism barely visible on the handle. The whole look made her seem more elegant, as well as dangerous. From the extra bit of makeup she used, to those high-heeled boots, she always seemed ready and able to fight in.

"...And that's where we went to celebrate our little after-dance party. You got _so_ tanked, Karl had to carry you the whole way back to Beacon, while you were trying your best to sing opera!" she laughed, gesturing to a small, but vibrant-looking restaurant. The exact sort of place Sonia would choose to celebrate. "And over there..." She paused in place, noticing my eyes fixed firmly on the ground, a smirk crossing her face. "We both ended up dancing on a bar for a bunch of Boarbatusks in top hats and monocles. Awesome tippers... if you show a little skin, that is..."

"Uh huh... Wait, _what!?_"

"_Exactly._ Glad to see we aren't just walking around out here for nothing," she said sarcastically, shaking her head. "You know, you could at least make the attempt, if nothing else?"

I flushed, glancing around at all the passing people, the bright lights, the sounds... "I'm... I'm sorry. It's just I can't exactly lie and say I remember any of what you're saying. 'Cause to me, right there..." I gestured to a bench located partway down the street. "I sat waiting for an hour, while Carson messed around with caterers for the same dance you describe. Except we actually helped put it on." Then I'd set off my little surprise. The scent of fireworks, and apples on that roof... "I have months of time and people I've..."

"Is this while I'm, apparently, supposed to be in this coma?" she snapped defensively, crossing her arms. "The one you say _you_ put me in?... I can't believe that, Maxi. Not just that you would hurt me..."

"It was an accident, I told you! I freaked out, and...!"

"And your Semblance ran amok. But you managed to contain it before you caused any major damage," she finished firmly, moving to grip my arm reassuringly. "You might've lost that power, but you proved to everyone in the months after that you didn't need it. That you were stronger than they'd ever thought possible. You _earned_ your way into Beacon."

The words were wonderful, and I wanted them to be true... I could almost _want_ to believe it.

"...You say that..." I said slowly, brushing her arm off. "But I _can't_ remember it... I remember digging you out of the rubble after losing control, and taking you to the hospital. I remember telling your mom..."

My cousin opened her mouth to cut me off, but was drowned out as the front of a bookstore, one I remembered being one of Joel and Belladonna's favorites towards the start of the year, exploded in a flash of light, the sound splitting the evening air, which sent civilians screaming and scrambling for cover. Sonia had tensed up, stunned at what had happened. But in my time with AMBR, I'd seen my fair share of action, already trying to discern what had happened... not that I needed to look far.

A figure leapt from the now burning building in a flash of purple-colored Aura, her dark hair billowing as she landed in a crouch. A white mask obscured the top half of her face.

Her stance, the clothes, and the distinct weapons present in both hands. I didn't need to see the cat-like ears atop her head to know that it was Blake Belladonna crouched before me, facing the wall of flame as another person stepped from the flames. This one was bedecked in all-too recognizable black armor, with one hand clutching a long, blue and silver staff, while the other was dragging what could only have been a body behind him. He wore a dark face mask with a red hand print stamped across it, just visible under the black hood he wore. His scent was unmistakable, even past all the smoke and panic... The scent of a sky just prior to a storm.

_'**Ambrose!**'_

**"The White Fang sure has gotten lax with security, letting nameless grunts run around with vital information on their private meeting spots!"** my team leader called over the commotion in that eerie distorted voice those masks produced, throwing the body out into the street. It was a Faunus in street clothes, but had been wearing a Grimm domino mask, as if trying to be stylish. Sonia wretched into her palm at the sight, pale-faced and frightened. **"Though you... You actually seem to be someone worthwhile..."** He stepped out slowly, spinning the bladed staff around his body lazily. His scent bellied something else. Blood, violence, anger, disgust... This wasn't my partner. This was every dark fantasy I'd ever entertained rolled into one twisted image... One that currently had eyes only for the Faunus in front of him. **"Must be my lucky day..."**

"_Murderer!_" Belladonna spat venomously, gazing at the body before her as _Gambol Shroud _shifted to pistol form. She fired shot after shot at him, which was either deflected off the Trapper's staff, or dodged. It did stop his advance, though. "You evil, murderous... Why can't you and your people just leave us alone!?"

Ambrose just laughed. It wasn't the kind-hearted chuckle, or full force laugh I was used to, either. Instead, it was a hateful, angry thing, full of malice... **"Wow. And this is coming from the member of a terrorist organization that regularly attacks peaceful protests, and corporate factories with the workers still inside? The one that assassinates, or strong arms anyone or their families in their way to get what they want!? Talk about the pot calling the kettle _black..._"** Joel said slowly, voice taking a more serious tone as he took a low stance, the same I'd seen a hundred times in practice. **"Way I see it, I'm just taking out the trash."**

The two leapt forward at once, clashing in the middle in a shower of sparks and screeching metal.

I needed to stop this, intervene somehow. But before I could move forward, I felt a tugging on my arm. I turned to see Sonia, pulling desperately for the other way. "What are you doing!? We need to get out of here!"

"We can't just...!" I looked back to the fight just in time to in time to see the White Fang agent block an overhead swing with both blades. The Trapper slipped one hand free from the weapon, as he angled it to pull them closer. The air shifted around the limb, as I smelled the sulfurous tinge of ozone. "Don't let him touch you!" For a second, I thought I was too late, the Feline Faunus noticed the hand just as it found her neck... which then passed through, as the shadow clone dissipated. The real Belladonna appeared overhead mid-jump, sword striking for where the back of his neck would be, intent on finishing this in one stroke...

"_Behind you!_" My axe was in my hand before I even registered what was happening, moving with a burst of Aura-fueled strength to knock the weapon and assassin back as I covered the Joel's back.

_'This is crazy; bat shit **insane**!' _These two were supposed to be friends. _Good ones_, even. The sight of them trying to kill each other now...

**"Thanks for the save."** I registered the tone of voice, and felt the rush of air moments before the staff crashed against my Aura like a hammer, sending me rolling across the ground clutching at my side, wheezing. The whole area where the blow had struck felt strangely numb.** "Now stay out of the fight, and I might just forget that first stunt you pulled. How did you notice...!"** He jerked back just in time to dodge the point of a blade, as a screaming Sonia swept past in a flash of blue and azure, sword lashing out as she drove him back a few paces, before standing before me and the flames defensively. I registered Blake circling around opposite Joel, who now watched the Huntress warily, the two pinning us in from either side. **"...Wrong move, Huntress."** His free hand drifted towards the box-like object affixed to his belt.

_'Well...' _I thought, shifting the mini _Cerberus_ to its ranged form, before standing shakily. I was back to back with Sonia, who was facing Joel, now a Trapper agent, and, from the look of that Faunus over there, more than capable of killing. I, meanwhile, kept my eyes on Belladonna, or at least a White Fang variant that had just tried to strike someone down with no remorse a minute ago, weapon spinning in hand. The four of us stood stock still as the chaos raged around us, waiting for someone to break the standoff.

_'This... might be a problem.'_

-END

**_A/N: Another chapter down and probably just one or two more till we start season three material either in this story or another. RWBY's season 3s been great so far, Nora's semblance gives me so many opportunities now. Thankfully this bit of OC arc was pretty easy to get down once I get going. So yeah lot's of craziness in this chapter isn't there, Cardin's leading Yang and everyone else around, Joel and Blake at each other's throats, and Max caught in the middle of it all, fun times._**

**_Not sure if I managed to portray this right but Max's attitude towards Sonia isn't romantic, though it did seem to come off as such while I was writing it. More she admires and respects a lot of qualities about the girl, especially given that she joined Max at Combat School for her, not exactly an easy or safe life. It's more adoration than anything else, someone she feels she should aspire to._**

**_Sorry if I was a bit blunt with the whole Reika/Jake thing, it's not my character so I try to keep her to how the creator wants it or how they think she'd react. I get a lot of liberties but I try to keep them involved as much as I can._**


	44. Chapter 44

**Edited as of: (11/7/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

LEAVE THEM BEHIND

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Uh... Maxi?... I-I have a question, if you don't mind me asking..." Sonia's voice murmured shakily, barely more than a whisper. Though knowing what I did, I wouldn't be surprised if the two killers surrounding us could've picked out what she'd said anyway.

The Huntress sounded pretty freaked out. Understandable, seeing as from what I'd gathered in my brief time in this strange new reality, SBLE had never encountered anything but Grimm and the occasional sparring match in their time at Beacon. Unlike AMBR, who'd been pulled into more than our fair share.

_'Wow. Getting thrown up against a White Fang Operative and a Red Hand Trapper Agent all at once, in the middle of a burning side street... Hell of an introduction, Ambrose...' _I glanced over my shoulder, the dark-armored figure standing tall as ever, with _Storm Circuit _clutched firmly in one hand behind him, while a small silver knife twirled idly in the other, his masked face twitching underneath his hood in response to my move. _'He even smells the same... But this time, the blood's still fresh.' _My mind raced, recalling my first introduction to the man months ago in the Emerald Forest.

"Shoot."

"...I know Huntsmen are supposed to work towards keeping the peace and everything, but this seems just a bit too extreme, especially for you..."

I almost could've laughed at that. Probably would've, if Belladonna hadn't chosen that exact moment to make her move, rushing towards me almost faster than I could follow. Her sword lashed out towards my chest as I tried my best to get my axe up in time to parry, or at least block it. My mouth opened in surprise when the raven-haired Faunus's weapon clattered against mine, then simply vanished, along with the rest of her in a haze.

_'Fucking ninja!' _I stiffened, readying myself for a counterattack that wouldn't come, as Miss Kitty reappeared in front of a surprised Sonia.

"Get out of here; this isn't your fight!" she snarled, kicking my leader back into me painfully, before Joel fell upon her with a vicious flurry of blows from his staff, the two assassins weaving through each other's attacks almost like a dance, sword and staff crashing against the other in a shower of sparks every few seconds, as the weapons practically groaned underneath the force. "_Now!_" She leapt back, deflecting a pair of knives off the flat edge of her cleaver sheath.

"We should listen to her; come on!" Sonia tried tugging at my arm, face fearfully watching the deadly display before us, flinching when a deflected knife clattered next to us.

It would've been the smart thing to do, definitely. Problem was the thought of the one of them killing the other...

I had no great love for Belladonna. Especially considering her involvement with, and attempts to justify the White Fang. Not to mention her little ploy with the bow had made any sort of friendly relationship beyond a loose working one almost impossible.

_'__Still doesn't mean I want to see Ambrose tear her apart...' _Judging by the way the fight was going, that was _exactly_ what would happen. She was good, no question, but Blake's Semblance and weapon just weren't suited to standing up to the Trapper's own in a straight up fight; it was more suited to hit and run strikes. The clones pushed to the limit, as they kept him at arm's length to avoid a fatal shock. Even now, I could see her gritting her teeth as she attempted to back off, only to be pursued yet again, the Trapper shattering the icy clone that held him with a roar of effort, and a flash of azure-colored Aura...

"Maxi!"

"It's him, Sonia... I don't know how, or why... But it's _him..._" I motioned my head to the Trapper, eyes fixed on hers pleadingly. "I can't just leave, not when I've...!"

I paused when she nodded her head, taking a deep breath to steady herself, before she did a neat flourish with her sword breaker. "Don't ever beg me for anything again. It doesn't suit you," she noted with grim determination as she flared her Aura, drawing the two fighter's attention as they split apart again. "You're sure it's him? He doesn't strike me much as the leadership type."

"He's more of a 'lead by example' kind of guy," I admitted with a tooth-filled smile, hefting my Axe as I drew upon my own Aura, feeling the familiar rush of adrenaline and energy coursing through me.

_'Still no Semblance, though...'_ At the level I was exerting, I could almost feel it, but every time I reached out, it flitted just out of reach. _'Like I need it!'_

"I can deal with him! You deal with Bella... the White Fang, and keep her off my back!" I lunged forward with a barking cry, bringing _Cerberus _crashing down against Joel's staff with more force than he'd been expecting, turning his overconfident block into a forced retreat, twisting the staff in his hands. After months spent sparring against him, I found I could tell exactly what was coming, shifting the beard of my axe so that it hooked over the staff just as the weapon split apart, catching the silvery draw line that connected the shifted daggers. My Ambrose had already found a way around that little ploy, running a bit of electricity down the line as it split to discourage me. This one, however, was thankfully taken off guard, as I swung him around with all the strength I could muster, before finally sending him straight into the side of a car with enough force to dent the frame around him, setting a car alarm screaming into the night to join the cacophony.

Meanwhile, Blake tried to take advantage, only to be forced to leap back by a practically glowing Bordeaux, her weapon missing the Faunus' chest by a hair, and scraping against her barrier. "So strategic. Didn't think you had it in you, sis," my partner said with a swelling note of pride as she took a stance similar to those the Ice Queen used, her eyes flashing a vibrant blue.

"What are you...!?" the ninja spat out, firing off a few quick bursts with her pistol that missed the Huntress completely as she weaved back and forth, though I could tell by the Cat Faunus' surprise that that wasn't the only reason. It had been months since I'd seen Sonia's Semblance in action, though judging by her opponent's panicked reactions, it was as effective as it had ever been.

"Sorry. But as a Huntress, I can't back down, especially in the face of criminals such as you!" she called out to Blake apologetically. My cousin could project her Aura in a way that influenced her opponent's senses for a split second, and even had me guessing at times where she was, throwing them off balance as they fired at reflections that weren't there, or that were just off the original by a few degrees. It was more than enough time for Sonia to close the distance.

_'To me she missed. To Blake, it must've seemed like she hit every shot, and had them pass through.'_ It was ironically similar to the ninja's own Semblance, if more direct and personal. Rather than strike when she was in range, however, the Huntress feinted, thumbing the trigger on the handle of her weapon, and ducking to one side and then the other, as the half cylindrical guard flashed in an explosion of Dust that blinded her foe, even as she brought her blade down on another reflection, and tried to strike out at the last place she'd seen her moving to, crying out as she missed both times. Sonia took her chance striking at her now unprotected side, and connected with a sharp blow that sent her target reeling.

"If anything, you should start running." She resumed her stance, a surprised and ecstatic smile on her face, as if shocked that maneuver had worked so well.

It was a fighting style that depended completely on the chaos it could spread amongst the enemy, and the mind games that resulted. Dangerous to a group, as it would only sow confusion when her opponent's allies would strike out and turn on each other for missing an obvious target, while to a single opponent like Blake, the effects of both her Semblance and weapon alone were devastating. Effects that Sonia had come very close to mastering before the accident.

_'This was what it could've been... What it **should've** been...'_

**"Not bad..."** A low voice shocked me out of my reverie, as I ducked on raw instinct alone. The move probably saved my life, as a knife sailed overhead, just grazing the tip of my right canine ear. **"You still should've ran when you had the chance, though."**

"Sorry. Not really my style!" Three more knives were barely deflected off my axe, though one of the blades managed to graze my bicep as it passed, tracing a thin line through my Aura, leaving a small scratch. Just that bare contact sent a slight tickling sensation up my arm that set my hair standing on end. Another flash of silver raced passed my head to embed itself into a patch of debris just behind me. This blade was different, however, as it was connected to a thin line that was fast going taut.

_'**SHIT**!'_

I looked around, barely able to cross my arms in a weak defense as Joel's armored knee crashed into me and sent me back. The Trapper had been carried along by a line that rewound itself back into the weapon in a burst of sparks, and reformed back into the blue and silver staff, which he brought down seconds later, cratering the pavement where I'd lain not a second before, if I hadn't rolled desperately. He still managed to catch me with a crushing blow to the ribs as he kicked me away from him. Straightening up, he regarded my coughing form menacingly, cocking his head to the side in an unmistakable challenge. One I was more than eager to meet as I ran towards him!

**"You seem to know a lot about me, or at least how I fight, anyway,"** he commented as he met me halfway, seeming even more surprised as each staff blow, each punch, and each stray kick was blocked or dodged, though I wasn't fooled.

_'He's not even using his Semblance... He's curious...' _Didn't mean he wasn't dangerous, though. I leaned back, catching his weapon, and compensating for when he tried to compress it to throw me off balance, my body working through every maneuver I had learned in those surprisingly useful sparring practices against him. Every memory of how he fought flashed in my mind.

**"Not many people force me to use so many little tricks when I fight, and even fewer still survive them... Yet you seem to know they're coming each time I try...?"**

"Damn, you actually talked like that while you were with them!?" I taunted with a feral grin, managing to catch him with the edge of the axe blade in a quick back swing that left a deep furrow across the hand print, and clipped a section of his hood, letting enough light through to show a few patches of stark white hair. "Honestly, you talk a big game, but you're slower than you were at Beacon! You're missing more than usual."

**"...Beacon?"**

He was certainly learning, though, getting faster and harder to counter with each swing. A burning pain shot up my leg as one of his staff blades grazed my thigh, but I pressed forward, landing a rising knee to his ribcage as I reached out for the mask with my free hand, surprising him almost into non motion. "I think it's the mask, Ambrose. Messes with your vision!"

I realized my little slip maybe a second after he did, his fingers already closing around my throat as he swept my legs out from under me, taking me the ground hard with the air knocked from my lungs, and my axe skittering to a halt a foot or two away. **"How the _hell_ do you know that name!?"**

"Y-you told me yourself months ago, remember!?" I spat back at him with a cheeky smile. Never could resist getting a rise out of the big bastard whenever I could.

His grip tightened enough to tinge the edges of my vision, and I could've sworn I felt the beginnings of a charge, when sirens blared through the evening air so closely, that startled him just long enough for Sonia to knock him away with a stabbing strike to the shoulder, which sent him back with a snarl, pawing at the flowing wound to stop the bleeding. Sonia stood between us. angrier than I'd ever seen her, her clothes and body covered in shallow cuts, and hair a mess. Gasping for breath, I looked back to where she and Belladonna had fought, noticing a dark-haired figure retreating into an alley, startling the hell out of a few civilians that had huddled up there for cover.

"Unless you think you can deal with me and the authorities when they arrive, I suggest you do the smart thing and back off, Trapper!" she growled, scent and voice oozing with barely-restrained malice.

Ambrose wasn't stupid, and judging by the sound of the sirens, we were likely a minute or two away from swimming in cops and emergency personnel, all of which would take one look at the Faunus' body on the ground and the trademark mask, before putting two and two together.

I couldn't tell where his eyes were looking through the dark tempered glass slits that constituted as eyes for the mask, but judging by the chill running down my spine, they were firmly fixed on me.

**"...This _isn't_ over..."** he said coldly as he took what looked to be some sort of cylindrical vial from his belt, and threw it on the ground. A thick cloud of greenish smoke billowed from the point of contact, that spread out to blanket the Trapper and a good deal of the area around him in a caustic-smelling fog that had my eyes watering painfully. The area cleared a moment later, with the warrior nowhere in sight.

_'You'd think he'd lead with that next time...' _I laughed despite myself, head falling back to the ground, leaving a worried looking Sonia staring at me dumbfounded, as if I'd just gone insane. _'Who knows... Maybe I already have.._.' I thought, drifting off as the sound of shouting and barked orders filled the air, the image of that twisted copy of my partner seconds before perched above me still fresh in my mind.

* * *

"_You can't be serious!?_" my cousin practically screamed at me, crashing through the set of double doors that led out from the police station, eyes blazing as she looked down at me from those stone steps. "You _still_ intend to go after him, after all this!?"

For hours, we'd been shifted around from one debriefing to another. Some were with detectives, a harried looking police commissioner, and a very awkward one with Goodwitch, who, aside from explaining how foolhardy we were engaging in combat with such dangerous individuals, also seemed very put off at my attitude. I supposed having Sonia around probably could've made me more polite towards authority. Surprise or not, I wasn't going to just sit around and take sass while proof, actual _proof_ that I wasn't wrong, was in the city right now.

"I have to find him Sonia! I can't just...!"

"Maxi, you need to just stop and think about this for a second! You aren't well! We should talk to the Professor, or...!"

"_How!?_" I cut her off harshly, rounding on her once I reached the brightly-lit street, drawing more than a few onlookers from the milling rush of people. "How am I 'not well,' exactly!?"

"You aren't making any sense! You've been saying all this weird stuff that's never happened, having delusions that you're partners with some Trapper degenerate you've never met, let alone how you knew that White Fang girl! How is any of that normal!? Besides, you don't even have your weapon on you to..."

"That's _not_ my weapon!" I had a weapon. That little toy wasn't it. "And how else do you explain how I knew his name, huh!? How did I know about Ben Carson, or any of that other stuff!? I bet I just _love_ looking at old news records for fun, right!? How the hell would I have seen any of that stuff!?" It hurt seeing the pain on her face. Hurt more than I was willing to show. But I knew my own memory; trusted it. I _had_ to trust it... "If you can explain all that, then maybe... maybe I'd listen, Sonia... But if you can't help me... then back off, and stay out of my way."

"You're my sister, Maxi! I want to help you; of course I do! But think about what you're trying to go back to. _Really_ think about it..." I opened my mouth to argue, but she cut me off, giving me the same sort of glare she used to use back when we were kids that said she wouldn't be ignored. "From what you told me, you're on a team full of _criminals,_ and an admitted _murderer._ He had a dead body on him today, for God's sake! The entire Kingdom was in chaos. Grimm breached the walls. One traumatizing mission after another, with a world ready to throw killers and young children into a meat grinder!? One where you put me in some sort of... What was it again, a coma!?" I listened to the tirade, each point marked by the sound of her heel hitting another step as she made her way down to meet me. "_Why!?..._ Why would you want to go back to all of that? I was scared out of my mind today! But you... You barely even flinched." She put her hands on my shoulders eyes glistening hopefully. "Let's just go back to Beacon... Alright? We'll talk with the Headmaster, and sort this out. You have a team willing to help you through whatever this is, Maxine..."

"...I have a team back there, too..." I said, pushing her off and backing away slowly, my head splitting again painfully, voice shaking. "And that 'degenerate' you're talking about is the one leading them. I _won't_ just leave him behind. _Any_ of them."

Ambrose, while annoying at times, self-righteous, and trying to do everything himself... always had my back, even when I don't ask for it. He was dependable to a fault. Murasaki, that little irritating mute that always hid behind her partner or our leader, taking their side over mine, impossible to manage or keep track of... And who I'd probably go up against a horde of Grimm to save, knowing she'd do the exact same for me twice over, without all the griping and groaning. Ben... There was no questioning his loyalty... And the thought of him buried in this world, without the chance to even...

"I can't... I'm sorry..."

I left her there sitting on the steps, or at least I think I did, seeing as I couldn't even work up the courage to look back at her. I'd ran so far away from her, until I was just another face in the crowd. I wracked my thoughts on what my next move would be. Contrary to what I'd said to Sonia about not leaving Ambrose behind, he hadn't exactly been receptive to me dropping his name like that.

_'And why would he? He doesn't even know me...' _Add to that the fact that I had no idea where to even go to try and locate him. I didn't exactly have his Scroll number on hand anymore.

After what felt like hours of just walking around Downtown Vale just looking around, the most exciting thing being teaching a pair of Faunus punks some manners after a few choice words concerning my chest, I ended up leaning against some bar with a name only Xiao Long could love down on the docks, staring out at the shattered moon hovering over the ocean. I held a "borrowed" sketchpad open in my hand as I idly traced designs with a stick of lead I'd picked up from a kindly Festival booth owner that hadn't stared too much at the ears. Most of the designs were simple doodles. A few were my favorite emblems belonging to people I knew, like Rose and Murasaki. _'A fact I will **never** state aloud... They look cool; that's all...'_ Another was rough sketch of Lovat and Ed, who were probably tearing the whole city apart, along with Sonia, trying to keep track of me.

At the moment, I was working on a more detailed profile of how I remembered Ambrose, the face under the mask. I drew his sharp eyes, his cheekbones, all the way down to the little curve in his nose from a past break, and the new scar he sported on his forehead, just above his left eye, that he'd received at some point during his stay in the Badlands.

_'What would it matter?... Even if I did manage to track him down... that wouldn't solve anything...' _I was still here in this strange dream, that, even after knocking out and waking up in a police clinic, still wasn't enough to snap me out of. _'...What if Sonia's right?... What if something's wrong with me?...'_ The traitorous thought had crossed my mind more than once during this little walk. Was my time with AMBR, those months after Sonia's accident, all just some strange fever dream or something? The headache came back, mind splitting at the...

My palm rose up, delivering a harsh blow to my skull in an attempt to relieve the pressure, or at least stop my thoughts from going wild, teeth gritted with determination. _'Ambrose is the key to it. He **has** to be. He's living, tangible proof that what I knew was real...'_

"Hey... Those look pretty good," a voice echoed at the corner of my focus, as some drunk from inside the open air bar walked up to me, slipping a dark-jacketed hand around my shoulder, and drawing me close to him, causing me to stiffen at the sudden contact. My fist clenched hard enough to snap the lead piece like a twig. "Mind if I take a closer look?"

I sighed heavily, hand already moving to teach this creep a thing or two about the concept of personal space, and vent some of my anger in the process, when I froze, gaping as a familiar face, sporting longer hair than I remembered, though it was still as stark white, along with a fine layer of dark stubble that ran along his jaw and cheeks, which I noticed was a bit more sunken. That whole effect, along with this predatory glint in his eyes, gave him this wild look about him as he examined the cleaner cut portrait of himself.

"Ambrose..." I breathed, feeling a slight tingling running along my arm where his hand hung loosely, fingers twitching as I saw small arcs of electricity leap between them.

"Incredible eye for detail... Especially this one right here..." He motioned to the portrait, eyes narrowing slightly. "Hair's different... And I'm not too sure where this scar, or at least I'm guessing that's a scar, anyway, came from, but I have to say, Miss Bordeaux, you have a remarkable talent."

"You know my...?" Right. He's had a whole couple of hours to work with. Hours he didn't spend just lurking around like some vagrant.

"I know enough..." he said, eyes scanning the other drawings quickly, pausing on the small doodle of his emblem, or what would've been his emblem. "And so do you, though I'm not too sure how that could be... Something I _intend_ to correct... Let's take a walk, shall we?"

-END

**_A/N: Yeah Trapper Joel is a scary bastard that might surprise you. Hey all, hope your enjoying this confusing bit of filler right here (I swear it has a purpose, one I intend to wrap up next chapter hopefully) and are having a nice time wherever you might be reading this from. Not sure when I'll be able to get the next one out but judging by the current rate I've been going probably in the next week or two and then this arc is done, after which I'm intending on taking a little break to do a full rewrite of LMNH my other story and Joel's original home, changing characters around, arcs, generally just working on the whole thing which may or may not just turn into another story entirely, not sure if that would be better or just taking down and reposting all the chapters as I go. Even thinking of giving him a prosthetic like Ben's seeing as that was what I'd planned originally and considering that the rest of AMBR won't be in this one, working around old stuff, trying out new stuff, lots of fun. Anyway that's what's in the works right now and I'm always open to suggestions and feedback._**

**_P.S: I've also started watching Darker than Black after a review from Technodude458 and realized that the character is basically how Joel fights just with more awesome wirework that I've never seen before. Thanks for the heads up on that._**


	45. Chapter 45

**Edited as of: (11/7/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

SAME SOUL

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"You're acting pretty calm for someone in this sort of position," Ambrose queried just loudly enough to be heard over the crowds of passersby as we made our way from the docks towards Downtown Vale, leading me along with a hand snaked around my shoulder, holding me close to his side, all traces of the drunk he'd been playing before forgotten. Now, to anyone else at first glance, we'd probably pass as just another young couple, enjoying the brightly pre-Festival booths and activities that pervaded the streets after dark, Vale seeming to enjoy a good all-nighter almost as much as Mistral. "I mean most people would probably be soiling themselves by this point, or at least trying to get away somehow. You, though..."

It was remarkable, really, how he was able to say all of that with the sort of relaxed, easy grin he wore. The only off sign about him were his eyes, which swept over the crowd like a hawk, watching for any sudden movement or threats.

"So you do this sort of thing often?" I growled, doing my best to avoid associating this imposter next to me with the Ambrose I knew, the near identical scent not exactly helping matters. "Didn't think Trappers were supposed to take prisoners. Not really your style."

"You're right; we don't. Usually, anyone we do grab only lasts as long as they're _useful_ to us," he shot back with a note of dry humor in his voice, as he stressed the word "useful."

_'Damn it, why do they have to sound the same!?' _It was jarring. It was not that I hadn't imagined what my partner might've been like before coming to Beacon, but to actually see a living, breathing example up close...

"You want to try and run now? You might get a good ways in this mess before I catch up..." Not even an ounce of doubt that he'd find me if I did run, even amidst all these people.

_'Well, he definitely gets points for intimidation...'_

"Not much point in trying, is there?" I shrugged matter-of-factly, taking a small bit of heart from the fact my voice stayed steady. "Isn't like you couldn't zap me as an afterthought, anyway, if I even thought about pulling something," I shot back as he stopped us in front of a large stage set up in the middle of the street, where performers dressed in what were probably supposed to be costumes of different Grimm danced wildly around, trying to avoid mock weapons wielded by a pair playing the Huntsman and Huntress both, much to enjoyment of their audience.

"If only it were as easy as all that," he said, as a Beowolf fell with a throaty howl with one stoke of the Huntress' weapon. "...Good costuming, I suppose."

"Why are we...?" I started to speak, when Ambrose's grip tightened suddenly, a tense shift in his scent...

"Laugh."

"Huh, what're you...?"

"_Laugh,_ like I just said something funny, and put your arm around my waist. Make it look good," he whispered sharply. A sharp jolt of electricity from his hand almost made me jump as I moved to follow his instruction, barking out something that sounded painfully close to a giggle in my own ears than a laugh, as he pulled me into a one armed hug that set my cheeks ablaze indignantly and my ears on end, as I quickly, and reluctantly, wrapped an arm around his waist, and put my head on his chest, noting the telltale feel of body armor easily recognizable from underneath the jacket and shirt he had on. "Give us a grin," he hissed. I did, trying my best to imagine how good it would feel to introduce his face to the pavement repeatedly via boot at the moment.

As soon as I followed the command, I noticed an older woman who had been eyeing us suspiciously from a few feet away. A Faunus herself, judging by antlers poking up through her hair, who smiled to herself, before turning back to the show.

'_She actually thinks this is fucking **romantic!?** The hell!?'_ The Huntsmen on stage had just managed to corner a Beowolf, and were closing in for the kill to the steady cheers of the crowd.

"You do realize how easy it would be for me to blow your cover, right?" I snarled out of the corner of my mouth through gritted teeth, the Trapper grinning broadly as he rested his chin on top of my head right next to my ears. "One scream or a shout, and you'd be stuck here surrounded on all sides."

"You could... Wouldn't end too well for you, though, or anyone else," he said jovially, leaning his chin on my head close to my ears. "Nice job with that acting, by the way. Almost believed it myself. It's cute."

I swore I could hear my teeth grinding through the applause as the Huntsmen vanquished the last Grimm, bowing to the crowd. With the show's ending, the Trapper put us back on course, stopping every now and then, or issuing quick orders as we went. He said how I should walk, or requested a certain action for me to perform, like pointing out certain attractions, or clinging to his arm in a way that made me want to hurl just thinking about how sickeningly cute it all looked.

"Just so you're aware, Miss Bordeaux, the only reason you're even conscious right now is so I could avoid the trouble of having to haul you back to my safe house. Your cousin actually managed to land a pretty good shot on me earlier, so let's make this easy on the both of us, and keep things civil, shall we?"

He shifted his shoulder without thinking, the one that had taken the brunt of Sonia's attack earlier. _'She's probably driving herself crazy right now...'_

"You behave, and I keep the shocks to a minimum."

"Sure, you're the boss. Just keep your hands where I can see them." We'd almost cleared the residential district, hand in hand now. The Trapper's grip was loose, but I had no doubt he was ready and waiting for me to bolt at the first opportunity. "Already gonna be hard enough to look Xiao Long in the eye, as it is, without apologizing to her..."

All in all, this Ambrose had surprisingly been as much a gentleman as he could under the circumstances. No sudden kisses, or anything like that, at least like you saw in movies. Not sure if I could've avoided trying to break bones if he had. Still though... Acting all "lovey-dovey" left an unnerving taste in my mouth that set my ears close to my scalp.

_'Doesn't make this any less awkward, that's for sure...' _I thought furiously, rubbing at my face, hoping against hope that any redness was from the cold, and not my own embarrassment. Carson's smirking face flickering through my mind didn't help in the slightest.

"Who?" he asked genuinely confused, glancing at me warily. "Xiao Long?..."

_'Right... Awesome.'_

I smacked my forehead angrily, headache coming back in full force. "Damn it... Never mind. It's nothing."

"Something's telling me I _am_ going to mind, Miss Bor...!"

"_Max;_ just call me Max. Or Argus, even. Just shut up for a second," I cut him off sharply to his surprise, closing my eyes against all the lights and sounds going off around me, beating their way into my brain. "Anyway, it's not like you're gonna believe me if I told you."

"Don't be too sure about that. You'd be surprised," the Trapper said confidently, pressing forward as we made our way through the night.

* * *

"Wow... You were right. I really _don't_ believe you." He leaned back against the stone wall, staring at me incredulously as I finished talking after what seemed like hours, glaring defiantly back at him from my seat. "It's a fun story, though. Impossible... but fun. Especially the part with the Chimera."

"Told you so." I adjusted myself in the hard metal seat, glancing around the small storage space. An old warehouse freezer, most likely, judging by the rancid meat smell lingering in the air.

I'd been blindfolded for the last part of our journey, but either by a mistake on his part or on purpose, he hadn't kept my nose covered, meaning I was almost perfectly able to chart a path from the outskirts of the residential district deep into the industrial sector. The space beyond this door was practically ancient and falling apart. Nice and remote. A perfect place to hold a prisoner.

_'Or hide a body...' _my mind voiced uncomfortably, sending a unwelcome chill down my spine.

When the blindfold finally did come off, I found myself sitting in a metal chair, my hands bound behind my back, with an armored Ambrose, minus the mask and hood, standing before me, giving me the unspoken prompt of "talk or else." So I had, going into detail about every little thing I'd experienced since coming to Beacon: the Initiation, Team AMBR, that disaster of a first mission... Months and months of memories and experiences, all of which sent a spike of longing through my chest, and a searing pain in my skull as I tried to reach out for my Semblance.

_'I can almost feel it, but why can't I...?'_

"So let me get this straight..." He held up a hand, gesturing from me to him. "According to you, we're supposed to be... _partners?_ And Huntsmen, at that."

"At Beacon, yeah. You actually lead our team. Team AMBR." I grimaced at the look he gave me, disbelief clear on his face.

_'Can't blame him. 'Hey, Max, this **totally** doesn't sound insane at all!...' Sure.'_

"And for some unknown reason, you just woke up this morning to find that your team's been replaced by a pair of strangers, and your supposedly comatose cousin?"

I adjusted my seat, leaning on the chair's back two legs. "Yeah, that's right."

"The same cousin who was fighting, almost on par, with a trained White Fang assassin... She's actually supposed to be in a coma right now?" The tone of his voice wasn't exactly reassuring.

"Uh huh."

"To top it all off, you're the only one that seems to remember anything at all?..."

"Everything's screwed up! The teams, the people. You're the only other member of AMBR that I've found! Proof I'm right!"

He tapped a finger on his belt, only one quick motion away from one of his knives. "...Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"_Yes,_ actually!" He glared at me, looking as if I'd just slapped him in the face, but I carried on, my own frustration bubbling to the surface. "Look, I get it! You don't believe me. No need to rub it in! I know it sounds crazy enough..."

Ambrose cut me off with a chuckle, dark and humorless, as he scratched behind his head in that all too familiar way of his. "No, _really?_ Which part?" With a flash of Aura, he was in front of me, face a mask of fury as he grabbed a handful of my hair, using it as leverage to pull my head back, a knife appearing in his free hand. "Look, I'm finished playing around. How do know about me!? Talk!"

"I told you, jerk!" I coughed out, feeling bits of static arc out from where he held my hair. "We're partners; _friends!_ How else could I know about you!? It's real! It's all...!"

"I've never met you before today, Bordeaux," he snarled viciously, eyes flashing with an Aura enhanced glimmer. "I don't know if you're some deeply embedded White Fang, or unlucky enough to have some sort of mind-reading Semblance. And personally, I don't very much care. Either way, you're way too dangerous to let run around freely." His hand twitched even as he said it, a flicker of doubt in his blue eyes. "It was a cute story, but I'm no Huntsman. Not anymore." His hand flicked forward, blade flashing towards my throat...

"_Y-you never wanted to be!_" The blade stopped barely a centimeter from flesh, just nicking the fringes of my Aura.

"...Excuse me?"

I gulped, feeling the razor sharp edge tinge my skin a bit with a sharp pinch. "W-when you were growing up... y-you felt you weren't given much choice... T-that it was pretty much expected that you'd be a Huntsman..."

"That's...?" he faltered, stammering. His hand fell back, as his grip loosened just a touch, allowing me to pull my head back to a slightly more comfortable position. "I-I never...!?"

"But you decided to do it to prove to every bastard that said you couldn't - everyone that thought you weren't good enough - wrong! You _made it matter to you!_" I practically screamed at him, the words tumbling out without thought.

"H-how... How could you possibly know that!?" he asked shakily, crying out in surprise when my foot lashed out, catching him in the injured shoulder with an Aura-fueled kick that sent him crashing back against the wall, my feet slamming down on the ground as he got shakily to his feet to find me glaring at him intently, almost desperately.

"Because you told me! Well... You actually told Xiao Long, but I overheard you two talking! You didn't become a Huntsman by choice, not really anyway. We had that in common...!"

I let out a yelp, kicking back as a pair of knives perforated the stone wall behind me where my head had been, the chair falling back against the floor, stunning me. The clatter of a door slamming shut echoed a few feet away, as Ambrose stormed from the room, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

* * *

For what felt like hours, I laid there on the hard floor in the most comfortable position I could work out tied to this damn chair. _'I don't care if you are metal, I will burn you, you cold uncomfortable, Atlas-built, piece of...!'_

My head snapped up instantly as the sound of the door opening rang through the room. A second later, the chair was yanked upright, with me along for the ride, by Ambrose, who stared back at me intently, this time out of my foot's range, with his weapon belted to his side.

"What!? Come back to finish the job!? If you're gonna kill me, then get it over with!" I growled. Not the smartest line I've ever had, but I had a kink in my back, and my ears itched something awful, so I wasn't exactly in the best mood. "_Well!?_ _Come on!_"

Looking at him more closely, I noticed this Ambrose looked even more haggard then before. His hair was hair disheveled, and his eyes had bloodshot lines with bruises. _'Someone hasn't been sleeping.' _The effect on him was... jarring, but a relief from the cold, murderous killer he'd been before, if that were possible.

"...Why?"

"...Why _what?_ Finish the question, dumbass!" The shock didn't hurt, not really, with my Aura up as it was. But it did make me jump a bit in surprise.

"Why did I leave the Red Hand in the first place!? You said I turned myself in... _Why?_ What happened? Start talking."

"Didn't you say I was crazy a few hours ago, asshole?"

"Didn't I have a knife to your throat hours ago?" Alright, someone wasn't in the mood for jokes. Good. Neither was I. "Answer the damn question! Why did I... Why did _he_ leave?"

"I... I don't know for sure," I admitted, flinching slightly at look he gave me, but keeping my eyes on his nonetheless, not giving ground. "I don't! You weren't exactly bragging about it, and I stopped asking after a while. It wasn't my business anyway. It was bad though, I know that much."

"How?"

I hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words. "It was... just a feeling, really... And a scent. Dog Faunus, remember?" I chided him at the confused look that crossed his face. "Every time someone brought up the Red Hand, or alluded to the question, well... You wouldn't show it, but you'd panic. You'd spark a bit, and... And you just had this _haunted_ look in your eyes, like you were reliving the worst thing you'd ever seen again and again for a few seconds. Soon enough, everyone just stopped asking..."

"...And I never told anyone? Nobody knew?" He moved, hauling a small crate for him to sit on across from me.

"Well, the teachers knew the details, I think. At least a few of them, anyway. Xiao Long, too, probably, and maybe Belladonna, now that I think about it. They were always covering for you whenever someone popped the question."

"Xiao Long... You keep bringing that name up. And this Belladonna, too."

"Well I should, I suppose. Belladonna's this ex-White Fang who apparently wormed her way into Beacon, somehow..."

His eyes widened as he held up a hand to stop me, looking almost panicked. "Okay, slow down. _What!?_"

Ooh, this was gonna be fun.

* * *

"So let me see if I got this right..." the Trapper scratched at his head, now sitting cross-legged on the box. "I'm actually friends with an ex-White Fang agent... And she hasn't tried to kill me, or anything else like that?"

"To be honest with you, before you and Xiao Long got together, I thought you and the cat girl were sticking it to each other, just reading crappy romance novels together in her room. Just friends... Friends all up in a room reading smut, and haring secrets..." I could feel my ears twitching happily as a wide grin spread across my face. "Hot secret stuff."

"I-I don't... I don't know what you're implying." His face reddened. On my Ambrose, it would've been comical. On this one, it was fucking hilarious, his eyes flashing angrily as I almost keeled over in my seat, panting for breath. "Shut up! It's good literature!"

"Speaking of romance, you do end up getting some action in the end. Yang Xiao Long, a happy-go-lucky blonde bombshell. Seriously, take off the damn cuffs, and I'll compare. The girl's are _huge._" I puffed out my chest in mock imitation. "Not to mention she hits harder than Goliath when you get her roused, too... What's with that look?"

"Why the hell would I start dating? Aren't I supposed to be training to be a Huntsman? Just seems like a stupid distraction..."

"A distraction you seemed to enjoy the hell out of, that's for sure. Apparently, you two met just before Initiation, and hit it off well. Workout partners, sparring practices, hanging out with her team and their friends every time me or Carson did something to piss you off, which was often. At least at first. You even helped out her sister get a hang on the whole leader thing."

"So we just spent a lot of time together. That doesn't exactly equal romantic attraction."

"But it's the way you guys acted around each other. When the year first started, you were a lot more withdrawn, and, frankly, a bit of a downer. But Xiao Long seemed pretty intent on making it her personal mission to pull you out of your shell." I grinned at the thoughtful look that gave him. "Once she has a something set in her mind, there's no stopping her. Guess she must've liked what she saw. Got you laughing and cracking jokes, anyway, which definitely took some getting used to. Always had this big dumb smile on your face whenever she was around."

"...Must've been nice," he murmured, the edge of his lip tugging upwards, before a sudden frown crossed his face as he pulled a piece of paper that I recognized was torn from the sketchbook. "...It's supposed to be me, but I can hardly recognize him..." He unfurled the paper, his drawn face staring back at him. "...What's he like? Your leader."

I didn't like the way he said that, making it sound like I wasn't going to figure a way out of this mess. Not that I regretted seeing Sonia again, but this wasn't where I belonged. The look in his eyes, though...

"H-he's... unique, I'll give him that," I started off, trying to compare the two in my mind. "Big guy. Took things seriously. Sarcastic. Could be a prick, sometimes. Never let me have my fun." The Trapper actually chuckled at that, despite his probable confusion on the last bit. "Nervous, too. Got down on himself a lot for mistakes, but he'd always pick himself and others up when they needed it. Was practically _compelled_ to help others, Human or Faunus, almost to a fault; said it was just how he grew up." I'd always sort of wondered where that selfless hero mindset had come from. The one in front of me seemed shocked as well, so maybe it had something to do with less of how he grew up, but rather how that ideal had developed. "I think he's one of the few people I can actually describe as being... I don't know, 'dependable,' I guess. He was willing to put his life on the line, or throw himself into fire at a moment's notice. Hell, he could probably take on a Grimm horde and come out ahead. The kind of stuff you hear stories about." I glanced at him before looking away, shifting nervously. "You keep talking as if you're not the same person."

"We're not," he shot back simply, a notification ringing out as he pulled a Scroll from his belt, one of two I noticed. The other one was my own, pulsing from probably dozens of Sonia's worried messages. "Well, thanks for the talk, Miss Bor... _Max..._ It's been enlightening."

"What do you...?" I asked, before he stood up and went around the chair, undoing my bonds, but keeping a firmly painful grasp on one of my pressure points to keep me from trying anything. _'C'mon, Semblance! **C'MON!**' _Nothing. All that happened was my Aura flared up slightly, earning me a quick shock as a reminder. "Where are you taking me?"

"Debriefing. Seems my bosses want to speak with you personally. They even sent an escort." He marched us through the door, a hefty sliding iron slab, which was opened by a sensor to the side, into a wide open storage space, lined with aisles of metal shipping containers. The smell of fish and raw meat in the air was the same as the other room had been, with an undercurrent of gunpowder and Dust.

_'Weapons...'_

Directly across from us down the central aisle marched a good half a dozen people. I didn't need the bulky dark armor or weapons to tell they were more Red Hand. The scent of blood practically wafting off the pair leading them was telling enough. They were a man and a women wearing similar streamlined armor to Joel's, with masks and hoods, rather than the helmets the others wore, and moved with the kind of grace I'd always seen Joel move with. All in all, they practically screamed "Hey, I'm a Trapper! Prepare to die, Max!"

_'Crap...'_

**"So this is her, then, Ambrose? The one that made you?"** the female asked, looking me up and down with a note of sick derision in that strange voice the masks gave them. **"Not _too_ impressive, that's for sure."**

"How about you come over here and say that, huh!?" I growled, flashing my canines, hands clenching into fists as the four troopers raised rifles warily, but quickly lowered them at a hand from the masked man. "Didn't think so."

**"Dog's got a backbone, I'll give her that..."** He cocked his head, a sudden chill run through me. **"One I'll take a _special_ pleasure in breaking. Want to watch?"** He glanced Joel's way, the Trapper grimacing at the floor, doing his best not to look at me. **"Not your type? Oh well. More for me, then."**

I wasn't going down without a fight, but with these odds... _'Even if my Semblance was working, all it would take was one of those bullets punching through my Aura... And then there's Joel...'_

The man still hadn't talked, his eyes downcast, and teeth flashing as I looked at him.

"C-can you..?" I took a short breath as the man's eyes flickered towards me. "Can you at least do me a favor, and tell Sonia what happened?... No details... but I want her to know that this _wasn't_ her fault... Just me flying off the handle, and getting myself in trouble again. Tell her that... that I'm sorry I couldn't accept... _this._" I motioned with my head around at the space, specifying Vale. This version of Remnant, that, deep down, just felt so wrong.

**"Well? Get her over here!"** the woman called out, Ambrose stiffening, but unmoving. **"What's the hold up!? We don't have all night!"** Her hands drifted to her belt, pulling twin tubes similar to the weapon on Joel's belt, that telescoped outwards with the whirring of gears into a pair of twin short spears, that she held at her sides.

"Ambrose?..." His hand went to his belt, sending the whole room scrambling for their weapons, only to hesitate when he passed my Scroll back into shaking hands. "Wha?..." I looked up into his face, seeing the same look I'd seen months ago when we were looking into the eyes of those cave dwelling-bastards just before Ben shot that bomb... And I didn't like it... I knew what it meant... "Joel!?"

"I hope you find what you're looking for," he whispered, before putting a fist in my solar plexus with enough force to send me back into the room, and left my whole body numb as I crashed through some boxes. My head smacked against a metal pipe in a hiss of steam. "...I'm sorry I wasn't him."

He gave me that familiar grin, holding out a hand to the small panel at the side of the door, even as the others moved to stop him, weapons coming up as a spark ran through his arm into the panel, closing the door with hiss and a metallic groan. That smile and a hail of gunfire were the last things I sensed before I slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

"..._axi!_ Maxi, are you in there!? _Answer me!_"

_'S...Sonia?... Ouch...' _I was startled awake to a hazy view of a metal door being ripped apart by a manic black-haired girl, who was, at the moment, using her Aura to tear the reinforced barrier apart like tissue paper. _'And splitting my ears apart with a hammer!' _I thought, grimacing from a pounding head as I picked myself up out of the little pile of debris I'd landed in, coughing at the moldy scent issuing from the pipe.

"_Maxi!?_"

"I-in here!" I called back, throat burning as I stumbled upright, only to be dragged into a bone-crushing hug by the sobbing Huntress, her face burying itself in my shoulder. "Sonia, Sonia! I'm fine!"

"I-I looked everywhere for you! Through the whole city, until Karl had the idea to track your Scroll. They wanted to wait for the police, but I-I... God, I was such an idiot! I'm so sorry!" she sobbed, fingers clutching at my shoulders, practically hysterical. "I can't believe I let you go off on your own, and...!"

"I'm fine." I cradled her face in my hands, giving her a warm smile, before stark reality set in. "Wait... W-where's Ambrose? The Red Hand goons?" If I was still alive, then Ambrose had fought them off. But for him not to have let me out earlier...

"Ambrose?... T-that Trapper from earlier?" She faltered, leaning back and staring at me as if I'd just gone insane. Maybe I had. However, a peculiar scent pushed its way through the door. "W-why would you possibly want... Maxi, don't go out there!"

I pushed past her, the scent of blood, metal, and death on my tongue, as I stumbled my way through the hole Sonia had made. As soon as I did, I recoiled at the state of the room before me.

Bodies in dark armor were littered all over the room, punctuated every so often with sprays of blood, or other damages decorating the walls, floors, and containers. The four regular troops that had accompanied the Trappers had fallen quickly to Joel's knives, the blades caught in their jugulars or gaps in their armor, only to be brought down with a quick shock to fall where they'd stood. The Trappers themselves seemed to have put up more of a fight. The male was lying close to where I stood, almost touching the door with a long bladed whip at his side, and his leg and neck at an odd angle to the rest of his body. The woman had fallen as well, her masked face staring up at the ceiling, with the broken haft of _Storm Circuit_ lodged in her chest.

And lying against one of the containers a few steps from the woman's corpse sat a bloodied spear... Directly at the foot of...

_'No... NO, NO, **NO, NOOOO!**'_

I took a few limping steps forward, time passing as if in slow motion as I drew closer to Joel's body. My face paled at the sheer amount of blood around him. It was more than anyone, even someone with Aura, could hope to lose. He'd stumbled back after managing to take down the woman, but she must've gotten him with the spear. A surprise, judging by both the look on his face, and the way his hand had been clutching the wound. His eyes merely stared off into space blankly.

Tears fell unbidden onto my face before I could halt them, my knees falling out from under me, as I lost the strength to keep upright. "Ambrose... J-Joel, you idiot!... G-get up!" I sobbed, unloading every profanity, every vain plea I could think off, until Sonia pulled me away kicking and screaming. For her to let me go, I reached out to my Aura in full force, just brushing the edges of my Semblance as I sent her flying back in my effort to reach my partner.

_'...I'm sorry I wasn't him.'_

First Ben and Reika... and now Joel. It couldn't be. I wouldn't let it.

"Not you, too!" I shivered, clutching at my arms hard enough for my nails to pierce flesh. "Don't leave me alone! N-not again!" Losing them on the train had been bad enough, but to actually have a body here... "This isn't real... It's _not_ real! None of _this IS **REAL!**_"

"Maxi, he was a criminal; a murderer," Sonia voiced from behind me, sounding confused and hurt. "He...!?"

"He was my _friend!_" I screamed back at her, glowing with Aura, as the whole building shook around us, rattling crates and sending dust raining down from the ceiling. But I didn't care. "He was my partner!..."

"_I'm_ your partner! I-I've been your partner for months..."

"No you're not!" Cracks weaved their way up the walls, the Huntress before me quaking as my Aura, held back for so long, blazed like an inferno, sweeping through the space with a deafening roar. "No matter how much we might've wished, it didn't come true! And I'm so sorry for that! But since then, I've made friends! Friends this world took from me, and I want them **_BACK!_**"

I clutched at the Trapper's... no... the _Huntsman's_ hand.

"Stop! Maxi, **_STOP!_**"

I couldn't hear her, too wrapped up in my own rage to notice her grab me by the shoulders as I lashed out at everything and nothing all at once, the whole world crumbling around me as my Semblance tore it apart, not stopping, even as Joel's body and my cousin were ripped away from me, only to be replaced by a brilliant, carmine-colored light.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_Oh fu...!?_" I scrambled for cover, just barely managing to duck beneath a reception desk, taking along with me a screaming nurse, before a gurney embedded itself in the wall above us at terminal velocity.

_'I did **not** sign up for this shit today! Dammit, Max!'_

"Ben, are you alright!?" I peeked out, wary of any more heavy objects coming my way, before managing to catch sight of Psycho rounding a corner, only to be caught in one of the swells of gravity that had begun popping up across this floor a few seconds ago, and brought forward, hitting a wall hard. "_Crap!_"

"You good over there!?"

"Peachy!" the leader growled, letting out an undignified yelp as gravity suddenly returned, sending him unceremoniously to the floor, only to roll out of the way of a falling vending machine. "The hell's going on!? Is it Max!?"

"Who else!?"

We'd left for five minutes, _FIVE MINUTES_, with Doc Jones to discuss options for a possible long term stay, having rushed the Canine Faunus from Beacon the second we'd gotten the news about her collapsing, and had been here for hours. In terms of payment, I was more than ready to cover anything they needed, without Ozpin or the school having to get involved. We were in the midst of saying so to the foul-mouthed doctor, when an ear-shattering scream, and an explosion from the Faunus' room, had rang through the halls, followed by this hurricane of gravity-bending force that had carried off the surprised Jones, and sent the whole floor into chaos. Sirens went off above the screams and roar, which could only have been Max's Semblance, sweeping through the halls.

"We have to get to her!"

"Go! I'll cover you! _Mad Gamble!_" He kicked himself off the floor, catching a swell, and using it to propel himself off down the hall, rolling into a run as it bottomed out from under him.

"When we get back to Beacon, we are _seriously_ sittin' down to have a talk on namin' policies!" I laughed, falling into step behind him as the Huntsman drove a path through scrambling patients, and any runaway flying objects, gently pushing or knocking aside anything that got in our way as we neared Max's room.

The effects worsened, until we were flying, more than running, our way through. Just as we were about to enter the room, however, everything just stopped. The pair of us fell back to the ground as gravity seemed to reassert itself. The only sounds that followed were constant wailing alarms, the moaning of injured onlookers, and the occasional scream as something tapped a leg, or fell off a high space to the floor below. The two of us looked to each other, nodding, before stepping cautiously through the mangled threshold.

"Max?..." She was just sitting there in the bed, staring at us like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Dust, Argus! The hell'd you...!"

I was cut off as the girl had leapt off the bed in an auburn-colored blur to wrap her arms around me, her lips meeting mine, throwing anything I was about to say somewhere out the window.

_'So sof... **Ouch!**' S_he drew back, her eyes watering, having left a little nick on my lip.

"Would you stop doin' that!?" I wiped at the wound, my mind racing. _'Wait a sec... Since when were we doin' **that** again!?'_ The Faunus had been pretty clear on keeping things slow since we'd gotten back from the Badlands, but this...

"It's you... It is, right?... This is... Will someone turn that off?" she murmured to herself in a sort of airy detached way that was starting to worry me, as she went over to embrace her partner around the waist, while he pat her back awkwardly... At least he did, until she decked him across the face while his Aura was down.

_'Yep. She's fine...'_

"You're all here... I...! _Sonia!_" And there she went, sprinting out of the room in a flash, leaving me and a stunned Joel looking after her.

"Uh..." I intoned dumbly, truly at a loss for words for the first time in recent memory. "W-what just happened!?"

"Just keep an eye on her. I'll try and sort this out. Go!" my leader waved me off, getting to his feet as I cleared the room.

The Faunus girl was not exactly hard to track, going by the stunned and complaining people she left in her wake. But even still, I had some idea where she might've been heading. Running my way up a few floors, that alarm finally cut out, and I could think again.

I finally managed to catch up to her as I burst into the coma ward out of breath. The girl was staring intently, stock-still, at a small electronic bulletin board used to show the staff assigned to the floor. Her eyes rested on one particular profile, labeled "Karl Lovat - Resident," showing a chestnut-haired man, with eyes similar to Ninjette's behind a pair of glasses.

"Hey..."

"That's insane..." she muttered, reaching out to touch the photo, before shaking her head out, ear twitching as she sprinted down the hallway.

_'Oh **C'MON!**'_

"Wait up, will ya!" I panted, making my way after her, before stopping at the first open door, only I saw to find her standing there stock-still again, tears dripping down her face. "What... the... _hell!?_" I breathed, collapsing against the wall with a metallic thunk next to her, feeling as if I'd just run a mile.

_'Dammit, I'm a sniper! Leave this sprinty shit to the front-liners!'_

"What the hell were ya runnin' so fast for!? She's still here, and o..." I peeked into the room, jaw dropping when I noticed the pale, black-haired girl sitting up in bed with a stunned look on her face, her wide, blue eyes looking back at us. "_...kay?..._"

-END

_**-CODEX-**_

**Resonance- **A phenomenon that occurs when the Aura wavelengths of two or more individuals interact on a similar level. It is most often used in the process of unlocking another person's Aura for the purpose of further training. The process has also rarely been known to occur naturally between individuals, usually family members or between spouses, the effects of which can vary to the extreme.

**_A/N: Yep it was a partially Semblance induced Aura fueled dream world created by Sonia and Max's shared imagination. Is it similar to the Grimm from my first arc yes and more powerful to boot which could lead to all sorts of problems later. I'd always intended Max's cousin to play a role in the story once she woke up and season 3 seemed like a good opportunity, AMBR's established by now and she will have some impact on our favorite Faunus._**

**_This entire arc was a fun, if confusing I know, means of introducing her into the story but I'm honestly sorry I wasn't creative enough to come up with some of the amazing theories people sent in asking what was happening. I saw some really cool stuff, even a few which gave me some ideas for later on. (Conan Argus is a monster all his own but he's not his daughter, he's earned his place though.)_**

**_I'm going to start working on rewrites to my other story LMNH every so often alongside AMBR, this story is still my focus at the moment though. Just waiting for the Season to progress a bit more before I start writing in earnest._**

**_(Also saw the RWBY manga, those Beowolves are way more terrifying then they look in the show)_**

**_* Please note the CODEX segment is just flavor bits for terms and processes I use in my story and I try to keep it at least semi-faithful to canon. Could a resonance cause a dreamlike fugue state? No idea but they haven't explicitly said something like that CAN'T happen. Ah the magic of fanfic grey areas._**


	46. Chapter 46

**Edited as of (11/8/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

A GAME?

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"That's... wow. Just _wow,_" I gaped, as my boyfriend finished his story... Well, Max's story, anyway. "I have _no_ words."

When the Huntsman had asked me to meet him on the cliffs overlooking the Emerald Forest, I hadn't known what to expect. The craziness of the recent Breach, and the upcoming Vytal Festival sort of threw a wrench into everything we'd planned.

_'Certainly not this though…'_

We were having picnic near the edge of the cliffs amidst a copse of trees while watching the sunset, tarp and everything, with a basket to boot, all lit by a length of little glowing Dust lights strung up in the trees, just a _bit_ too gaudy, that practically screamed of one Benjamin Carson. _'Not that I'm complaining. Might not be as dainty as the Ice Queen, herself, but I appreciate a bit of extravagance now and then. Plus, it's not as if Joel didn't put in his little personal touches...'_ The food was nothing short of incredible, especially for how deceptively simple everything appeared. Hearing that the Huntsman had made it all himself was almost just as much of a shock... No pun intended. _'The blush on his face when I said I loved it: **priceless**.'_

And now with a story I can hardly believe thrown into the mix. Strangest. Date. Ever.

"How do you think I felt? You should've heard her telling it. _Way_ more detail. And swearing," he agreed with a nod of his head as he settled back into my lap, staring up at me. It had been a full three days since Max and her cousin's little incident at the hospital, and, honestly, I'd been a little surprised he was here with me at all while this was going on. "The part with me as a Trapper almost killing Blake... And then what happened at the end..."

"He saved her," I murmured, trying not to think about the fact that that Joel hadn't made it through. "_You_ saved her."

"But why, though?" he said questioningly. "Even if that copy was some dream, or her imagination building it, or whatever, any representation of me back then _wouldn't _have given a second thought to handing her off. It doesn't fit the mold... And to manage to fend off two Trappers, plus a squad, out of the blue, without any sort of mental preparation..."

"Maybe..." I cut him off with a good whack to the head, and an overly-friendly smile that shut him up. "But that's not how her mind saw it. Not completely, anyway. Some of you _definitely _bled through. Copy or not, you were the same person to her, and maybe that made the difference. She believed you were strong enough to pull it off. That, deep down, you were a good person." I flushed slightly when I saw him gaze up at me thoughtfully, chuckling awkwardly as I played with my mane a bit. "Okay... Yeah, knowing Max, that does sound a bit crazy."

"Crazy day for everyone involved, I think. Most of what I know now is from what the doctors gave me, and it's not exactly normal."

According to Joel, the Dog Faunus had done little short of booting her teammates, and a good majority of the medical staff assigned to the case out of the building herself as she and her cousin worked things out, threatening to send the leader and the former bandit back to Beacon herself, minus the airship, if they didn't back off. She hadn't been seen or heard from since, except for a few "updates" to Joel explaining she was fine, and telling him nicely to "fuck off, let her deal with her own shit, and to mind his own business." It also didn't help that the damage estimates from when Max's Semblance had gone rampant had come back. Goodwitch was practically spitting acid as she dragged the taller boy by the ear into her office after doing the final count.

"Do they know what caused it? She's visited before without any problems, right?"

"Officially, the doctors, and whatever researchers that showed up, are calling what Max went through some sort of stress-induced hallucination, the damage being caused instead by a localized earthquake left over from when the Breach damaged the Kingdom's infrastructure. Meanwhile, Sonia's recovery was just a lucky coincidence." The Headmaster's way of covering for Max, not wanting word of what she could do going public until she was ready. Huntsmen and Huntresses were expected to be able to pull off some incredible things, yes, but nearly leveling an entire hospital floor in their sleep would've been a bit too much of an invitation for someone to take advantage.

"And what are they _really_ saying caused it?"

"Sonia's Semblance affects the mind, apparently, and makes people see things that aren't there. There's been a few other incidents, too, with people seeing things in her ward that are there one second, gone the next. There's more to it, I think, but they probably just thought they were being overworked at the time, and never bothered reporting it. This is the first time someone's been affected this badly. Said something about it being the result of a 'resonance effect.'"

"Reso-what, now?" He just shrugged with his eyes closing peacefully, muttering something about how it wasn't his field. "Seems like a pretty big leap, though. Going from showing a few illusions, to building a whole dream world and dragging people along for the ride."

"Why can I shock people like I can, Blake make clones of herself to take hits, and Ruby run faster than a bullet? Even after generations of using it, the concept of Auras and Semblances is still a developing field, so who's to say they can't power up spontaneously, or interact like this? Should've heard Jake on the subject when we were back in Bastion as kids, trying to figure it all out. One of the few things he couldn't effortlessly manage to get down in a few days..." He plucked a small wrap from the basket, and tossed it into his mouth, settling as I ran a hand through his hair, tracing the pure white curls in my fingers.

"And her cousin doesn't remember anything? Not even the dream?"

"According to her, not a thing. Max said they were in that dream for days, but only a couple hours passed for her. Her cousin's been out for almost an entire year, but she's saying it was only a few seconds to her." I shivered. The mere thought of losing a day or two of my life was bad enough, but to just wake up in a strange room, a strange city, after a year... "She's not gonna be up and running around for a while, but at least they say she should be able to make a full recovery, and Max is intent on helping her the whole way through. Has me petitioning Ozpin for another bed for the room, even."

"And he approved that?" Actually, knowing how the great Ozpin operated, it probably wouldn't have been too hard to pull off. Convincing Professor Goodwitch, though...

"Guy owes AMBR more than a few favors... _Least_ he can do is help us help her..." There was more than enough venom in his voice to make that apparent.

_'Nothing to do with the way it had been since the day he came back,_' I thought to myself sarcastically. The two men had met for a long talk in the Headmaster's office after AMBR's little stint in the Badlands, one that the Huntsman outright refused to discuss.

"It'll be a tough road, though," Joel sighed, patting my hand with his, sending a ticklish little current up my arm. "...God, everything's just been so crazy lately."

"You can say that again," I nodded, tracing a finger down the length of the thin puckered scar that now ran horizontally above his left eyebrow, while my eyes darted to the small burn mark adorning his neck.

_'Two new additions he hadn't had when he left...' _The forehead was from a nasty Grimm he'd ran into during their trek through the Badlands after the train crashed. _'Oh God, is this how Dad feels with me and Ruby!?' _The burn, on the other hand, was apparently from said crash, when a Trapper, cue spike of worry through my heart, had torn off his collar forcibly, the details of which Joel had been less than forthcoming about, merely saying it was a dumb mistake on his part. _'Ben's not talking, either. I know Joel can take care of himself, but I can still worry, damn it. The guy's not invincible.' _I panicked internally at just the thought of Joel going through that without me around to watch his back.

"Between the missions, the Breach, Max's cousin, the Festival coming up in a few weeks..." His hand moved down his face as he groaned, sounding exhausted. "And then I have everyone and their mothers telling me how I should sign AMBR up for the tournament. Hmph, as if the Council's gonna let that slide. Ozpin's decision or no, it's still not worth the effort..."

_'None of that talk, now.'_

I ruffled his hair, causing him to squirm and complain, trying to shoo me off. "Oh, I don't know about _that_... I think you guys should totally sign up. Who cares what some big shot on the Council says? It'd be awesome!"

"And probably illegal, somehow," he laughed sarcastically, though I could see the small smirk on his face as he looked up at me. "You sure you don't just want a rematch? We _did_ beat RWBY pretty badly, last time."

"That's a big head you got there, for only being one win ahead," I chided him happily, glancing out at the setting sun. "But... you do have a point. Things have been a little, well... a little _much_, lately." I felt a hand reach out, brushing a few stray locks out of my face.

Joel made to sit up now, a concerned look on his face. "Look, Yang... I know you don't like me being overprotective, but... Are you alright? Seriously, I mean? Between the White Fang, the Grimm invasion, that _Neo _girl..." He said the name through his teeth with a frightening level of cold fury in his voice. "If you hadn't managed to fight her off..." I flinched at the words, the lie glaring back at me, but Joel didn't seem to notice. "If there's _anything_ you want to talk about... Anything at all..."

I hated lying. To my teammates, and to Joel and Ruby, especially. I wanted to tell them about what really happened. How I hadn't miraculously managed to drive that mute little sadist back on the train. How she almost finished me off, only for _HER_ to come to my rescue... But I couldn't. The thought of Joel laid up in the hospital after almost burning his implants of his body in an attempt to save me, of Ruby in that wagon back on Patch, in danger... No. This was my problem, and I wouldn't see those I love get thrown in danger because of me... Not again.

"I'm fine, Sparky. You worry too much." I kissed his forehead, squeezing him in a tight hug that drove the question out of his mind as he struggled for air with a peaceful smile on his face.

A peace I was going to protect.

* * *

**_-Karl Lovat-_**

"...arl? _Kaaaarl?..._ Oi, Karl! Wakey, wakey, buddy!... Come on, now... That's it..." a voice called out to me as I crashed painfully back into consciousness, head splitting and swimming at the sudden light emanating from a swaying Dust bulb above me. My glasses had been taken from me, so I could hardly make out much of the room beyond the light, but it looked spacious enough. A large apartment, maybe?...

_'What the...?' _The hospital. I'd been doing inventory when something or someone had hit me from behind... But who could've possibly managed to...!?

"Finally! Was worried I went too far, for a second there. Wouldn't be the first time. Hard to manage my own strength sometimes."

That voice... I know that voice...

My head snapped up as a hazy figure stepped into the light, reaching out for me with a broad hand. "H-hey! Hey!" I struggled, realizing for the first time that my arms and legs were bound to the chair. A chair whose legs were firmly attached to the floor. "What are you...!? S-stay back!"

The figure ignored me, strong grip holding my face steady, eyes shutting on reflex as it slipped something onto my face. _'My glasses.'_

I opened my eyes, finding I could see, albeit one of the lenses sported a nasty crack down one corner, as a familiar pale face with light green eyes stared back at me, obscured by dark curtains of wavy black hair.

"E-_Ed!?_"

"Whew, that's a relief. No brain damage." The volunteer nurse, one of dozens brought in from across Remnant in the wake of the Breach a week back, stood before me, still wearing his scrubs with an innocent... no... more of a relieved smile on his young face. The kid was younger than most applicants we got, but had passed his background check and aptitude test flawlessly, allowing him to help out with more critical cases, if less urgent, like those in the coma ward. "Scary stuff, head trauma. Hit too light, and they retaliate. Hit too _hard,_ and it doesn't matter if they've unlocked their Aura or not, they still wind up useless and drooling, unless... Well, you get the picture, right?"

He was talking to himself more than me, his fingers cricking loudly enough for my Faunus senses to pick up every so often, the whole effect leaving me wanting to vomit. "I-is this some sort of joke!?"

"Joke? Oh, I wish it were," the boy spoke up, tapping the light so it swayed in a wider arc, revealing a wide table, littered with various scary-looking implements. "I liked you, Karl. Personable, funny... But then I find out you're skimming medical supplies for the White Fang..."

My breath caught in a ragged hissing intake as my heart nearly stopped. _'How...!?' _No one at the hospital knew. I'd been sure of it, my traits only present in certain emotional states. _'I'd trained and trained to handle myself, and the Fang...!?'_

"You're wrong, I...!"

"I know I'm not wrong, so _don't_ _waste my time!_" the resident snarled, turning towards the table, quickly taking a few quick heaving breaths, all the warmth from before vanishing in a heartbeat, before returning the next second, looking almost apologetic. "L-look, look, if we can cut the back and forth denial bullshit, I'd appreciate it. You wouldn't want to make me angry. Don't think the Hand could cover the collateral, anyway, especially here in Vale..."

He was talking to himself again. However, what he'd let slip rang like a beacon loud and clear. "H-Hand!? As in _Red Hand!?_ T-then you're one of their agents!?"

"Yes, I'm a Trapper; isn't that obvious by now? Keep up, Karl. Gosh, I thought you were smarter than this," he called back over his shoulder, seemingly unaware of the ice water now running through my veins as my face paled.

_'A Trapper. An agent would've been bad enough, but a **Trapper!?**' _The kid couldn't have been older than sixteen, at the most... He had to be lying; no way...

"Name's Eddy... Well, _Edward,_ but you already knew that. Edward Briar. Some folks call me 'Duo.' Silly nickname, yeah, but I like it. The whole 'double meanings' thing and the like. Exciting stuff, huh?" He picked up a small carving knife, my eyes bulging out of their sockets as claws leapt from my fingertips on reflex, digging desperately at the metal restraints. "Geez, you could at least humor me, you know." He was insane. The young man in front of me was bat-shit crazy, staring at me like he was hurt, like I wasn't in on some gag he was playing. "Least I know I have the right guy. Guessing the eyes are some sort of fear response? Some sort of cat, maybe?..."

"Damn Red Hand! Why can't you leave us alone!?" I screamed back at him angrily, fear overriding my senses. "I helped my injured brothers and sisters! Faunus who couldn't defend themselves! What of it!?"

"Always that same argument... 'Oh, why can't you leave us alone!?' Hmph, as if you lot didn't start all this to begin with." He shrugged his massive shoulders casually, cocking his head to one side as if deep in thought. "If anything, _we_ should be asking you that."

"The Faunus Wars...!"

"_Way_ before my time, buddy, and long done. How old do you think I am, anyway?" he asked laughing to himself, swinging another knife experimentally, this one thick like a butcher's cleaver, and brutally sharp as it sliced its way through the air. "'Sides, are you lot _still_ hung up over that? Geez. At least we Trappers have recent grievances to care about... Like the reason you're here, for instance." He turned around, tossing the tool deftly between his hands without so much as looking at the whirling implement. "I'm supposed to be interrogating you on the recent death of a fellow Trapper that was looking into what went down at Mountain Glenn. One, uh... Uh... Damn it, what was his name again? Kiev...? Kestral...? Keinaru...? Nah, that's not it."

"I don't...!"

He held up a hand to stop me, now twirling the blade in the other hand idly, a sly smile on his face. "Oh, don't worry. I know you have no idea about any of that. I just used that to justify taking you like this! Boss doesn't much care about how I operate, long as I keep the costs and the messes to a minimum when I get the go-ahead. And as for your friends, I doubt the Fang even gives a damn about you, except that they've lost an admittedly mediocre source of medical supplies."

I wasn't even needed? The fuck did he think this was!?

"A game!" he declared suddenly, tossing the blade over his shoulder with a loud clatter. "I know! Let's play a game! Might as well pass the time, and make this whole interrogation business fun while we're at it. Whaddya say!?"

"Y-you're just gonna kill me, anyway," I muttered shakily, glaring him full in the face, baring my teeth. "What's the point, if you know I don't know anything about what you want to know!? Just get it over with!"

"But that's the added bonus, though! Who knows what might slip out once you start talking?... Might just be something worth learning in that soft head of yours... Won't know 'til we try, right?"

"_You...!_"

"Anyway, the game!" He brought a fist down into his palm. "It's a classic some of your friends in the White Fang introduced me to a few years back! Real simple rules for both of us." He knelt down in front of me, forcing me to look down on him as his eyes twitched towards the table, a calm smile on his face. "We'll take turns, with you going first. You tell me something; anything at all. And if I don't like what I hear, I hurt you." If anything, the smile only grew, shifting more into a manic toothy grin. "We go back and forth, until I'm satisfied, I'm impressed with what you told me, or until I can't hurt you any longer. Then it's _your_ turn to try on _me!_"

I screamed... Well, I did at first, anyway... And all the while, that smile never left his face... It was all a game to him... A game he didn't lose... A game he _never_ lost.

* * *

_**-Jacob Ambrose-**_

"A zero-point-fifteen percent increase, Penny. It's not much, but it's certainly not unwelcome," I told the bubbly android as we walked out of my lab, making our way down the corridor to the bridge where the General would no doubt be perched, gazing out at the Kingdom below. "If we keep this up, we may be able to increase your combat efficiency even further. Maybe even three percent, if we're lucky and my idea holds."

She nodded in understanding. "That's good to know. Thank you, Professor."

I just shrugged my shoulders at the thanks, especially for something so obvious. "Think nothing of it, Miss Polendina. Now, let's go greet the good General. I'm sure he'll be wanting an update on your progress." I then brought my hand up and spoke into my watch. "Allison, send General Ironwood a message. Let him know that Penny and I are on our way, and should arrive momentarily."

_"Yes, Professor Ambrose. Sending message now."_

I nodded to myself, and continued on my way, nodding at a pair of troopers that walked past us. During our trek, I randomly glanced towards the android next to me, and furrowed my eyes curiously. Her face was equally furrowed, more in thought to herself.

"Is there something bothering you, Miss Polendina?" I inquired, startling the robot. Or, rather, triggering its emotive systems to imitate the reaction of one being startled. It really was remarkably lifelike, nonetheless.

She tapped her two index fingers together, looking back at me both curiously and nervously. "Well, I was wondering about the new upgrades... Will they... Will they hurt anyone when the Vytal Tournament begins?"

I blinked, caught momentarily off-guard by the absurdity of the question. "Well, your systems are meant for combat scenarios, Penny. Combat tournaments are also meant for just that: combat. Regardless of who you're fighting, someone will likely get hurt." My frown deepened somewhat when I saw that her reaction was not a good one. In fact, it seemed that it only made her more worried, or imitating the action of being worried. I sighed before adding, "Fortunately, the tournament rules are configured in a way that, even if someone was injured, they would be forced to retire once the fight was over. Remember that these students are also trained Aura wielders, so if you were to inflict damage, it would hardly be of any lasting concern. You won't kill them, if that's what you're worrying about."

She perked up at that. "So then... am I still going to have to display most of my capabilities to the public?"

"I'd imagine so. It's a competition, after all. You needn't worry about that, Penny. It's just like the sparring sessions you and your teammates participate in back at the Academy, no? It'll just be a bit more difficult due to the competitive nature of the event and the other students. Other than that, however, I suggest you go with the motions, and have fun."

"Have... fun?"

"Yes. It's an occasion to celebrate, of course. Though exactly what we are celebrating often escapes me..." I added thoughtfully.

_"The Vytal Festival is held once every two years. The occasion is meant to celebrate the unity of the Kingdoms, and to allow the exchange and meeting of the many cultures throughout Remnant as a show of good faith."_

With a deadpanned face, I raised my wristwatch to my face. "...Thank you for the explanation, Allison."

_"You are most welcome, Professor."_

Sighing, I addressed Penny again. "Anyway, like I said, just try to enjoy yourself. The event is meant for Huntsmen and Huntresses to show how exceptional they are. You will have that chance, too, so try to make the most of it. Especially seeing as you're more exceptional than most."

She put a finger on her chin, and then looked at me again. "My friends will also be having fun, right?"

"I would assume so."

With that, she finally lit up, even going so far as to clasp her hands together. "Excellent! Then that means Ruby and her friends will be having fun, too!"

I nodded, letting a small smile grow in my mouth at her enthusiasm... Well, the systems that mimicked enthusiasm. "That is very likely, yes."

"Oh, I wonder if I'll get to see her again?... Maybe I will! I might see Joel again, too!"

At that, my smile instantly fell. "Of that, I have no doubt..."

The completion of AMBR's recent mission was still recent, and as sore as a new bruise. Joel had still not stopped calling, despite the fact that I had refused to answer. _'Seriously, how stubborn is he?... Then again, I'm being stubborn here as well. The unstoppable force versus the immovable object, as they say...'_

I meant what I had said to Miss Murasaki. I regretted the terrible dangers they had faced during that mission. I was even more startled when I learned that he'd had to face his former comrades from the Red Hand. I hated to admit that a part of me had wondered if my brother had considered going back with them, and taking what was perhaps one of Remnant's most dangerous, yet necessary weapons in fighting the Grimm along with him. For whatever reason, thankfully, he chose not to. Still, a part of me regretted having him and his team go through such hardships, to the point of almost dying.

However, at the end of the day, I did not regret having the weapon made. In fact, their experience only proved that the work I was doing was necessary. Regardless of how cruel, and how destructive it would have been, the bomb had been proven to be a powerful weapon against the Grimm. To dismiss it entirely would have been a fool's gambit. And no matter what Joel would say, it was created for the protection of Mankind. To protect all living beings from having to die at the hands of the Grimm. If it could do that for me - for us - then it was necessary.

We had been walking for a good few meters as I had thought about this, when Penny tore me away from my thoughts with her voice. "Why do you do that, Professor?"

I sputtered to myself in surprise, internally cursing myself for having gotten so lost in my thoughts before addressing her. "I-I'm sorry?"

She looked at me carefully, as if looking right through me. "Are you aware that your heart rate has increased by thirty percent?"

I shook my head. "Not really, no." I sighed, attempting to calm myself. "It's nothing. I'm just mulling over some of the details and pending projects I need to have done for the festival. Nothing too bad."

"I'm sorry, Professor, but your heart patterns indicated that your experiencing anger at the moment."

"We talked about this before, Penny. It's impolite to scan people's vitals without their knowledge."

"But you're still exhibiting signs of the aforementioned behavior. In fact, I think you're gritting your teeth right now." She had said that as a fact, not as an insult. It was still frustrating to hear, regardless. "This began when I mentioned your brother. Are you mad with him right now?"

Taking a deep breath, I dismissed her with a wave of my hand. "It's nothing you should worry about, Miss Polendina-"

"Um... Can you call me Penny?" I raised an eyebrow at her, my frustration ebbing away slightly at her remark. "It's just that... my friends call me Penny."

This behavior was quickly becoming a concern.

"_...Penny,_" I amended. "Look, we really need to get to the General. We've kept him waiting long enough."

She slightly tilted her head to the left. "There's still a good amount of distance between us and General Ironwood. We can still talk about you and your brother on the way."

"I don't _want_ to talk about my brother," I said through gritted teeth, failing to hide my frustration.

She tilted her head further. "Why not?..." She then stood straight, with a look of what looked to be surprise on her face, or at least imitating it. "Do you hate him? Please don't be...!"

"I'm not angry with him; I...!" I stopped in my tracks before I could shout out. Steadily, I took deep breaths in and out of my nostrils.

Seeing my current expression, Penny finally stepped away in regret. "Oh, I'm... I'm sorry... I didn't want you to get angrier..."

I swiftly raised a hand to stop her, shaking my head. "It... It's fine." With that, I continued to walk towards Ironwood's location.

I heard hurried footfalls behind me, and glanced to the side to see Penny back in her place next to me. I saw her face and noticed that her eyes had dipped lowly, her systems mimicking what we would consider as guilt and sadness.

For all the zeroes and ones that her emotions were made out of... the expression they made was enough to make me feel guilty for my outburst.

"...I don't hate Joel..." I sighed, getting the android's attention again. "I just... I-I don't really understand what I'm supposed to feel about him at this point."

From the corner of my eyes, I saw that she turned to look at me again. "What do you mean by that?"

I shrugged wearily. "I don't know. Sometimes, I worry about him, but then there are times where I think about him, and it just gets on my nerves."

"But why? You're brothers, right? I thought brothers were supposed to love each other unconditionally?"

"I do, of course. He's my brother, and that will never change. Still... So much has happened between us these last few years, that..." I shook my head harshly. "I-it's just complicated at the moment."

Penny put a hand to her chin inquisitively. "Does this have to do with the fact that Joel was previously affiliated with the terrorist group known as the Humanity's Hands Front, also known as..."

"The Red Hand, yes. Read about them, have you?" I finished, nodding my head slightly into the inquisitive nature programmed in her. "As you know, this time last year, Joel was considered an enemy of the Kingdoms. Months ago, he defected from the group, and later was given a second chance by the Headmaster of Beacon... In that time, he has proven that he understood the error of his ways, and has made consistent strides in making the most of his second chance."

"Are you proud of him?" she asked. I could see her smiling slightly.

"Of what he's been doing lately? Yes. I am, if I'm being honest," I nodded, as a smile of my own appeared briefly, before falling away again. "Still... There's so many other things between us that I don't think we can get past."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Differences of opinion, I suppose," I answered, careful not to specify a certain opinion on a certain android's role for the world. No need to dredge that up. "We both have the same goals, in hindsight, and we both have strong feelings towards our own thoughts and opinions. However, our opinions differ on _how exactly _we should achieve our goals. It's a... a competitive nature that's a consequence of where we were born, I'm afraid."

Penny nodded as the words echoed out, likely processing them and saving it in her memory. I sighed to myself, believing this conversation to be over and done with. However, to my surprise, the android perked up next to me, emitting an "Oh" out, as if coming up with an idea. She likely had.

"I know to help you and Joel talk to each other again!" she blurted out, her face showing the approximate ranges of displaying excitement.

"Er, Miss Polendina, it's fine, really," I assured, trying to end this conversation. "It's not really necessary..."

"You can transfer me to Beacon!"

The words she blurted out were enough to stop me in my tracks. Not just that, but every little detail that her suggestion would imply. "E... _E-excuse me!?_"

"You could transfer me to Beacon!" she repeated. "That way, they can transfer you with me as well, so you can monitor me! With you and Joel close enough in proximity again, you two can begin the process of reconciliation!"

I merely stared at the android, my jaw slack and loose as I noted her grinning expression. ""W... _WHAT!?_"

"I said that you can transfer me to...!"

"I understand what you said, Penny," I interjected quickly. "I'm trying to understand why such a ludicrous suggestion would pop out of you like that all of sudden!"

She merely shrugged. "I figured that this solution could help us both in the long run."

I gawked at her. "Help us both? How would that..." My mind quickly discerned the hidden meaning of her statement. "You... You _want_ to transfer to Beacon!"

Penny straightened up rigidly, like a child that had been caught reaching for the cookie jar. "That's not true." Her hiccup that followed gave her away even further.

"Yes you do. You just lied to me; you hiccup when you lie," I chided. "Penny, why would you want to do that? You're already at Atlas. Why would you want to leave your team; your... father? Do you know how much risk there is in just sending you there?"

"Because each member of my team is forced to interact with me. They're not my friends. Ruby, her friends, and Joel are. They have been the only ones to interact with me freely to the point where I can call them friends," she explained. "Besides, Father encouraged me to interact with others. He said it would allow me to empathize with my fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses, and form lasting bonds. Father stressed that point very heavily."

Yes, definitely a concern.

"Be that as it may, yours is a very... delicate and unique situation," I reasoned softly. "One of our objectives in this tournament is to gauge your reception with the people of Remnant, as you well know, given our attempts to increase your combat efficiency." She nodded. "But beyond that, it's still not a wise decision to be leaving an asset lightly supervi...!"

"Asset?..." she cut off. Looking up, I saw that her faced was now one of hurt... or at least simulating what we knew was hurt. "Is that what you see me as, Professor?... You think I'm just an asset?..."

I bit my lip, thinking of how to properly respond. "Well... technically, you... are..." My disquiet only increased as the girl dipped her head forward, covering and hiding her eyes from my view. "Um...?"

Her head quickly rose up again, revealing the simulated expression of anger that was more than enough to make me feel fear. Briskly, she turned away from me. "Let us continue, Professor. We've kept the General waiting long enough."

Seeing her walk past me, I tried to explain. "Miss Polendina, wait! You must understand what you mean to our...!"

"Would like to know why I want to go to Beacon?" she asked suddenly, stopping me before I could catch up to her. She was pointedly making an effort of not looking at me when she echoed these words.

"Uh... W-wha..."

"Atlas... is cold," she began. "Because of our focus on technology, people there treat me nothing more than a tool. Something to be examined, or researched." She turned slight to look at me from the corner of her eyes. "Like you, Professor."

I looked away to the side, avoiding her gaze. I wondered why? Was it to avoid something akin to shame? She was merely stating a fact.

"The only place I could find something that wasn't as cold as everything else was Father's presence," she continued. "But after meeting Ruby, Joel, and their friends... I felt the feeling that I get when I'm with Father..."

"What '_feelings?_'" I muttered under my breath. It had been loud enough for her auditory sensors to hear, but hopefully she hadn't heard how I said that word.

She turned away from me. "To feel real... To feel _alive._" With that, the android began her trek towards the general's location, noticeably less bubbly than when we began. Penny did stop one more time before leaving, however. "And I told you before, Professor. My name is Penny."

Frowning, I merely shook my head when she was a good distance away. I then rose my wristwatch up, waiting for a few seconds to ensure that the android was far enough that her hearing sensors would not pick up.

"Allison, remind me to write down a few notes later. Specifically pertaining to concerns about Polendina's personality matrix."

"Yes, Professor."

Letting out a heavy sigh, I followed after the artificial girl, mulling over said concerns. And this was indeed becoming troublesome.

Penny was beginning to deviate from Atlas' designs, at least the parts that I and others had agreed with. She was meant to guide Remnant into a new age of prosperity, with her leading the charge in the eradication of the Creatures of Grimm. However, I had underestimated the impact of her 'father's' attempts to treat her as a person, as well as her interactions with this Ruby Rose and my meddling brother.

I respected her creator a great deal. He was a genius; a visionary. Still, he needed to understand that his coddling her would only make it harder for our plans in ridding the world from the Grimm. He needed to act professionally, and stop treating her like the person she wasn't. Especially since she was more than that. She was beyond the boundary of the capabilities of life forms like Humans and the Faunus. She was what was needed to defeat those beasts.

But she couldn't do that if she was off having these rebellious thoughts. If she wanted her own identity, fine. However, in the end, there was only one identity that she would need when all was said and done. The identity of Remnant's savior.

If she could do that for me - for us- then it was necessary...

_"...Y__ou were smart enough not to follow me and Nat into the Red Hand... I would have thought that alone would make you realize how special she is... The **life** that you helped in giving... You're right; I don't have the right to judge you... But I honestly hoped you were better than this..."_

And yet those stubborn still plagued me... Words as stubborn as the man who uttered them... Indeed, I truly didn't know how to feel about him.

* * *

**_-Glynda Goodwitch-_**

_"So let me just get this straight, Ozpin..."_ a voice thick with barely-held anger issued from the holoscreen flickering in the center of the office. Three shadowy figures were seated at a rounded table, their eyes firmly fixed on the grey-haired man sipping coffee from behind his desk. A man who was currently sitting away from them, staring out the large window overlooking the Kingdom _"You want us to...?"_

"Approve Team AMBR's entrance into the Vytal Festival Tournament? Yes, Councilman," the Headmaster nodded succinctly, placing the mug down on the glass-like surface with a contented sigh, before turning in his seat to face the screen. The man technically didn't even need the Council's approval, as a team's entrance into the competition only required the permission from their Headmaster. However, given the unique situation... "I already have the go-ahead from the tournament's organizers. They seem to think it'll make for quite a sensational..."

_"Individuals who report directly to us, if you've forgotten!"_ another voice, this one feminine, and not even bothering to hide her emotions, cut off as she slammed a clenched fist down on the table with enough force to be picked up on the transmissions audio. _"Have you lost your mind!? Allowing a condemned terrorist to even **attend** the Festival is pushing the limits set by the World Council! To let him actually **compete** is simply...!"_

_"It's unacceptable, Ozpin,"_ the third voice cut in, raising a hand to calm his compatriot, though judging from his tone, he was hardly any better._ "We've allowed you a great deal of freedom in regards to how you've handled the prisoner. Especially given the fact that his tracking collar has been destroyed."_

_"A fact you've **conveniently **forgot to mention, or rectify, I might add,"_ the first voice spoke up again venomously. _"Exactly how long were you intending to keep that from us? General Ironwood, we generously trusted you to oversee the Vytal Festival's security. How could you have missed this?"_

_"Ambrose needs to be contained, not flaunted about in the open! The World Council will never accept...!"_

It had always surprised me just how calm the Professor could be in such situations, even amidst being belittled and called out by those who were, admittedly, some of the most powerful people in the Kingdom of Vale.

Instead, the man merely nodded his head, a look more akin to one might use when scolding a petulant child on his face, rather than the submissive fear these people seemed to want and expect. "Might I remind you all that, under the terms of our arrangement, Joel Ambrose and those serving with him are acting as Huntsmen-in-training under _MY_ authority here at Beacon? If anything, this call here is simply a formality to inform you of my decision."

_"A **what!?**"_

_"Councilors, please. I understand your anger. I myself was under the impression you'd been informed of the situation,"_ James, who's screen had been minimized in the top right of the screen, replied calmly as the panel adjusted itself to a split screen view, showing the white-suited Atlesian at the helm of his enormous airship, flanked on both sides by his robotic soldiers. _"However, I have discussed the matter at length with the Headmaster, as well as those Professors responsible for Joel, and have determined the potential benefits far outweigh the risks."_ His eyes flickered in my direction for a fraction of a second. Easy to spot for anyone who knew the man.

_"Explain your reasoning, General. **Quickly.**" _They practically growled.

I held my breath, hand clutching my Scroll nervously in a tight grip as James straightened up. Even more so, if it were possible. I noticed a flicker of movement, as what looked to be a ginger-haired girl accompanied by a young boy wearing glasses and a modified Atlas student's uniform, almost of a height with the General himself, moved in the background. The pair stood at attention behind him, though I noted a slight limp in the boy's step.

_"Let me be blunt, Councilman. The collar was merely a stop gap measure, at best. One we're all fully aware the boy could've likely escaped at any time, given enough effort. However, in all the months he's been here at Beacon, he hasn't tried to escape once. A fact which shows Mr. Ambrose's willingness to rehabilitate himself, as Ozpin stated in his proposal."_

_"One I remember **you **calling 'childish'and 'naïve,'"_ the Councilwoman added, putting a flicker of annoyance in the General's calm façade.

_'Control yourself, James; you're better than that.'_

_"If you had it your way, that terrorist would be hunting down his own kind, rather than playing at Huntsman."_

_"I'll be the first to admit to doubting Ozpin's reasoning..."_ Ironwood replied calmly, not rising to the challenge as the woman had wanted, hands clasped behind his back. _"But in the time since I've arrived here at Beacon, and observed the boy myself, I've been pleasantly surprised by the results. He's certainly come a great way in improving his public image. Here in Vale, at least. Having him compete in the tournament is risky, but could make for a great public image piece in the eyes of Remnant, and a good display of authority for all of us."_

_"...And if he does go rogue? What then?"_

_"You can be certain we've taken steps to ensure he can be dealt with, if the need arises."_ The young girl's face flickered for a moment at the general's words, shifting uncomfortably as she kicked at the ground. _"Trust that the safety of the populace will be our number one concern."_

_"If you're certain..."_

"Well, then. Glad to see that matter settled," Ozpin said almost jovially, laying his chin across his folded fingers as he leaned forward. "Good day, councilors. I hope to hear a favorable response shortly."

_"Oh, we **will** be discussing this further, Ozpin. You can be sure of that,"_ the first voice said with an air of finality before their screen flickered out, James' panel moving to fill the screen.

I felt the breath I'd been holding eke out in one smooth motion, before rounding on the Professor, enraged to see he'd reclaimed his mug. "Headmaster, that was simply _irresponsible,_ even for you!"

_"She has a point, Oz..."_ James moved to support me, his face darkening as he let his shoulders relax. _"You won't get anywhere antagonizing them like this. They already want your head, as it is, without you sticking your neck out even more. If you'd just told me about the situation sooner, I could've..."_

"Funny to hear you speaking of _honesty,_ General. I don't remember you being so candid about the active _doomsday weapon _you were so intent on using my students to protect..." Ozpin said with a serious note in his voice. "If you'd at least informed me of the possibility that the train might be attacked, a great deal of unpleasantness could've been avoided." He shrugged, strengthening his glasses. "Joel wasn't exactly happy to hear that... I suggest you steer clear of him in the meantime."

_"It's called 'compartmentalization.' I'm sure you're familiar with the concept. I told them all they needed to know, and would do it again, if I had to,"_ the General said resolutely without a hint of hesitation. _"And withholding non-critical information on a mission is slightly different then keeping a government's leaders in the dark."_

_'Non-critical? **Really?**'_

"And who was it who set them on edge, again!?" I turned on him, eyes blazing behind my spectacles. "This is your fault in the first place!"

"That's enough, Glynda... He was apparently only doing what was required of him, as do we all," the Headmaster stopped me, giving me a firm look as Ironwood merely sighed. I relented, but I still gave the man a harsh glare. One he hopefully wouldn't soon forget.

_"My point is this, Oz. They've been angry and out for blood ever since the Breach. AMBR better be able to put on as good a show as you say they can, or it'll be both our heads. Especially seeing as I have a folder about a dozen pages long explaining exactly why Joel's partner **shouldn't** be allowed to compete, either, especially after that hospital incident just days ago. **Another **little fiasco you tried to sweep under the rug, I see."_

Ozpin merely shook his head, leaning back in his chair as he pulled up both AMBR's team profile, and sent it over to the other man with a few short clicks and a ping. "I can assure you that they are all more than qualified to present themselves well in the tournament, and will follow whatever rules we set them. Maxine included... Glynda, if you would?"

I stepped forward, reading off a few of my personal notes on one of our more..._eccentric_ first year teams directly from my Scroll.

"Joel Ambrose, since coming to Beacon, has displayed undeniably natural skill in both armed and unarmed combat, as would be expected of his former... profession, and, aside from Miss Nikos, is one of the few first years I would dare say is easily on par with student's years ahead of him. This, added to the fact that his body has undergone treatments I'd hesitate to even think of using on a consenting adult, let alone a still-developing child, given the side effects..." I caught myself before I could ramble on any further, getting to the meat of the issue. "Anyway, as the Professor has stated, he's more than able, physically and mentally, for the task."

_"I acknowledge the boy's competence, Glynda. Atlas did scout him originally, after all. It's his team I'm wondering about. I've read the reports..."_

"Then you'd know that each of those first years has gone through more than many teams do in half a term here at Beacon in the span only a few short months." I countered him, feeling more than a little bit of pride in my students... Students I'd likened to wild Beowolves only months before... "Miss Argus may have some small personal flaws, but she is well on the way to overcoming, or at least channeling them, and putting the power she wields to great use. This incident with the hospital is an unforeseen, and one-time coincidence. Mr. Carson, despite his record, has clearly shown a level of strategic acumen and tactics I've rarely seen in one so young, and is clever enough to fool what intelligence measuring systems you employed when he was captured." Missing assignments, sleeping in class, but easily garnering perfect marks on every test. One forced game of chess was more than enough to cement the former bandit youth in my mind, especially seeing as he let me win. "And as for Miss Murasaki...!"

_"She's more than capable, I think, General," _the tall boy spoke for the first time since entering the room, surprising even James as he turned around. _"If anything, she'll crush the competition. Might even give Penny a run for her money."_ He motioned to the girl, a look of genuine surprise crossing both her and James' faces.

"So I trust there is no issue, then?" Ozpin mused, opening a small roster on his Scroll, showing a list of every Beacon team that had put themselves forward as representatives, shifting AMBR into the system with a small ping. "Excellent. I'll be sure to give Joel the unexpected news. He didn't even submit an application, likely thinking it would be rejected regardless, though Maxine did present a remarkable forgery with Benjamin's aid."

_"He never applied!?"_ James and I turned on the man, expressions stunned at the innocent grin on Ozpin's face as he drafted a message to the Team leader, finger hovering over the sent button for a moment, before letting it drop to the desk.

"I think I'll leave it for another time. No use dropping such big news on them so late, after all. They deserve the rest."

"You could've... You can't...!?" I stammered, red-faced, while Ironwood laughed uproariously, clutching at his side with his good hand as he bent off screen somewhat, much to the stunned looks on the ginger girl and the giant boy's faces. "J-Just... Just don't forget! You... You...!"

The Headmaster gave me one last wink before taking his mug up, and turning out towards the window again to look out at the shattered moon, leaving me to wonder over the large, and likely illegal political mess we found ourselves.

_'Good luck, children. You'll need it.'_

-END

_**-CODEX-**_

**Reactive Aura- **A phrase used to describe a moderately uncommon phenomenon that occurs in some individuals where their Aura channels itself unconscious of its wielder's intent in an almost instinctive response to external stimuli. This reactive approach allows for the wielder to focus more on the task at hand, rather than having to maintain their Aura, while also providing a stronger defense from unexpected attacks, as well as a decreased recovery time for small-scale wounds, cuts, and bruises, often healing remarkably quickly. The downside, however, is that it is more difficult to maintain a long-term recovery process, making scarring more common in the event of a more serious injury, and that one's ability to channel their power can be affected by their emotional state to their advantage or detriment.

* * *

**_To_**_: General Ironwood_

**_Subject_**_: CLASSIFIED_

_I fear that I and the units accompanying me will be delayed due to an increased frequency of White Fang incursions along the old Mantle border lines. Resistance is higher than projected. However, they are little more than displays by a wounded beast, and we should be able to report to Beacon Academy by the end of the Tournament's first day with little issue. Your personal concern for my well-being, and offer of reinforcement, is appreciated, but unnecessary._

_In regards to your request for a personal opinion of the Former Trapper Agent Joel Ambrose, given my own experiences with him, I disagree that he would be of any particular use to us directly. Using his presence in the tournament as a show of power to others is a good stratagem, but I would advise against including him in any higher capacity than an expendable resource, and would prep your countermeasure well, in the event Ozpin can't manage his pet._

_Remarkably, with some small amount of discipline, Benjamin Carson, however, could prove useful in our ranks, despite his personal quirks. And he is already indebted to us, as well. I would suggest efforts be made towards recruiting him as Operation **-REDACTED- **progresses._

_(Drafted message sent from the Scroll of Atlas Special Forces Agent Winter Schnee to General James Ironwood of the Atlas Armed Military Forces, and acting head of operations for the Special Forces Division)_

* * *

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Edward "Duo" Briar - Johnny Yong Bosch

**_A/N: Bit of fluffy filler just before we get to the tournament next chapter. Haven't written anything for Joel and Yang for a while, felt nice even if they are keeping secrets from each other. Briar's a sore point for Joel which he's want to keep Yang from worrying about while in the show it seems as if Yang hasn't even told her sister about Raven (May or may not change) so why would she tell someone she's only known for a few months, relationship or no, about it? Least that's my logic. And we get to meet Eddy Briar, nice times. Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter and thank you for following along with this mess._**

**_And in other news we've finally reached one hundred Reviews, never thought I'd get far enough with this story to reach this point when I started. Thank you Da-Awesom-One and to everyone willing to leave a comment, they all help and act as major inspiration for moving forward. Speaking of reviews I was asked recently about whether I've ever thought of commissioning someone for artwork for AMBR and my other stories, something I have thought about however I know art's expensive and money's never exactly been flowing in for me. If anyone's interested and would like to show some examples of their work and a rough estimate of the cost I'd like to think I could start saving up._**


	47. Chapter 47

**Edited as of (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**A/N: As this chapter chronologically happens shortly after the events of Grimm Eclipse, edits were made referencing some events in the game. It's towards the beginning of Max's POV so if you are against spoilers feel free to skip once she starts reminiscing, not much or anything too specific but just being safe. Play it though, its pretty cool, Weiss is broken...**

A TIME TO FIGHT

**_-Weiss Schnee-_**

_"...And the victory goes to **Team CVFY,** showing us that the key to achieving victory is sometimes as, uh... simple as knowing where to strike."_

_"A keen observation, Doctor! I couldn't have said it better myself! Medics, please do get the boy some ice for that, will you? Oh dear..."_

"Well that was certainly an... interesting bout," I commented hesitantly, finding it difficult to say much more on the subject as robotic drones, accompanied by a few medics, worked quickly to escort the now-traumatized Atlesian team from the arena, though scrape was perhaps a more apt description. Meanwhile, Coco Adel waved to her adoring fans, while the rest of her team looked on nervously.

_'We might have to fight **that...**'_

Fans or not, I did notice more than a few scared looks aimed her way, especially from the males of the audience. To be quite honest, I could hardly blame them.

"Even _I've_ never reached a pitch that high..." Ruby merely nodded numbly, still in shock from our own victory, I expect.

"I think my ears might be bleeding..." Blake groaned, massaging her bow tenderly as she brought a hand away just to be sure. Yang, meanwhile, was cheering along with the rest of them, one foot on the railing with a fist in the air. "Yang, you aren't helping."

Of course, the blonde didn't seem to hear her, too caught up in the moment to care much, beyond bellowing her lungs out. "_COCO! I LOVE YOU!_" The fashionista gave her a thumbs-up and one last elegant bow before vacating the arena.

"Forgotten the big lug already, I see..." I shot her a sly smirk as the brawler peered over her shoulder at me with a raised eyebrow. "A shame. I was starting to get used to him following you around everywhere like some lost puppy."

"Don't you know, Weissy? I'm going the _full harem route._ Sparky's just the start." She grinned broadly as a tinge of red entered my cheeks from the teasing... if it _was_ teasing...

_'I wouldn't put it past this one to try something so... so...!'_

She spun on her heel, assuming a pose on the ledge with a wink towards me, Blake's muffled snickering to my right easily audible, even in all this racket. "You want in? I've got more than enough love to give..."

"Y-you... _You...!_"

Before I could tell my teammate off, however, a dead silence fell over the crowd. My mouth slacked open, same as most everyone else in the arena that knew and beyond as the randomizer sounded off. Mutters of confusion rose up, as those unfamiliar were left in the dark.

_'They really **did it...** I don't...'_

Even Yang seemed shocked, though I did note the edge of her lip curling slightly, her eyes shining excitedly at the display. Ruby broke her silence finally, joining her sister at the ledge in a blur of fading rose petals.

"_AWESOME!_"

_Team GLDN of Haven Academy VS. Team AMBR of Beacon Academy._

"I thought you said they weren't planning on competing!?" I heard Blake ask Yang, a note of trepidation in her voice. "That Joel didn't think it would be allowed?" I could understand the confusion, sure. Admittedly, Joel had come a long way with both his team and his reputation. But to show up at a match live, especially if what I'd learned about GLDN during my scouting was accurate?...

_'This won't be good.'_

"He never mentioned it to me. Seemed totally against the idea, actually, for some odd reason. Still, talk about one hell of a surprise, though! I thought they were supposed to be on assignment all morning?"

Ever since the Breach, certain teams called up for the task had been sent out intermittently across the Kingdom's border to thin out the Grimm's numbers for the Festival, the Headmaster's decision despite General Ironwood's generous offer of support from his mechanized legions in that regard. I'd kept Ruby from it, our leader already spending enough time ditching schoolwork as it was.

Most saw it as just another tiresome distraction from the excitement of the tournament, but some, like AMBR for instance, took it in stride, and applied every chance they could to be sent out, slaying monsters rather than going to classes. _'That sadist Maxine must be **thrilled.**' _I sent a glare down the rows of seats, where the Faunus' cousin sat. She looked slightly overwhelmed, but glared determinedly at the screen as her hands gripped the cane she kept at her side.

_"There you have it, folks! Our next match will be between Mistral's second year 'gold stars,' themselves, Team GLDN, led by the beautiful Galina Umber and a last-minute entry from here in Vale, Team AMBR, led by the dashing Joel Ambrose!" _Peter Port bellowed over the loudspeaker, the announcement putting a stop to whatever scattered chatter and questions still remained.

"...Ambrose?... The _Trapper,_ you mean? The one they caught?"

"Can't be. No _way_ they'd let a monster like that..."

"What's _wrong_ with this Kingdom!?"

"Let him rip those animal's apart! _Hell yeah!_"

There was some scattered applause from the Vale residents, most of them anyway. Joel's actions in the papers months ago were still fresh in their minds, apparently. However, to Yang's obvious annoyance, they were well into the minority, as a harsh buzzing went through the crowd. "Want me to crack your jaw for you!?" she snarled towards an entire row that was screaming insults, eyes blazing red. "_THEN SHUT UP!_"

It was in the midst of all this when GLDN stepped from the Arena's locker rooms into the octagonal arena. Galina, her brilliant golden hair done up in two thick braids that hung past her shoulders on both sides of her chest, stood bedecked in a thick grey breastplate and arm braces, complete with spiked grieves, and a long yellow pleated skirt, tattered at the fringes, that fell past her knees. A broad, golden-colored bladed spear was clutched in her hand, shining in the sunlight. A beautiful and fearsome weapon, from my research, I knew it could convert into a bladed LMG on a dime, though her skills were said to be more than capable with its mid-ranged form.

Her partner, Arthur Damask, moved to stand behind her protectively as Port introduced him. He was dark-skinned, bedecked in a thick red, woolen long coat, looking seemingly unaffected by the weather. He had red-dyed hair shaved close to his scalp, eyes narrowing at the scoreboard as his hand drifted towards a nasty-looking spiked iron mace hanging at his belt. The other two...

_"And last, but certainly not least, the famed Lister twins, Larka and Nika! A pair truly as lovely as they are skilled!"_

At that, two near-identical girls stepped into the ring. Larka, with her wild, silvery hair cut short at her chin, wore grey combat jeans, knee-high boots, a tight black tank top, as well as a pair of bulky black bracelets on her wrists, with a small light blue crystal hanging off of each by a short chain. Meanwhile, Nika had a long mane nearly as impressive as Yang's, standing beside her sister in shorts, with a black and white sleeveless fur-lined coat over a black blouse, accompanied by black gloves that ran up to her elbows. Her feet were covered in sleek, white armored boots, with a long, sharp, bladed spur just above the heel. Each had a red crystal embedded above both heels. What really stood out to the crowd, however, was the pair of greyish canine ears sprouting from each twin's head, Nika's covered in small ringed silver piercings. Beautiful, in a feral sort of way, I supposed, with yellow glowing eyes that looked out at the crowd, wearing expressions that would've likely cracked stone.

"Wolf Faunus..." I whispered, catching sight of Blake's surprised face. I was surprised to see the pair's faces get even worse when Galina turned to speak with them. What she was saying was lost in the noise from the crowd, but it didn't look good.

"She's asking them if they want to back out of the match," Blake filled in somberly, noting my interest as she watched the pair with a pained look. "If they want to forfeit."

"But this is the Vytal Festival Tournament; they can't just forfeit!" Ruby said, sounding shocked.

She had a point. This tournament was being broadcasted all across Remnant, and, in a way, could make or break careers. Perform well here, and you and your team's name would be known for years to come. To back out now would be...

Blake covered that question, giving the redhead a kind smile. "Would you want me to go up against someone that had specialized in killing Faunus? Galina's just giving them the option for their sake."

"One they're not taking, by the looks of it," Yang mentioned, sounding almost relieved as GLDN indeed assumed their combat positions, waiting for AMBR to show up. "...Wait a sec. Why aren't they out already?"

_"Um, yes. Now, and without further ado, we introduce Team AMB... Wait... What do you mean they're not here?" _Doctor Oobleck said aloud into the mic, the stadium going quiet again, as whispered snippets of a conversation played out on the other end. _"'...Weren't alerted!?' It's the day of the... Well, are they on their way, at least?"_

"...You don't think they're actually out on the border, do you?" Ruby voiced aloud, all of us turning to look at Yang, who merely shrugged, falling back in her seat. "The Headmaster would've let them know, wouldn't he? We all got the message."

I would've answered, said something to the effect that this wouldn't exactly be the first time Ozpin's slipped, when Blake perked up, head looking left and right as she stood up from her seat at last warily. "Does anyone else hear something?..."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

**(Minutes Earlier)**

_'It's weird... I've never seen Ambrose get this riled up before.'_ I wondered to myself, doing my best to ignore the shaking and rattling of the airship as it roared through the air towards the Amity Coliseum._'Least we should, if Redgrave doesn't **kill us** first!'_

No, no more thoughts like that. I shook my head out, pulling my hair back into its ponytail as I worked with the hair tie, trying to ignore the shaking metal coffin around me.

"_How!?_ How the _hell_ do you forget to send an acceptance invitation!?" Joel complained over the crying whine of the engine, checking a loose strap on his chest piece, giving the hardened plate a good rap. "And for _weeks,_ too! It's not that hard, is it!? Just literally point, click, and send! It shouldn't have taken_ A FEW WEEKS_ to get that invite to us!... I swear, next time I see that coffee-addled, old...!"

He took a deep breath to stop himself, Reika giving him an affectionate pat on the back and a smile, an honest to god smile, instead of one of her little hand signs, before she went back to tinkering around with that crazy new gauntlet of hers.

_'The shrimp's changed a lot... New hair, and I still hardly recognize her without that damn mask on...' _She'd just stopped wearing it after we rescued her, acting as if that hadn't been a huge deal. No talking as of yet, but I wasn't going to put it past her at this rate. _'Three little scratch marks... All the trouble with the mask just to hide **that?**' _They weren't pretty, sure, but they hardly did much to hinder her. _'And yet, I still put those two prick's heads through a table for looking at her funny... Shit, Max, you're actually getting protective. **Fuck!**'_

"Might wanna step on it, Rock Star! Looks like we just got picked!" Carson called up at the cockpit, keeping one eye on the Scroll as he rapped a metal fist on the bulkhead, ignoring our leader's curse at that moment when he registered his news. "Can't keep our lovely audience waitin'! Few more minutes, and they'll call it without us!"

"I'm pushing her for all she's got, kiddos!" the pilot shouted back, juking to the side with enough force that would've sent me flying, probably, if I wasn't strapped down. As it was, I still felt like my stomach was somewhere in my throat, and that all the blood had drained from my face. "'Sides, any faster, and I wouldn't be able to keep some trigger-happy Atlesian from shooting us down! Real sticklers for flight clearance, these guys!... '_Rock Star?_' Really?"

"Knew ya'd approve!" Ben smirked, letting out a slight chuckle as the man shrugged in his seat, before sparing a glance for our leader sitting across from him. "Calm down, Boss; we're lucky! Only _most_ of the crowd seems to hate us!"

The leader groaned, running hands through his hair. "Awesome... And we barely had time to nail down team formations! And what if... Dust, I thought I was done fighting in these stupid things! Grimm don't care about all this flashy shit!"

"Thought your home city was all about the tournament lifestyle? 'Guts &amp; glory,' right?" I teased, earning a sharp look from the white-haired man as he checked his weapons for the umpteenth time since we'd gotten into the airship. "Scared you can't perform for your girlfriend? It's all good, partner; it happens to everyone."

"Ha, ha..." he snapped back sarcastically at the mock salute I gave him. "You know, maybe I'd be less stressed if your cousin would just get off my back... You _seriously_ can't have a talk with her?"

My ears pricked up defensively, as my face heated up. "Talk with her about what!? For trying to help out!?"

It had been a very interesting past couple of weeks for our circle of friends. In that time, RWBY had been sent to the Emerald Forest to go check on something that was mucking up the security network. That little mission then, apparently, turned into some crazy adventure. During the whole thing, RWBY had found out that somebody had been catching Grimm, and taking them off to some island off the coast. They then discovered that this nutcase, Merlot I think it was, had been experimenting on Grimm, and managed to mutate them into powerful forms.

Apparently, from the way they told it, he and his experiments had been largely responsible for the downfall of Mountain Glenn, the place where RWBY had had their first official mission, due to attracting Grimm there for experimentation, forcing the remaining population to go underground, and the series of unfortunate events that happened after. RWBY managed to foil his plans, but the guy went and tried to blow them up, along with himself and his lab. Thankfully, Ozpin had managed to get a hold of them, and sent a Bullhead for their escape. They got out in the nick of time, leaving that madman to burn up along with his lab.

_'...Still, a Beowolf the size of an Ursa!? I'd pay good lien to tear that apart... Or the Mutated Death Stalker!'_

That was how things had gone for RWBY, at least. On our end, or mine, specifically, I had been helping Sonia out through her rehabilitation. She had been recovering steadily between physical rehab sessions and regular checkups, but there was still a ways to go. Thankfully, Joel had managed to do as I asked of him, and convinced Ozpin to let my cousin move into our dorm for the time being. A whole week had passed since Sonia had started living in our dorm full-time. The results of that decision had been... _mixed,_ to say the least.

"No, for trying to run AMBR, and for trying to tell Ruby how to manage her team. It's throwing her off."

"Xiao Long putting you up to this?"

"Nope. This is all me. Ruby's been doing just fine; better then fine, even. She doesn't need someone who isn't even a student telling her everything she's doing is wrong." He pulled his weapon from the sling on his back, checking over the casing. "And just a fair warning, Yang's not exactly happy about it, either."

"It's just helpful advice! Sonia was a leader, too, you know!" It _had_ been a bit much, in Joel's defense. Sonia had been a bit aggressive when it came to Rose and Arc from the moment she met them, outright stating that RWBY's leader was way too young to be at Beacon, let alone in charge of three other Huntresses, while Jaune... _'Yeah, not too impressive at a glance, that one.'_

"She was a leader of a _fictional team_ in a dream world she can't even remember. Not exactly a glowing qualification," Joel pointed out, as Reika and Ben looked at one another, hands flashing between them faster than I could follow probably, giving a play by play commentary. "Damn it, Max, she's posting team practice schedules for us! Scheduling them with Goodwitch, too!"

"Well that's good, right? _You_ never did that!

"...Actually, he _did..._ We just never went to them, remember?" Ben said with his hand raised, putting it down slowly as I turned my glare on him, his eyes shifting back to a sudden smudge on his goggles. "Least he puts 'em at reasonable hours. Not sure if ya realize this, Max, but I'm not exactly a mornin' person," he muttered, blowing on the lenses, before working at cleaning them with the edge of his poncho.

"And then there's that _damn_ board..." The day after the girl had moved in, Joel had come back from a early gym session to find a bulletin board bolted to his wall, the words TEAM COMMENTS displayed proudly in glittery blue lettering. According to Sonia, it was an easy way of anonymously posting about matters members of the team found issue with without giving themselves away, giving its members more input even if Joel himself wasn't around.

"What's wrong with the board? It was a good idea!"

"Oh, the board's fine... I just wish Sonia wasn't the only one using it!" Within two hours, the slab was practically overflowing with little slips of paper, admirably scrawled in different handwriting to try and keep things "anonymous."

"So she's observant. That's not a crime! And it's not like she's the only one putting things up!"

"Right. _How_ could I forget? 'Stop being an asshole,' followed by a slowly shrinking line of text running along the side, that I don't think I'll ever un-see. _Thanks._" He flipped the weapon in his hand before stowing it again, Ben running a finger over his throat as he checked the Scroll again. "Oh, and there was another one! Ben, I think. 'STOP HER, PLEASE!?'" Carson shook his head, motioning to Murasaki, who raised a hand, looking smug. The leader looked her way with a note of pleasant surprise. "...Really? Nice. Handwriting's really improving." She flashed him a thumbs-up, before going back to her work. "Look, just talk to her, will you? _Please?_ She won't even come near me, but she _has_ to accept that I haven't run this team into the ground _yet,_ have I?"

"It makes her comfortable, alright!? She needs it after..." I paused, chewing my lip painfully. "Please, just bear with it a little bit longer, okay? She's talking with Ozpin about applying for next year. Once she's up to it, anyway. After that, we can start looking for a place. It's just in the meantime."

Free mentioned that her Aura had managed to slow the muscle degeneration to a crawl of what it would've been, but months of inactivity had still taken their toll. _'Few weeks of proper eating and some exercise is all she needs. She'll be cutting down Grimm in no time.'_

"...Fine," he said after a few seconds, shaking his head out, sighing as a green light buzzed overhead, along with a confident affirmative from our hapless pilot. "Just tell her to keep it to AMBR only, okay?" I nodded as the team leader stood to his full height, towering over us as the doors opened to a shocked and screaming crowd below us. "Alright, AMBR, let's kick some ass!"

Those were words we could all get behind... But then I realized we were still a good ways into the air, with quite a ways between us and the ground.

"H-hey, Redgrave! T-the hell haven't landed already!?"

"Sorry, Miss Argus! Air traffic says I can't dip inside the Coliseum itself! Old treaties, fancy energy shield, and whatnot!... You guys are gonna have to make your own way down, if you want in before ya forfeit!"

I was going to kill him. I was going to tear this old, decrepit, waste of metal that _dared_ to call itself an airship, and...

"Not a problem! Thanks for the lift!" Ambrose got up to the door next to me, and gestured for me to get up. Ben and Reika were ready to go, the blond with his rifle slung over one shoulder, and the shrimp bouncing on the balls of her feet.

The pilot gave us a thumbs-up, already keying up a view of the Coliseum proceedings on his Scroll, where an image of the airship was focused on by every camera. "Anytime, kiddos! Break a leg out there! Well... Actually, that might be awkward, so just... Oh, you get the idea!"

"Why aren't we just going around to the side docks!? I-it won't take too much longer!" I spoke up desperately, realizing what these crazy bastards had in mind. "C'mon, I mean do we really...!?"

"Ben, I think it's your turn," Ambrose said to the sniper, gesturing with his head towards me. "I did it that time with Torchwick's mech."

"We're countin' that!? Spur of the moment doesn't mean... Nope; no, it's Reika's turn. 'Member the obstacle course Goodwitch put us through last week? That rock wall?" They both spun on the diminutive Huntress, who only sighed, making an annoyed gesture towards the pair of them.

"Uh... What are you guys talking...!?"

I screeched as I was suddenly pulled from the chair seat, straps snapping off me as Murasaki swung me over her shoulders in an awkward fireman's carry, and leapt clear of the Bullhead, sending the both of us plummeting towards the arena and crowd below.

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"...Too harsh, ya think?" Ben asked as Max's screams fell further and further away, peeking out over the side of the craft. "...She's gonna be so _pissed._"

"Probably... And that obstacle course excuse was bullshit, and you know it. Practically pushed her off the last drop," I replied as squared myself up, doing one last mental checklist of everything, including the cheeky laugh from the former bandit, before diving after my two teammates, Ben only a short ways behind me. The wind rushed through our face as we passed through what must've been the shield Jude was talking about with an electronic hiss. Flaring my Aura, I angling myself so that I came down in a roll, as opposed to Reika, who was now standing in her own personal little crater, Max clinging to the small girl for dear life, looking shell- shocked. Ben let out a whoop of excitement as he came up on my right, dusting himself off as motes of green Aura flickered off his legs.

"Well, that was bracin'! By the way, Max, you forgot your axe. Thought'd I throw it out, before..."

As if on cue, the axe came down right in front of him, or at least close enough to shave a few hairs off the bit of stubble he'd started growing on his chin, as Max's growling emanated from behind us.

_'Uh oh...'_

"You... _You...!_" She was hardly able to speak, practically kicking herself off of Reika as she stalked over towards us, Aura flashing menacingly as her axe uprooted itself to fly back into her hand. "_SO NO WARNING, NOW!? YOU SHITS ACTUALLY TAKING TURNS ON WHO GETS TO MESS WITH ME NEXT!?_"

"In our defense, you wasn't exactly eager to move," Ben pointed out, immediately regretting it as she raised her axe instinctively.

Thankfully, before she could do more than take another step, Professor Port's voice rang out through the crowd, reminding us exactly where we were standing, as hundreds, if not _thousands_ of eyes were bearing down on us silently, the shock of our sudden entrance still settling in. And that was just in the stadium itself.

_'Well, this isn't awkward at all...'_

_"Now **that** was certainly quite the entrance for such a well-traveled group of young warriors! Introducing Team AMBR, led by Joel Ambrose of the Frontier City of Bastion, now a redeemed Huntsman of Vale looking to make his rather 'electrifying' mark on this tournament! He is joined by his partner, Maxine Argus! The deadliest hand with a battle axe I've seen since yours truly. Oh, how I remember the days..."_

Not as many boos as I thought I'd get. I gave the audience a confident nod, before Max smacked me across the back of the head, grabbing my arm and raising it high with a laughing roar that was echoed through the stadium, as every Valean, and even a few foreigners, took it up in stride. _'Well that's one way to psyche up a crowd...' _I glanced at her as she raised her axe in her other hand, letting me go as she took in the applause.

"_AMBR! AMBR! AMBR!_"

"_Tear 'em apart, Maxine!_"

Oobleck was quick to cut off Port's rumbling, carrying on with the introductions. _"And finally, we have Benjamin Carson and Reika Murasaki, partners in crime and in battle, with a mix of cunning and raw ability to take on any challenge! Ladies and gentlemen, we have our contenders!"_

"_Benny!_ _We love you!_" The rogue shot that particular section a wink and a bow, before straightening up at a growl from the Dog Faunus next to him.

There was one pair of voices I could make out though. I spotted Ruby and Yang at the edge of the arena, with Weiss and Blake curled up at their sides, doing their best not to be seen.

"_Give me an A!_"

"_A!_"

"_Give me an M!_"

"_M!_"

"_Give me a B!_"

"_B!_"

"_Give me an R!_"

"_R!_"

"_What's that spell!?_"

"**_AMBR!_**" both sisters cheered.

I waved back at them, managing a small smile as I took our first look at our opponents, bowing my head respectfully. "Good luck to you. May the best team win."

The blonde, Galina I think it was, and the large redhead beside her looked to each other briefly, before turning back to face me. The other leader bowed her head as well, looking pleasantly surprised. "Same to you, as well."

The last pair, however... _'If looks could kill...' _I felt a chill go down my neck as the two twin Faunuses stared me in eye, the long-haired one flashing her canines at me.

"Hope you're ready, murderer..." Not unexpected words, though I didn't enjoy thinking about all the other times they'd been said to me, those being said in wholly different circumstances.

"Wow. And I thought _I_ was the only one who did that," Max muttered, moving to my side as she shot the girls a gesture that, somehow, only served to piss them off more. "Yeah, they really don't seem to like you."

"That obvious, huh?"

She let loose one of her more manic smiles, the same look she got whenever she was called up for sparring. "I got you. Showing those girls who's the top dog's just gonna be a bonus!"

"Good to hear," I told her as holographic displays sprang to life around us, showing a spinning randomizer, one on our side stopping on a fire display, while the other appeared to be a cityscape. "Wha...?"

Reika, Ben, and I drew our weapons as the entire arena shook around us. Only Max and GLDN seemed unfazed at the sight of both a broken city and a fiery wasteland rising up around us.

_'Impressive.' _It still amazed me, sometimes, just how advanced the Kingdoms were in comparison to the rest of Remnant, the marvels they could create. It still took seeing it in person to believe Yang's story that the massive coliseum actually flew. _'Maybe Jake could explain it to me? He probably knows how it works.'_

Now the panels were showing flashing lights. A countdown, I realized.

"Reika, keep them off Ben! Max, you're with me!" I ordered, relieved to hear their quick affirmatives and see the mute's nod.

_"Team GLDN of Haven versus Team AMBR of Beacon!..." _Port called out as the crowds cheering reached a level where even Port's magnified voice was barely enough to win out. Cold reality set in as I breathed in, letting all the pressure and trepidation rise to the surface, before holding it, and then letting it all go.

_"Three!... Two!... One!..."_

_'They can think of me however they want, but they're going to see the **Huntsman** today. Not the Trapper.' _It was a simple, silly thought, but it made all the difference as we took positions across from one another, my staff in hand held behind me, while Ben crouched low with his rifle in assault form.

_"**BEGIN!**"_

If I hadn't flared my Aura just a moment before, just enough to catch sight of a slight shimmer in the air as a warning, it might well have been over for me a second into the match, as a length of razor-thin wire closed in on where I'd been standing, tearing up a good section of the arena, along with me if I hadn't rolled back onto one knee a split second before. My heart pounded in my ears as the rest of my team now reacted to the sudden attack.

_'She struck early!'_ One the Faunuses, the short-haired one, had her hands outstretched towards me, her bangles open and segmented now, as wires trailed forth from internal reels.

"You're pretty fast on your feet, _Trapper!_" The other twin flew at me on a pair of roller skates, a bloodthirsty smirk on her lips. Dust-propelled wheels spun as she fell on us in an instant, coming down on her hands in an acrobatic spin, her bladed spur flashing towards my jugular. "But not fast enough!"

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Galina Umber - Morgan Berry

Nika Lister - Alexis Tipton

**A/N: So what can I say, Ozpin's a busy man which means I'm certain a few things like sending notifications can get lost in the woodwork of running a place like Beacon. Can honestly say though I never expected to get so much work out of one pilot character but man he's busy carting these nutcases around. With this we're officially starting Volume 3 off with a bang people, tournament fights, stressed teammates, friends and relatives coming to visit. Going to be a good time if I can manage it.**

**Little side note with my winter break coming up during which I hope to have the first chapter of the LMNH rewrite done. Changed a few things but nothing major. After that though things might start slowing down hat with thesis film happening in March and all the actors, location permits, and general craziness with that going on. I'll do my best but that has to be my main focus right now.**


	48. Chapter 48

**Edited as of (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

ROUND ONE

**_-Natalie Corbell-_**

"...and then, if I'm not running the cops around in circles, chasing shadows for hours on end, it's rigging a multi-national, military-level security system so that you, or the taskmaster working your fingers to the bone, can rig tournament matches for the grandest event on the face of Remnant from a handheld Scroll. I mean, seriously. Talk about a freaking slave driver..."

Leah grunted along in mindless agreement, her eyes gazing around the personal server room I kept in the back of Junior's club, running a finger through her reddish-blonde tresses absently, tail swaying back and forth as she pulled out her Scroll and switched on something on the monitor. The tournament most likely, judging from the noise.

_'I mean, what else would anyone be watching?'_ It's not like I minded her spacing out. Most people would after the two and a half hours of uninhibited tech talk and bullshit venting I'd put her through, but she'd made a decent effort for the first half. _'For a Faunus talking to a filthy Human, anyway.'_

I'd been more than a little bit put off when the Black Queen had suddenly stuck me with the Fox Faunus agent to "assist" me, though it made sense, I supposed. The success of many of her plans, for Vale and beyond, depended on programs I wrote going off without a hitch. And if I happened to go rogue... Well, it made sense to have someone watching over me, in any case.

_'Strange what a few months working for the Hand can teach you to get used to,' _I shrugged. It was difficult at first when the White Fang agent had first ingrained herself amongst Junior's staff, and basically assigned herself as my roommate with little complaint from the boss man himself. And while my old profession and my own nervousness did make for a pretty awkward situation at first, we'd improved, slowly, which had led to... things. _'A 'friendship' of convenience, perhaps?... Not to mention she's drop dead gorgeous...' _I flushed, pausing my rapid typing to dig my index fingernail into my palm, banishing the offending thoughts for later. _'To think a few months back I couldn't even look at a Faunus without tensing... Definitely an improvement...'_

"And then don't even get me _started_ on some of the data I have to dig through. You know how much junk gets built up on these systems in just a day? I mean, there's a reason I need to wear glasses, after all!"

"You asked for this, remember? 'Anything I can do to serve' were the words, right?" she spoke up, cracking a smile as I missed a few keys, waiting for me to quickly correct myself before continuing. "If you want to take a quick break, that's fine by me. You're sort of working on your own time, after all." I felt her tail tickle my leg, my head shooting up with a barely muffled squeak.

"T-there's n-no problem with being ahead of the game! Besides, I need to make sure this all goes well, or the Queen'll... well... You get the idea." If I don't deliver, it's "off with my head," or something worse, knowing that woman.

The Faunus huffed, eyes drifting back to her Scroll, only to let out a furious growl that set that hairs on the back of my neck prickling, and forced the air from my lungs, her pupils turning to sharp slits.

_'Improvement. Yeah...'_

"What!? What's the matter!?"

She shoved her Scroll towards me, as if the device was physically burning her. "Oh nothing. Just your old '_friend_' showing up when he wasn't supposed to!" I stared at her dumbstruck for a moment, before glancing down at the screen, which was showcasing live footage from the tournament grounds. Sure enough, there was Joel and the rest of AMBR standing in the middle of Amity Colosseum, the media already chomping at the bit as speculations, and outright shock, flooded the airwaves. "I thought you told that red witch you'd deal with them!? That'd keep them out of the tournament!?"

"I _did!_ T-the virus should've had their Scrolls bouncing any communications that even mentioned the tournament!" I shook, wracking my brain for what the hell could've happened. AMBR should've been out at the ass end of the border fighting Grimm when word finally reached them, insurance in case someone tried to call foul play, and make it look like an unfortunate error. How they could have gotten back to Vale from there in the span of...

I examined the head tagline pic more closely, face paling at what was clearly an almost archaic-looking Bullhead speeding away after dropping them off. "Joel mentioned having a pilot on call, but of all the..." Ozpin. If he'd suspected something, or even just thought it an unfortunate coincidence... "_Damn it!_"

We both looked around at the sudden, and _very_ distinct ringtone going off, as a message popped up on my Scroll. A Black Queen chess piece flashed clear as day on the thin screen, buzzing insistently.

_'Uh oh...'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

Two things made themselves readily clear in my mind as the holographic buzzer flashed green with an annoyingly ear-splitting racket.

Firstly, this team, or more specifically the pair of wolves that had been eyeing the lot of us like fresh meat for the slaughter, were gunning for Ambrose pretty damn hard, evident by just how fast they'd managed to put him on the defensive barely a second into the match. The next, and most immediate, was how they weren't exactly intent on letting him leave with his head. The little spin move the long-haired one had dished out had been focused on, and likely could've, killing, or at least injuring him severely, if I hadn't managed to blast her away from him with a strong push from my Semblance, sending her tumbling and skittering across the arena on hands and skates as she tried to keep herself balanced. Probably wondering what the hell just hit her.

_'Guess the cat's out of the bag on my 'gift.' Good a place as any... Huh?' _I spared a glance to the board where the Aura readouts for the teams were displayed. Mine had gone down a small fraction, but the other Faunus' had barely even moved. In fact, her sister's had gone down by exactly the same margin, as if the damage had been split between them to almost nothing. _'What gives!?'_

_"And GLDN is already off to a rather straightforward start, right out of the gate!" _Port called over the roar of the crowd, Joel barely having time to get to his feet and register the same strange glitch for himself, before the ground between us tore itself apart. The leader was forced to the side to avoid more of the older twin's wires, only to be caught off balance as the skater closed in again, forcing him further and further into the volcanic biome behind us. _"Seems the Listers won't be pulling any punches this round, Doctor!"_

_"Indeed, Peter, though I am hesitant to agree with Miss Lister's cutting it rather close on the buzzer with her opening attack."_

Well at least someone noticed, not that it mattered much.

"Son of a...!" I snarled, sprinting forwards to try and get those two off his back. My charge was cut short, however, by a heavy blade cleaving downward that I only just managed to deflect off the edge of my axe in an impressive display of sparks, though it still left an impressive rent in the floor as it impacted, the moments-long contact with it enough to leave my arms feeling sore and numb in the aftermath.

GLDN's glaive-wielding leader took a step back, taking a defensive stance that showed off the almost glowing sunburst emblem on her shoulder plate, toting that spear around easily as if the weapon didn't weigh like a cinderblock on a fucking stick. An irritated, if determined look showed on her pretty face like some statue.

_'One I'm gonna enjoy breaking!'_ I resolved, shaking out my arms as I split my weapon into dual gun form, holding each loosely at my sides at the ready. '_I can do this. I can **do this!**'_

"Back off!" She was fast and strong, if that attack was any indication. Hell of a lot stronger than anyone her size should be, at any rate.

_'A Juggernaut like Valkyrie. Just my luck...'_

From by the rapid fire gunshots and explosions going off behind me, it was pretty clear where her partner was, the two seemingly intent on keeping us as far away from Ambrose and his assailants as possible. Murasaki managed to get herself blown back by the red giant and his now-flaming mace, while Carson moved desperately to try and cover her.

_'Divide and conquer. These two keep us occupied, while their teammates deal with what they see as the biggest threat.' _I wasn't sure if I was angrier at the fact that the simple strategy had actually caught us off guard, or that they thought it would only take the two of them to hold the three of us up.

"This is a fight they've chosen, Miss Argus," Galina murmured slowly, stressing each word as she began to spin her weapon in hand, a harsh whistling filling the air as it went, stinging my ears painfully with each rotation. "I will not have it interrupted."

"Well, their fight's a little fucking unfair, if you hadn't noticed!" I pointed out bluntly, bringing both guns to bear on her and pulling the triggers with a satisfying click. However, rather than try to weave to the side as I'd expected, and try to avoid the spray of Dust-tipped shells, the warrior simply charged forward in a flash of golden Aura that hurt my eyes just to look at, weaving through my field of fire so fast, I could barely follow, and using the rapidly-weaving broad blade of her spear or the shaft to catch or knock aside what bullets she couldn't avoid.

_'Are you fucking **kidding me!?**' _I panicked as she thrust forward, drawing on my Aura instinctively, and shifted the point of the blade away from me. I intended for a moment to do more; send her flying into the barrier and beyond if I could. However, I then remembered the Red Hand Bullhead crashing under the weight of the avalanche, forced against...

_'**Stay focused!**' _This was different. And besides, I wasn't going to win with some dumb ring-out technicality bull. My pride wouldn't be able to take it.

The blonde's eyes widened at the strange force exerted on her weapon, but the shock value didn't really last long. Her body, still in motion, turned the failed thrust into a viscous running kick to my stomach, which sent me flying across the stage towards the urban half of the field.

"So that's what it is... A Semblance that affects the space around you in some fashion," she surmised, tossing her weapon from hand to hand, inspecting it as I got to my hands and knees coughing, feeling like I'd just taken a hit from a car rather than another person. My Aura just breached the yellow from that one hit alone. "Powerful, but it seems to take most of your concentration to use it effectively. Unsuitable for close range, unlike my own." I noticed for the first time the sunlight clinging to her figure, as her Aura seemed to suck it in like a sponge.

_'So what, she's goddamn** solar-powered!?**'_

"You can't win like this."

"Says you!' I growled, both halves of _Cerberus_ flying into my outstretched hands and reforming the axe. My side ached something awful as my Aura worked to fix the damage, but I didn't let that stop me from jumping to my feet. Surprising the blonde with a leaping charge of my own, I went at her with all I had with a bellowing battle cry, carried onward by the cheering roar of the crowd.

If the bitch's attacks each hit like an Ursa on stims, then all I had to do was avoid them and hit harder. That crazy mindset, and no shortage of inborn Faunus agility, carried me as I ducked under a heavy backswing, managing to catch her off guard with a glancing blow across her Aura, before I redirected my axe in a move that defied gravity and sense for a tool as heavy as the axe should've been, a manic smile on my face.

_'I can do this! I can...!'_

I was so caught up in the adrenaline of the moment, and on the Huntress' weapon, that I didn't see her gold-tinged knee coming up to greet my latest crouch, catching me under the jaw, and sending stars streaming across my vision, barely registering the resounding wince from the crowd and both announcers, before the Huntress finished her little maneuver by sending me hurtling bodily away, only to impact painfully into the side of the building structure with enough force to crash through the thin wall. My Aura was well into the yellow at this point, while Galina's bar sat just in the green. The sun-sucking witch approached with her weapon, shifting it into a large gun.

_'Crap...'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_"CRAP!_" I rolled to the side, barely a second ahead of a flaming mace that blew a sizable hole in the structure behind me. The red Huntsman merely let out an annoyed "tsk," before rearing back for another blow. "You know, I could _really_ use some help here, Reika!" I ducked, feeling the waves of heat emanating off the spiked weapon as it passed above me.

_'Too close! **Way** too close!'_

"...!" Looking over to where she was, I saw that she was caught in some sort of magnetized cuff trap our opponent had split off from his weapon, her gauntleted arm pinned up against a patch of exposed metallic girders jutting out the building across from us. She tried pulling again, body shimmering with Aura as she managed to get a bit of clearance, before the cuff pulled her back with a loud ringing clang. "..." She let out a silent sigh of exasperation, fingers signing even as she readied herself to try again.

_'Grimm-rated. That's a bitch...'_

"'_Stall him!?_' Oh _sure,_ what do ya think I've been...!?" I paused, bringing my gun up to intercept a similar trap flying at me mid shot. The cuff flew off to slap a harmless patch of railing nearby, though I did feel a bit of an uncomfortable tug on my arm. "_Excuse me!?_ We're talkin'...!" I evaded another swing by centimeters, it beating at the fringed of my poncho as it smoked ominously. "What!? They don't teach manners at Haven!?"

_"That was a close save! Mr. Damask seems to have AMBR on the ropes. I must say, this reminds me of a time..." _Port's voice called out over the 'oohs' and cheers of the crowd.

Arthur Damask. A Mistralian Huntsman with muscles that put Cardin Winchickenshit's to shame, paired off wonderfully with the attitude and features of a slightly interesting brick. Solid as one, too.

_'Awesome. Psycho and Max get to deal with smokin' hot vixens, and meanwhile, I get... Oh, give me a **break** already!' _I was cut off from my thoughts as I was forced to fire off _Glory _just to avoid another backswing using the recoil. It sent me tumbling back, sweating from the heat that thing let off.

_"...And another crushing blow from Galina! It seems Maxine might have bitten off more than she could chew with this opponent!"_

You know, on second thought, judging by the color commentary and the big screen, neither of my teammates were having much luck against their opponents either. Last I saw of Maxine was after she'd been blasted through a wall with a golden-haired, LMG-packing warrior goddess close behind her. Though with tall, dark, and asshole here, I couldn't exactly run and check on her as much as I wanted to. And Joel seemed to have his hands full with those twins, as well. At least it seemed like Damask was out of whatever those little traps of his were, but it wasn't like that would make much of a difference, especially with his orange-tinged Aura treating Dust-tipped assault rounds like spit wads.

_'...Wait a sec...' _Straight up fights were for Huntsmen and front liners. Me, on the other hand...

"That all ya got, big guy!?" I called out, fanning my face with a cheeky grin in his direction. "Thanks for crankin' up the heat a bit! Almost feels like home!"

"Stand still, you little... _Gaah!_" my opponent intoned deeply, bringing the mace up for an overhead slam that likely could have, and would have turned me into a slightly charred smear on the ground, if I hadn't reached back, scooped up, and tossed a shower of dust and debris directly into his face.

_'They never seem to divert enough Aura to the eyes, do they?' _Months of watching Psycho and picking apart the little weak spots and intricacies of Aura during his spars was paying off big.

The redhead let out a roar of fury, tears streaming down his face as he brought his mace down with a crash. But I'd already slipped past him, unloading a few shots into his side, before tossing a small cluster of Argus-brand Dust-fueled fire crackers over his shoulder, the whole bundle going off with a satisfying "boom" right in his dumbstruck face, leaving it blackened and singed.

With a pained cry, he spun around with his mace thrust out in a wild swing that didn't even come close to connecting. My _Draw_ tracked every small movement, every spark flying from the small ejectors between the spikes, as I dashed inside his guard, and put a metallic punch through his Aura, and straight into his solar plexus, dropping him to his knees with a pained gasp and a wheeze, before cracking him in the head with the butte of my rifle. The fire on his mace died down as he let it fall to the ground with a hefty clatter.

"Ooh, _sorry._ So close!" I murmured taking a step back. "Too bad, Chuckles."

I swayed a bit as I let go of my Semblance, shaking out a metal hand. _'Not bad. Hate tanky types like this...' _The moves didn't go over too well with most of the crowd, judging by the booing and the jeering catcalls. But what did it matter? _'Never put much stock in that whole 'honor' business, anyway. Seems to lose fights for ya more often than not...'_ I could respect those that followed their own code of conduct, like Psycho and Spartan, but, personally, I preferred winning handily to losing with grace any day.

"Well, guess I didn't need...!" I choked up as a hand shot out, snatching hold of my poncho, and lifting me bodily into the air, my legs kicking ineffectively, as my musclebound opponent got to his feet, his face contorted with rage as he tore my weapon from my grasp, and tossed it aside. "Uh... Hey, man. Yeah... About that stuff I said... No hard feelings, right?" I laughed, smiling at him hopefully, just before a fist smashed into it. Again and again, he drew his arm back, crashing against my Aura, before I suddenly found myself airborne, landing hard against the ground, battered and bruised, with my Aura pushing deep into the red.

_'C'mon, c'mon!' _I struggled to my hands and knees, a wracking cough forcing itself up from my chest as a shadow loomed over me. _'Oh fun. He remembered the mace.'_ I could've grinned, but it hurt too much to work my jaw at the moment.

_"And Benjamin is eliminated! His Aura levels have been judged too low to continue!"_

The words gave him pause at least, enough to make him stand at ease above me, anyway. "...You fight hard, dodge trouble well, and your blows strike true. However, they lack conviction and strength behind them," he commented briskly, raising the mace to his shoulder. "Your inexperience shows."

"Yeah, not usually a big fan of gettin' this up close and personal," I coughed, rubbing at my mouth as I plopped down on my ass, looking up at him innocently. "I usually leave that for my bodyguard." He looked down at me with a confused expression as seconds passed, my grin fading to be replaced by a bemused grimace. "Hey, that's your cue!"

"What are you...!?"

He didn't get to finish, his voice petering off into a keening wail, as a rising, violet-armored fist crashed into the side of his head with enough force to send him crashing through a stone wall, and out of the arena entirely, as a loud buzzer signaled the ring-out.

_"A-and Mr. Damask is eliminated through knockout, in a stunning upset! Miss Murasaki is putting her new weapon to frightening use!" _Oobleck called over the near silent crowd, sounding more than a little dumbfounded. Reika checked her arm as small plates shifted and snapped up on her gauntlet, venting air, before closing with a sharp snap.

_'Holy...' _I gaped right along with them, not really registering the girl until she was right in front of me, fingers flashing with that cutesy little grin of hers I'd grown so used to seeing plastered on her face in the last few weeks.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine..." I waved her off, getting to my feet shakily as my arm locked up, making the whole ordeal probably look hilarious. "Took your sweet time! Didn't know if you were gonna manage it, for a second there." I glanced back towards where she'd been held, noting the devastated patch of landscape, craters, and shards of bent metal dotting the area from where she must've smashed the cuff trap into scrap.

_'Well, at least I know I can still pull off a decent distraction...'_

"..."

"No, go help Max. She's probably gonna need the extra help, if that board's any judge," I groaned, motioning to a far-off building, where the sound of metal on metal could just be heard. The board said she was deep in the yellow, bordering red, and falling fast. The small Huntress followed the direction, before turning her gaze on the fire biome worriedly.

"..." A few more hand signs, and my face darkened accordingly.

"You're kiddin', right? It's Joel." I looked off at where our leader fought his way through the molten landscape, thinking back to our stint in the Badlands, and that scary little incident with the Razorbacks. How he'd looked after stepping into that shelter from the storm... "If anythin', I'm more worried about the two he's fightin'." I loved the guy; he was a good friend as any to have around. But get him roused, and you're stuck staring at a monster from nightmare.

For the first time in a long while, I regretted being able to imagine every possible angle a situation could turn, the moves and counters of pieces across the board. Sometimes, the possibilities were just too frightening to dwell over.

"This might end badly."

* * *

**_-Nika Lister-_**

_'**Why!?**'_ my mind raced rapidly as I ducked a swing from Ambrose's staff, rolling backwards as Larka came to my aid, forcing the Trapper back before he could press his advantage. _'Why can't we finish him!?' _His movements were strange, his reflexes and senses too sharp for any Human, even with Aura.

I raced forward with a pulse of Aura that ran down through the crystal at my heels, and ignited the wheels beneath me as I slid in front of him, sending a sweeping wave of flame that the Trapper avoided yet again, despite the surprised look on his face. It had been like that since the start, attacking only when the opportunity presented itself, staying just ahead of us each time we struck, only having received minor blows that put his Aura just above the yellow.

_'He's not fighting!? He's avoiding us!?'_

"_STOP RUNNING AND FIGHT, ALREADY!_" my sister screamed, hands swiping this way and that, sending her lines carving their way across the heated biome in ways that sent heated debris flying, and burst around us like fireworks. "_I SAID **FIGHT,** TRAPPER!_"

She was losing her focus, growing more agitated. People usually thought I was the brash and aggressive one, but I was just showier about it. Larka, on the other hand, was quiet and reserved to most, but they didn't have the luxury of knowing her as I did, having seen the fire that she kept beneath the surface. Our Semblance, a unique connection between us, allowed us to pool our Aura while fighting together, and even share emotions or feelings to some extent, keeping us in perfect synchronicity.

_'Or at least it was supposed to!' _All I felt through that bond now was a burning desire to tear apart our opponent: a living symbol of everything he and people like him had done to innocent Faunus across Remnant. Of the abuse we and thousands of others felt growing up.

_'An opponent we need to defeat!' _Larka's feelings echoed through my heart, spurring me on.

I shifted my charge, trying to get around him and cut off his escape while he was distracted. A buzzer went off in the distance, signaling Arthur's defeat, along with his teammate's.

_'Hold on, Gali! Just hold on!'_

I leapt up with a cry, landing a burning strike across his back, before I was falling end over end to the hot ground with a cry, the man having managed to land a blow with his staff that set me off balance. I looked up to see the Trapper rearing back with his weapon, before a glowing, blue-tinged line wrapped around his arm tightly, struggling against the bluish barrier of his Aura.

"Damn!" he swore under his breath as his arm was pulled towards a far off thick pillar of fire Dust that the line wrapped around, originating from Larka's brace.

Seeing my chance, I spun from my back into a low crouch, and raced into the murderer's range, unleashing a flurry of punches, flaming-wheeled kicks, spins, and every other trick I could think of against his weakened defense. From a professional standpoint, the white-haired man's grasp of unarmed combat was impressive. Incredibly so, managing to avoid or fend off the worst of my attacks, even the blades, using only his legs and his free arm. At least he could, until that too was captured in Larka's trap, as it was pulled opposite the other, threatening to pull him apart.

_'Of course, I'm just toying with him.'_

With our prey finally caught, I fell back after one last high kick across his face, bladed heel clashing against his Aura, before casually circling the lone man, as my sister held him in place with a triumphant smirk while he struggled against his bonds.

_'He's finished. Not even an Ursa Major could brute force its way out of this.'_ From here, all we'd have to do is whittle him down ourselves, or wait him out. His Aura bar already dipped slowly and steadily from the effort to hold back the cutting wires as it was. After he was done, we'd be moving onto his remaining teammates. _'Cornered and helpless. Let's see how he likes it!'_

"Nowhere to go now..." I picked at the line with a nailed finger as I moved underneath it, coming to a stop next to my sister, his eyes on the both of us in turn. "It's time to pay for what you've done, Ambrose. Here, in front of... What was that!?" I heard it. It was more of a mutter than actual words, but he'd audibly asked something.

"If you've got words, then say them!" my sister snapped. "We might go easy on you, if you beg us to!"

He raised his head, looking at us curiously, rather than with the fear I expected. "...I asked who it was," he spat out again, louder this time, standing as straight as the pressure pulling his arms would allow as he looked between the two of us. "I've got a decent memory for faces, but I know I've never met anyone like you two... So who was it that I hurt? Parent? Sibling? Friend? Family member?... You obviously hate me for something, so what did I do to you two?"

"Not every Faunus has a tie to the White Fang!" Larka snarled, tugging on the strings even harder, a momentary wince shooting across her target's face. "But you people can't seem to understand that, can you!?"

We entered this tournament to show what we could do, but the chance to defeat a man who spent years terrorizing our people before the whole of Remnant... _'Not even Gali could ask us to just stand by. This is why we became Huntresses.'_

"But somehow, you and your Red Hand, along with every other bigot, seems to inspire violence wherever you go; like a disease! Even people in this crowd seem to support what you and your comrades have done!" I added, taking a wide stance as I felt the ground heat up beneath me, cracking even the red hot stone. Years of watching peaceful protests end in violence, the looks people gave us as we passed by... "We're going to show that we have the power to fight back! For every Faunus that's just wanted to live in peace!"

That got a few cheers, and a couple of boos from some in the crowd. But the majority seemed to support us, as AMBR's leader lowered his head with a heavy sigh, spitting out a wad of blood from his mouth.

"...I can get the sentiment. You wanting to have a chance to strike back for the sake of others... It's admirable, really." He looked back up, and, for the first time, I saw genuine anger in his features. My instincts screamed at me to get away. "If I'd hurt someone you cared for personally, I could understand. Hell, you'd be more than justified for wanting to take me down like this." His Aura flashed blue, and I saw my sister tense as the force pulling on her wires increased. "And to be fair, if we'd met a few months back, I probably would've let you beat me down, regardless of your reasons..." His arms tensed as he wrapped his hands around the lines holding him, a strange smell wafting off the air around him, as sparks began to dance across his Aura. "And if you want to hate me for what I was, fine! I swore that if it came down to it, I'd do all I could to make up for what I've done!... But _fuck it_ if I'm not through with being the punching bag for every stray person with a grudge!"

His Aura pulsed, and suddenly my sister was on the ground screaming as her body shook with electricity. The pain lashed through the bond as she fell to her knees, gasping as she cut the line by force with a twist of her wrist, our combined Aura level dipping deep into the yellow from that one move alone.

_"And Joel managed to free himself using his Semblance! An 'electrifying' turnaround! Remarkable!"_

_"...No, Bart. Just... no."_

_'Wait, she cut the line!?' _My eyes widened, following my sister's bracer lines to where the young man stood. He was inspected his arms where a few fresh red marks lay present from where the wires had pierced his Aura during his attack, the bindings holding him now lying limply at his sides. Satisfied that his wounds were closing quickly enough, he compressed the staff into a short baton, spinning it deftly in his hand. His eyes were stony, focused, and more than a little off-putting as sparks danced in waves along his skin as he beckoned me forward with a free hand, the entire crowd roaring in approval or dissent.

"And for your information, I'm a _Huntsman;_ not a Trapper! Now, if you want a fight, come and get one!"

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_"Well, well. It seems Mr. Ambrose is finally moving on the offensive!"_

The excitement from the crowd was reaching a fever pitch, though I still thought I could hear Yang cheering above it all. The noise pulsed in my ears, along with my heartbeat.

_'Ignore the crowd. Ignore the pain...' M_y body ached all over. From the freshly-healing lesions crisscrossing my arms, to the familiar burning ache felt just beneath my skin from my overload. The words, however, still echoed in the back of my mind, and carried me on. _'Feel only the moment. Pursue only victory!' _The pain faded, my entire world sharpening as stray arcs of electricity darted across my Aura's barrier.

My opponents had surprised me, possessing a strange ability that combined their Aura with each successful attack, harming the other's levels in turn, yet meant each had the strength of both.

And in their aggression towards me, I had recalled something I'd thought was finished. _'No, not finished... **Forgotten.**' _It was easy to forget here in Vale that, in most other places, I was still hated for what I represented. Whether I was trying to get away from it, or... _'Focus!' _Larka was still on the ground, stunned momentarily, though not for long. Her Aura had taken the worst of the blow, but her sister...

I snapped back to reality as Nika raced forward, coming at me head on, and leaving a burning trail behind her, rage burning in her eyes.

_'Reckless...'_

I already had a pair of knives formed and in the air before she had time to react, her mouth opening in fear and surprise as they flew her way, only to let out a surprised yelp as they instead landed quivering right in her path, forcing her to break off as she tried and failed to slow her pace. She managed to avoid tripping over the blades, though her momentum still carried her forward to meet my own dash.

"My turn!" I told the shocked Faunus, knocking her desperate attempt at a punch with one hand, while following up with a quick sweep from _Circuit _that took her legs out from under her, the skates making the move almost comically easy.

_'I get the appeal for mobility's sake, but it's more a weakness than an asset if your opponent knows what they're doing,' _I internally mused as my opponent kicked herself up onto her wheels again. She came around for another charging spin kick, but that failed spectacularly as my hand found her heel, and used her own force to send her flying off again.

"I won't disrespect you by going easy!" I added to the Faunus, bowing my head to her.

_'I can fight Grimm twice my size barehanded. Taking advantage of an enemy's momentum isn't a problem for me. Speaking of problems...'_

I spun around, and lobbed the baton end over towards my other opponent, the short-haired Faunus having managed to recover from my Semblance, and had been trying to mount a surprise attack, though the slight rustling of her wires as they moved gave her away. I darted forward with all the speed I could muster when she brought the wires up to instead block the flying weapon, snatching it up from the ground as I went.

She was no novice, but it was plain to see that fighting up close was hardly her strong suit. And soon enough, I put her on the ground, groaning from a few quick Semblance-fueled jabs. Nothing permanent, but I was feeling a bit vengeful for the whole "beg for mercy" comment earlier.

_'Girl's obviously never been to Bastion. A few semesters at Aegis weeds that talk right out of you.'_

"_GET AWAY FROM HER!_" I swiped the baton towards the sound, and narrowly missed the ducking Faunus. Nika had deactivated her skates, it seemed, and I received a metal boot to the side of the head for my trouble, as she leapt above my own low kick right into one of her own. "How'd you like that... Huh!?" She expected me to fall back, to give ground, not for me to shrug off the kick, or manage a forced smirk as I slammed the baton down on her boot with enough force to dent the metal casing, and crack the crystal within. I delivered a few quick blows with it, before sending her tumbling in a heap a few feet away at the base of a large pillar of flame Dust with a spinning straight kick from the left.

"You two... You're both strong..." I breathed out haggardly, making my voice as respectful as I could, relaxing somewhat, though I did extend _Circuit _outward once again as I looked between them. "...But you_can't_ win." My Aura wasn't much higher than their own, especially after that last hit, but it didn't matter.

_'Just one more attack, light, and this whole thing will be over.'_

"Not yet... _Not yet!_" the short-haired twin growled, practically spitting fire. Her nails dug into the hot earth as she glowed with brilliant silvery light that seemed to bend from her sister, alarm bells going off in my head as I noticed Nika's own Aura level decreasing, while her sister's rose. The single garrote she swept forth flickered past me, slow, telegraphed, and easy to dodge with a quick step to the side. One last, desperate attack that instead carved its way through the rocky pillar towering behind me, in a shower of smoke and flaming debris. A large section split off of the main structure above the prone Faunus, her sister paling once she'd realized what she'd done.

I wasn't certain I'd be able to have something that size fall on top of me with my Aura at full, and escape unscathed, let alone if it exploded. However, at the level she was at now... I was in motion seconds before Oobleck's panicked voice called out over the speakers, feet moving before I fully registered what I was doing towards the confused Huntress.

"_Nika!_" her sister called out desperately, her face a mask of fear as she saw her sister struggle to get on her feet. But she was slow. _Too_ slow.

_'Not fast enough... C'mon!'_

I angled _Circuit _towards her, and fired off a bladed tether that pierced the lower section of the pillar. I let it pull me along the ground so fast, that the line sent up sparks. I came up into a rolling crouch next to her, and scooped the girl up bodily under one arm with a burst of adrenaline and Aura pushing me onward, despite my muscles screaming in protest. I ignored her shriek of surprise at the sudden motion.

_'Shit!' _I grimaced when I saw the slab of stone snap off above, turning to try and cover the Wolf Faunus under my arm, when suddenly the pillar halted in midair.

Max stood on the other end of the arena, haggard and bruised, holding a hand out towards us. Reika was by her side, along with GLDN's leader. "_Move your ass!_" she choked out, falling to one knee as sweat dripped down her brow. "I-I can't hold this, ah... t-thing up forever, you know!"

Already, it was beginning to shift again, cinders and shards of Dust falling around me like rain, bouncing off my Aura and exploding like firecrackers around us. I sprinted with all the effort I could muster, leaping clear just in time as the shard smashed to the ground, sending shrapnel and debris everywhere. Bits and pieces clattered off my armor and barrier, as I did my best to shield Nika, looking back to where the shard lay, while letting loose a ragged breath.

_'Close... **Way** too close...'_

The crowd was silent for a few seconds, barely a few whispers passing between startled onlookers, before the cheering began, louder than before. The sound bore down on us like a weight.

"_Get off me!_" I was startled by her voice, suddenly finding myself on my rear with a bruised cheek as the Huntress shoved me off of her with a snarl, getting to her feet, before getting tackled to the ground by her sister, tears in her eyes as she embraced her twin. "Uh... Larka, wha...?"

"I'm sorry..." she sniffled, shoving her face into Nika's shoulder. "I can't believe I... I-_I'm so sorry!_"

"J-just... Don't even... W-we still have to...!" She glared at my way, my muscles tensing when I noticed a weak flicker of Aura. Max and Reika moved to flank me, their weapons raised. "There's still a fight going on!"

"Actually..." We all turned around as Ben limped out from the urban biome, rolling his arm before pointing to the board. "You might wanna rethink your part in that." True enough, now that I looked at the board, I saw that my Aura was seated comfortably in the red, same as both twins. In fact, the only GLDN team member still technically eligible to continue was Galina, while AMBR still boasted Maxine and Reika together, though neither had much left in them. "So clear the field. We've got ourselves a good old-fashioned catfight!... Ah, sorry, Max!" He raised his hands, as all females present, especially the Faunus, stared daggers at him. "Okay, okay, forget I said anythin'! Geez, you people can't take a joke?"

"As much as I would like to continue this match... I feel it would be in bad taste," Galina spoke up, giving the bandit a raised eyebrow, before turning to look at me, planting her glaive into the ground, and giving me a firm salute. "You and your team protected one of my own. Something I admit I would not have expected, given your... um..." She glanced away, blushing as she picked at a spot of dirt on her armguard. "It seems my teammates may have acted inappropriately. An action which I have encouraged with my inaction."

"_Gali!_" The leader silenced the younger sibling with a look. The twin lowered her head, before tending to her sister.

"I get it. You let them do what they thought they needed to," I said with a small laugh, trying to diffuse the situation while scratching at the back of my head awkwardly. "I'm not exactly _thrilled..._ But I get it. This whole situation was sort of unexpected for everyone, I think."

"Still, it was my responsibility to keep them in line... and I failed. This is AMBR's victory." She signaled the announcer's box, stepping away from her weapon. "_I submit!_"

"Wait, you're forfeiting!?" Max and Reika looked to each other, the mute shrugging her shoulders, looking, in all honesty, a little relieved. "Rrgh... Whatever. It's your choice, I guess." She shouldered her axe, seeming a bit disappointed, but playing it off well enough. "...But I want a rematch while you're still in town, Umber! A real one, without the someone else hounding your as... _Ow!_" She winced, Reika having "nudged" her in the side a bit too roughly. "You little...!"

"...I would love to, Miss Argus," the team leader smiled amidst helping her two teammate to their feet. "You fight well. Mistral lost a remarkable fighter when you came to Beacon instead of Haven."

"I... T-thanks." I almost gaped when I saw her face redden, her ear perking up when she almost fumbled her axe. Ben actually snickered at that, only to suddenly find something interesting on the ground when her head turned his way.

_'That's gonna cost him later.'_

"Congratulations to you, as well, Mr. Ambrose, on your win. You and your team acted with honor, despite your... colorful reputation."

"Yeah..." I slumped back to the ground, enjoying the heat the stones let off through what remained of my Aura, as I finally acknowledged the cheers bearing down around us, along with the strains screaming from just about every muscle in my limbs. "I'm gonna need a minute..."

* * *

**_-Qrow Branwen-_**

"Not bad, I suppose..." I brought my head back, downing the bitter cocktail in one gulp, sighing as the familiar burning taste cleared my throat, and a haze filled my vision, before slamming the glass back on the bar, and signaling for another. "Not bad at all..."

Uh oh. Voice is getting a bit slurred. Just a little bit of Aura, and... there. All good for another.

"But not too good, either," a low voice added sternly. I nodded in agreement as I turned to face the woman sitting next to me nursing her own glass, one of many I'd seen her with since arriving.

_'Between the two of us, this bar better have a pretty sizable stock. Knew there was a reason I liked it so much...'_

The dark skinned woman had a look about her that practically just screamed "Huntress." She had a nasty scar down her face that closed off one eye, but still possessed that athletic beauty most Huntresses shared, along a fair bit of natural attraction all her own. Her hair was done up in a ponytail of brightly colored beads and dark braids, while her brightly colored jacket and clothing were showy on the surface, but remarkably durable to the trained eye. Made to last in any situation, and look damn good doing it.

_'Form, with a good sense of function. I can respect that.'_

Currently, she was staring up at the screen above the bar, same as I was, watching a quick recap of the last match with her discerning eye. "That last minute save was sloppy, at best. Amateurish heroics at worst. Could've gotten himself killed..."

The bartender just shook his head, and went back to cleaning his glasses, muttering something about how "He'd made the attempt at least and that's all that mattered." But the Huntress had a point. Kid got lucky. That "victory" was more or less attributed to the other leader being a good sport about the whole thing and surrendering, when she still likely had the upper hand, despite the numbers. Not exactly realistic in a real fight.

"Least the kid can hold his own in a scrap. That's something."

I did like the part where he called out those two. Showed he had some fire in him, at least. _'No wonder Yang likes him, and why Taiyang's practically pullin' his hair out.' _I chucked as the mustachioed barkeep filled my glass again, only for the contents to vanish magically once again. _'Or at least it feels like magic on the way down, anyway.'_ At least I remembered that I was going to have to have a lengthy talk with this Joel Ambrose, face-to-face, about his little relationship my niece. _'I wonder how Raven would've...' _I furrowed my brow, kicking that little thought to the back my mind where it belonged.

"Way too emotional for his own good, though. Guessing that's Beacon's influence. Who ever thought that sticking a bunch of kids together in one place, with all those hormones and weapons, would be a good idea?" she chuckled to herself as she took another draft. "Dust-damned miracle these places are still standing..."

As she swirled her drink around, I noticed a slight drop in temperature, as a small sliver of white-powdered Dust slid from her coat, and swirled lightly around the cup, chilling the glass and the contents inside, before disappearing in a light blue cloud. _'Beautiful **AND** a genius all in one... I think I'm in love.' _She caught me staring and winked, or the closest thing she could manage with one eye, putting a dumb grin across my drunken visage.

"Not a fan of the Academies, I take it?"

She gave me a mischievous smirk. "I wouldn't say that. I've just always believed in a more 'hands-on' approach to teaching. Sitting behind a desk won't teach you what it's _really_ like. Not really, anyway."

"Agreed. Waiting around for test scores just can't compare to actually being out in the field, in the thick of it with the beasts. Not to mention all the official sanctions and the red tape."

"And just what are you waiting for, handsome? Obviously not the next match, or the one after that. So what gives?"

Ooh, probing questions. Not bad.

"I'm waiting on a woman, actually." That bit was true enough. The Ice Queen's airship wasn't slated to arrive for hours yet... But when it did... "There might also be a fight involved. Who knows with her?" Probably... Most definitely. Either way, it was as good a chance as any to have some fun, and let off some steam before the real work began.

"Sounds pretty dangerous," she smiled, getting up from her seat effortlessly for someone who'd downed as much as she had, before pulling a hefty pile of lien from seemingly nowhere, and leaving it on the counter top, gesturing her head towards me with a sly smile. "That should be more than enough to cover the tab, right? And get my friend here anything he wants for the rest of the day." She clapped a hand on my back, before making for the docks beyond. "Enjoy your fight, stranger. It's been fun talking to someone who knows their stuff."

"Same here. And y'know, if I got a name or a number, you might actually get to see it!" I called back over my shoulder, and, thankfully, stopping her retreat. "Way I see it, it's gonna be a quite a show. Least I can do for my lovely benefactor."

She glanced upwards, considering it briefly, before shaking her head, giving me an apologetic smile. "Name's Marigold. And I'd love to, but I'm afraid I already have plans to meet someone else. Maybe some other time."

"A man?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

I laughed, taking a quick sip, and grabbing for my Scroll. "Well, maybe I can get your number, and..." And she was gone the second I looked away, vanishing as if she'd never been there. I felt the grin drop, and noticed the bartender watching me with a smug look on his face. "Well!? Get me another! Seems I'm drinkin' for two now."

_'Marigold... I know I've heard that name somewhere before...'_

-END

_**-CODEX-**_

**Team GLDN:** A second year team studying at Haven Academy in Mistral, led by Galina Umber. Specializes in Grimm Acquisition and Containment.

**Galina Umber**: 19, Leader of Team GLDN. Known for placing first in the Mistral Regional Tournament during her first year at Sanctum Academy, and second the following year after a defeat at the hands of then first year Pyrrha Nikos. Semblance strengthens her Aura when in contact with direct Sunlight to varying degrees during the day.

**Arthur Damask**: 20, Certified weapon smith, and technical expert for GLDN. Semblance hardens his Aura's barriers in response to focused attacks, effectively nullifying piercing attacks. (Does not account for force the attack carries, however).

**Larka &amp; Nika Lister**: 19, well known proponents for Faunus rights in Mistral, as well as other Kingdoms. Responsible for heading up numerous reforms in Haven's student policy. Organized against the Red Hand in response to a series of attacks against peaceful protests, many of which affected peers of theirs. Their unique Semblance allows for either twin to influence the other's Aura when together, pooling for an increased defense in both, or enhancing the abilities in one. However, while the connection is maintained, any harm inflicted to one's Aura affects the other.

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced in this Chapter-**

Leah Vixen - Amanda C. Miller

Arthur Damask - Keith Silverstein

Larka Lister - Jaimie Marchi

**_A/N: Hope the wait was worth it people, haven't written a long fight scene in a while and I forgot just how hard it was, how to keep track of all the fighters, how they'd react, lots of fun but I don't know about that last part. Max is trying to stop depending on her Semblance all the time, Ben's a few steps ahead of the game, and Joel is finally fed up. He's pretty tough in this chapter and I wanted to make him struggle a bit but in the end he comes out ahead. I don't like OP characters much but if you stick Ambrose, who's basically at least Pyrrha-level with a high pain tolerance and electricity, up against a student on roller skates (saw how well that worked out) well…yeah you get the idea, Trappers are supposed to be scary for a reason._**

**_So ends round one of the tournament and kicks off a rousing start to season 3 material which going by the show is going be crazy in the extreme and a blast to cover when I get around to it, can't wait. Thank you all for the recent favorites and follows and never hesitate to leave your input on a review because it all goes towards making the story better. (Sorry this one took so long)_**

**_Also for those who didn't catch the update I've officially shelved plans to rewrite LMNH. It took some thought but in the end I just couldn't see me writing both that story and this one at the same time, especially with how things are for me at present._**


	49. Chapter 49

**Edited as of (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

A MEETING

**_-Blake Belladonna-_**

"_WE DID IT!_" Ruby screamed out loud to the entire fairgrounds with a high leap into the air, finally releasing the emotions that had been building ever since our victory. Emotions that had only escalated during AMBR's own match, and had been at the boiling point the whole ride down from the Coliseum. "I can't believe it! We all won! Yang was like '_hi-yah_!' And then Joel was all '_You want a fight, then come get one!_' Then there was that airship, and, Ben, you were so... so...!"

Benjamin patted her affectionately on the head with a metal hand, ruffling her hair, much to the diminutive leader's adorable protests as she tired to bat him away. "Calm down, Red; we were all there." He flexed his arm, striding forward quickly, and turning to give us all an exaggerated bow. "But you're right. I _am_ pretty amazin' when I want to be."

"'Amazing.' Yeah, that's a word for it." Maxine strode past him, shoving his goggles down over his eyes, before flipping him end over end with her Semblance to land twitching in the dirt.

_'She's really improving with her control... Why am I not sure if that's a good thing or not?'_

"Besides, you weren't the one fighting a solar-powered juggernaut. If it weren't for that stupid Semblance of hers, I'd have...!"

"You all fought wonderfully out there," her cousin, Sonia as she'd introduced herself a week before, cut her off with a pat on the arm. The Faunus' anger evaporated into thin air, with only a curt grumble to show for it. "Especially Miss Rose, here! You did a remarkable job." Ruby's face reddened severely, the girl choking out a quick "thank you." Weiss glared at the Mistralian out of the corner of her eye, still likely defensive after their less-than-stellar introduction, where Miss Bordeaux had been saying almost the exact opposite.

_'At least the girl seems to be trying to get used to Ruby.'_

"I-I mean it's not like I didn't have a lot of help along the way... Weiss and Ben helped out with tactics, Joel gave me pointers here and there..."

And there went the friendly smile, replaced by a grimace as the raven-haired girl glared over our shoulders at the man in question, currently arm and arm with my partner, laughing at something she'd said. Bits and pieces about the matches for the most part, and the whole fiasco with the Bullhead.

"...get it. So he just forgot to send you guys your invite to the tournament? That doesn't really sound like the Headmaster..."

"I'm supposed to be shocked?... Oh c'mon, it's an _expression,_ Yang! People use those; its not _that_ funny," he pointed out dryly, frowning at the blonde's growing grin as she punched him lightly in the shoulder... "lightly" meaning almost throwing him off balance.

"You never let me have any fun. Not my fault if you've got a short fuse for my kind of humor."

I shook my head. The antics that girl could get up to when it came to her boyfriend still managed to shock... _'Great, now she's got me thinking about it.'_

"Ha, ha. How long were you sitting on that one?" he asked, looking bemused, though he still cracked a short grin despite himself when she put on a pout. "Anyway, it's not like this is the first time the words 'AMBR' and 'troubles with communication' has come up in the same sentence. Hell, it's not even the second."

I let them have their privacy, though Joel did have a point. AMBR did seem to get itself into a fair amount of trouble pretty often with administration. Most would stop at bad luck or coincidence, but I couldn't be too sure.

"So, Yang and Weiss are going onto round two for RWBY. What about you guys? Any thoughts?" Sonia asked, leaning on Max's shoulder, taking a break from using her cane. "It's an important decision."

"That's a fair question," Weiss cut in, going full scout mode now. I could see the reasoning, I supposed. Technically, AMBR was the competition. Competition who, until an hour ago, hadn't even been a factor in the heiresses' calculations. "Normally, I would think Joel would certainly be one of the two, but you and Reika do make for an interesting team. And you do have more experience working together than just about any other pair in our year."

The sniper gave a non-committal noise, glancing at his partner, who raised an eyebrow and gave a few quick barely-noticeable hand signs in response. I was always curious about the little language these two had between them. Nonverbal communication wasn't a new concept, but theirs didn't match the standard, or at least it didn't contain any phrases I recognized. There had been times when I'd seen the two have an entire covert conversation, even while Benjamin chatted with someone next to him.

"Depends on what Psycho wants, I think. If he wants to fight, he's more than willin' to take my spot. Think I've had my fill of bein' beaten up for others' entertainment. Get enough of that from Max."

"He says that as if I didn't have a reason," the Dog Faunus growled, making the blonde sniper duck behind his partner. It was almost comical, seeing how much shorter she was then him. "I'm good with whatever. Just don't get in my way again, short stuff!"

Alright, I definitely didn't need to know their little hand talk to understand that sign Reika shot back at her.

"But shouldn't you vote? I mean, that's what RWBY did," Sonia interjected between the two calmly, looking at Ben. "The decision affects you guys, too."

"How about givin' us a moment to _breath_ here?" he grunted, crossing his arms with a rare touch of annoyance in his voice now. Rare for him anyway. "Not sure how this even concerns...?"

"Ben's right! We did all just win. We should celebrate!" Ruby pulled him in front of us away from the huffing Bordeaux, reading the situation and acting on it, thankfully. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving." She glanced up at him with that puppy dog face of hers, a Xiao Long invention she'd apparently inherited after years of watching her sister charm her father with it.

The rogue was powerless to respond. "Ugh... Sounds good. Where to?" The pair behind us joined up, Yang practically carting a willing Joel around. "Actually, I saw this noodle bar set up near the gardens further in that Sun was recommendin'. Thought maybe we could..."

"U-uh... E-excuse me?" The whole group turned as a young girl with gray-colored rabbit ears, maybe ten years old, ran up to us, Joel specifically, with a piece of paper and a pen clutched tightly in her shaking hands, holding it out to him. "Could... Could you sign this for me, please?" The Huntsman turned to glance at us, looking genuinely shocked. I know I was. "I-if you don't mind?..."

"_Of course_ he doesn't, sweetie." Yang pushed the taller boy into a kneeling crouch in front of her, as she doted on the child. "Oh, you are just so _adorable._ C'mon, Joel, just sign it for her. You have a little fan."

I couldn't really make out what else was on the paper, a few notes scribbled in, along with a few little doodled drawings, most of which too tiny to make out. What I did know, however, was that Joel stiffened up the second he laid eyes on it, his eyes widening, the muscles in his hands and jaw tensed, and small, but sharp intake of breath I barely heard over Yang's gushing, and that was just because I was right by them. Less than a second later, he was handing the paper back to the girl with a fresh signature, smiling as he gave her a friendly nod. The Rabbit Faunus darted off as soon as she had the paper in hand, only to disappear into the crowd once again.

_'What the...?'_

He played it off well enough, and no one else seemed to have taken notice, except for maybe Ben, who was looking at his Team Leader, his expression unreadable.

"Hard to believe you have fans, especially Faunus fans..." Sonia commented, Weiss cocking her head in a way that I'd learned meant she agreed with the statement, but didn't want to admit it. "But it's good to see your reputation improving, regardless."

"Save a few people, act flashy for the kids. Tends to get you noticed," he laughed off the double-edged remark, glancing over his shoulder towards where the child had run off, before rubbing at it gingerly. "...You know, I think I'll have to take a rain check on lunch. My shoulder's feeling a bit off. Might want to have one of the nurses check it out, especially if we have to prep for another match now."

"You sure? Weissy's buying; who knows when we'll get the opportunity again?" Yang turned to look at Joel, ignoring a few sudden complaints hurled by the heiress, real concern flitting across her face as he shook his head. "Is it really bothering you that much? I can come with you; make sure you get there okay..."

He held up a hand to stop her, before leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead in a way that left the brawler blushing and her hair smoking slightly. "I'm fine. It's acting up, is all, and I just want to make sure it's good before I start healing in earnest." He sighed at Yang's insistent expression. "Seriously, go have fun. I'll catch up later for JNPR's match. I promise." He gave his girlfriend one last one-armed hug, before running off in the other direction. The blonde waited before he was out of sight and earshot before rounding on us.

"It's not too weird to still be worried about him, right? It's still hurting at this point, so..." I gave the girl a reassuring pat on the arm, Ben laughing at the display, making her look up. "I know it's dumb, but you know how he can be sometimes when he's hurt!..."

"I do, Blondie. But Psycho's a big kid who can take care of himself. He's just bein' extra careful, is all; no harm in that." The excuse seemed to be enough for Yang, who calmed down, laughing to herself and making jokes about how Joel was worse than Ruby at times when it came to stressing her out.

I did have to wonder what the hell was really going on though. What could possibly spook the Huntsman like that? That he'd lie to Yang and the rest of us...

_'Makes me wonder if I really want to know?'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'Well, this is... typical.' _I thought to myself dryly, ducking under the flap leading into the dark-colored marque to find a space littered with round tables in a vaguely saloon-like style, complete with someone manning the piano next to the bar space, and a few strung-up Dust lights to provide illumination.

While the tournament was technically considered a school event, the Vytal Festival itself was open to all ages, even here on the grounds, catering to older students and spectators, leading to many set ups like this. The only restriction was that there had to be a bouncer, curiously absent in this case, and they had to be tented off, rather than operating out of stalls.

_'Glad to see some things haven't changed, at least...'_

This one was on the outskirts of the fairgrounds, so it wasn't too surprising to see only a few of the tables occupied by small groups, all of them turning to look at me, before universally glancing towards the person I came to see, seated alone at a table near the center with her legs propped up.

"Well?... You just gonna stand there all day, Joel!?" Fortuna Marigold called out, waving at me ecstatically, almost toppling over in her seat from the motion, and upsetting the empty glasses in front of her. "Pull up a chair! And bar guy, get me another of the best; two actually!" The bartender snatched up bottle, and practically leapt over the counter to bring it to her, pouring out a few fingers-worth into two glasses as I approached, pulling out a chair and sitting down opposite her. "Good man. Now, if everyone would _kindly_ clear out, I'd like to have a few moments alone with my guest!"

She raised the freshly-filled glass to her lips as the entire bar, already in motion, clamored for the entrance, the jaunty tune cutting out sharply as the musician joined them. The tent was left deserted, except for the two of us, by the time the glass clattered back on wood. "...So... How are you? I caught your match; _exciting_ stuff."

"I got your message. Now what do you want?" I said curtly, glaring at her from across the table, blue meeting lone amber.

"A full year since we've seen each other, and _that's_ how you start things off?" she replied, sounding almost hurt, while tapping the corner of her glass with a long nail. "I know you spent a good part of it in prison, but I thought I'd _at least_ made sure to teach you proper manners."

I raised my arms with a nod. "Okay, let's start over then, shall we? Hi, Master! Glad I got your message! I would've called you earlier, but I was a little bit preoccupied, after all! You know how lockup can be. Now, if you don't mind, can you explain why the _hell_ you're here now, sending kids to do your dirty work!?"

"Who would've expected a Faunus from someone with my reputation? Besides, that girl was _adorable._ Who would possible bother, or distrust a messenger with a face like that?"

I rubbed at my head, motioning to the tent at large, stressing the bar in particular. "Biggest event in the Kingdoms, swarming with Huntsmen and cops, and you're..."

She groaned loudly, leaning back in a way that left her chair teetering dangerously. "You and Lizzie _never_ let me have any fun... Work, work, and more work with you two, even now. Forgive me for wanting to have a bit of honest enjoyment, before..."

"I've seen you down an entire barrel of that jet fuel that Vacuo calls 'hard liquor,' and be just fine afterwards. You don't get drunk; _ever._ Never got why you even bothered in the first place... Or was that just a holdover from Bill Carson?"

She hummed reminiscently. "Oh... You _did_ run into him, didn't you? Cute boy. Seemed to think we had this cat and mouse thing going on between us. If anything, he learned from watching me," the Bounty Huntress waved off with a cackle. "Besides, there's always the off chance I'll get lucky one of these days. The pangs of having an Aura like mine coming back to bite me in the ass," she shrugged, sitting down normally this time as she leaned on one hand, the other swirling the contents of the glass. "Speaking of Lizzie, I heard you two met up recently?"

"You're _deflecting._" I raised an eyebrow, ignoring the glass she'd had set before me. "Leading the conversation. That's just being rude."

"And _you're_ not answering my question, even after I came all this way to check up on my precious little protégé..." She chuckled to herself, tapping out that little tune of hers that I'd heard a thousand times before. "Besides, when a woman offers you their time..."

"...Fine. Yes, we met up while I was on a mission for Beacon. She tried to recruit me back into the Trappers, and I refused. From there, she tried pretty damn hard to kill me, and it was pretty awkward for the both of us after that. Happy?"

Now that I thought about it, that drink was looking pretty appealing right about now. _'Woman always knew how to get under my skin, somehow, just as she'd taught Briar to. Searching for that chink in the armor...'_

"Not particularly." She frowned, her expression turning stony. "I don't enjoy the thought of my students - my kids - trying to kill one another. Especially after you two grew so close."

"From what I remember, you didn't exactly approve."

"And how could I? Anyone with a brain and some sense would've seen it was doomed from the start, regardless of how you two felt about each other." Couldn't help gritting my teeth at that one, a stray spark running down my arm towards a clenched fist. A move the old Huntress didn't miss. "You two weren't looking for love, or affection; you were looking for some comfort. Something neither of you were in any position to give in the first place. So, yes, I was against it. Didn't mean I didn't hope I was wrong, though. Dust knows the two of you deserved some measure of happiness after what those people put you through... Mad scientists, the lot of them..." She snapped back her hand, finishing off her glass, before the whole thing shattered into small shards of ice and flame that she stared at for a moment forlornly, before shaking out her hand to clear any remnants.

"Ah well... At least you seem to be moving on alright, at least. Got yourself a blonde, now! Just when I start to think you have a type..." She smirked as my back stiffened upright. "Yang Xiao Long. Eldest child of Taiyang Xiao Long by his first wife. Now attending Beacon Academy as a member of Team RWBY, under her sister... Ruby... Well, that must make things a bit confusing at times."

"It does... Been reading up, have you?" She noted the tension in my voice now, her stance calm but measured, ready to lash out if I made a move. "If you hurt her, Marigold, I swear by whatever shred of honor I have left, I'll...!"

"Skilled by all accounts, personable, and a lot smarter than she lets on, and most people give her credit for," she steamrolled on, as if I didn't have the lights buzzing. "Oh, don't be so melodramatic! I approve." I let go of the breath I hadn't even realized I was holding, the lights ceasing their flickering above us with only one or two blow outs. "I'm happy for you."

"And I have to get back to her soon. So as much as I'm enjoying this little back and forth on my love life, I'd _rather_ hear whatever it is that's important enough for you to piss off Violette, and get you out into the open."

She opened her mouth, but closed it, taking a deep breath, before holding up two fingers. "You want the good news, or the bad news?"

"Really?" She merely wagged her hand in response, obviously waiting on a decision. "Fine. Bad news first, then."

"Tough. You'll probably be too focused on it to listen properly to the good news, so we'll do that first." I gaped at her, mouth opening for some retort, but she didn't care. She was in charge, and she knew it. "The good news, and a little test on the side, is that the White Fang's operations in this area, along with just about every other bit of organized crime in the Kingdom, has ceased almost entirely since the Breach... Now, what does that mean?"

"It means that some person, or group, managed to convince or coerce these entities into lying low. A means of lulling the complacent into a false sense of security, and terrifying the observant as they wait for something to happen, that may or may not be coming."

"And something _is_ happening. Make no mistake about that." She nodded approvingly, obviously satisfied with the answer. "Open activity has ceased, but the White Fang is still moving underground under the command of some new kid. Even brought in some Blood Hounds to keep order during the transition."

"You call _that_ good news!?"

"At least now you know your enemy. An advantage for you, if you use it well."

I took a deep breath, putting my head in my hands as I went over this new revelation. The Blood Hounds. Brutal bastards, the whole lot of them, responsible for more atrocities than any other established unit the White Fang took credit for. Nasty, even by Trapper standards. _'If they're involved...' _I'd met a few. Killed a few, even. And now they're here in Vale...

"What's worse than _that?_ They could tear up the city!"

The look on her face said it all. I'd seen Fortuna happy, depressed, and angry... But scared?... That was rare one. "...Duo's slipped his leash."

My blood ran cold as I leapt to my feet, my heart stopping as my lungs refused to work for a full second, as I fully registered what my former mentor had just said. "_E-Eddy's LOOSE!? Without a handler; without Liz!? How!? When!?_"

"A few weeks ago, according to my sources within the Reds themselves. Your uncle's done a decent job of keeping it quiet. The boy slipped his handler right here in Vale after an interrogation mission..."

I felt my knees buckle, falling back into the chair, as I snatched up the drink and downed it in one go, coughing and spluttering at the taste. _'**Damn it!** Damn, damn, damn, damn, **DAMN...!**'_

Marigold plucked the glass from my hand as if I were a child. "He did his 'job,' killed the handler set to watch him, and then vanished into thin air without a trace."

"So he's here _now!?_" She shrugged, anger welling up in me to join fear in equal measure. "We need to warn someone! The Council, the General!"

That explained why they wanted Reika. She might be the only one capable of handling him at his worst.

"And explain how you know all this how?" she countered quickly, rubbing at her head. "Tell them how you're having covert meetings with a known terrorist, Red Hand or otherwise? You'd be thrown back in prison, and only make matters worse."

"Then come with me! Tell them yourself! You know how he can get if he goes off whatever those doctors are using to sedate him! Hell, even _on them_ if he gets too angry or scared...!" I'd been around the sites of whenever "Duo" came out to play, turning a tactical raid into something akin to slaughter. "I can't contain him if he loses control! When I left, even his own sister was having a hard time!"

And if he was coming for me, then chances were he'd have to go through Yang, Ruby...

"_Calm yourself!_" Her words drove all thoughts out of my mind as the order came down, the Huntress glaring at me with thinly-veiled disgust. "Lizzie warned me that Beacon's made you soft, but I didn't think your fangs would've dulled _this_ much. I raised you better than that. I have half a mind to...!"

"_TO WHAT!?_ I'm _not_ your son, Marigold!" I slammed my fist down, splitting the table and sending the glasses clattering to the grassy floor as I stood up yet again, sparks dancing along my Aura freely now. "So Beacon made me feel like an actual person again, and not whatever _monster_ you helped turn me into, so you'll spirit me away!? What, we going after Liz next if she doesn't fall in line with what you want!?"

"Joel, you're being emotional. Use your head, and get a hold of your Semblance!"

"Of course I'm being _fucking_ emotional! I'm not some killing machine anymore, needing guidance or a pat on the head!... Is _that_ why you came here? To convince me to run back to your little crusade!? You, the Hand, it's all the same, no matter what you say. You're _killing_ people!"

"_JOEL!_" She was on her feet now, too, her Aura flashing dangerously, but I could hardly bring myself to care at this point. So what did it matter if she could level this tent before I made a move? "...How long do you plan to keep playing at being a Huntsman? A few years? You might've made a pretty speech, but you _know_ you don't belong here. You belong out in the world, doing some good."

"'Some good,' huh? You're _still_ killing Faunus! The only difference between you and him is that you at least try to keep it to actual White Fang, and you don't mind the occasional raider getting in your way. Who knows, maybe I can kill some kid's parent right in front of them... _Again!_ That'd be fun!" Her eye narrowed into a sharp glare, and every instinct told me to make a run for it, especially when I noticed the Dust swirling around her wrists under the coat... But I was too damn angry to care. Angry at being told by people I once trusted that I was wrong for wanting to do the right thing. "I'm _done_ with that life." I turned to leave.

I was almost to the door when she spoke out again, more insistent this time; defensive. "I'm only trying to _protect you!_ Keep you from winding up dead, or worse, on the orders of some Councilman's...!"

"_I'm NOT Fennec!_" She froze, mouth agape as I spun around with the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them, my eyes drifting to the ground quickly to avoid the genuine hurt on her expression. "...I-I'm sorry, that was... That was too far," I said slowly, raising my eyes to meet hers again. "But it's _not_ your job to protect me anymore... And no matter how much you say it... you're _not_ my mother."

I expected a lot. A fireball to the face, maybe an ice spike to the heart... but not the chuckling smile she gave me as she sat back on a table next to her, shaking her head sadly.

"You know, that old bastard said the same thing the last time I saw him... Your uncle I mean." She looked up at me, sizing me up from the weapons at my belt to my armored plates, before settling on my face. "You're a lot like him. And while you might not agree, I don't mean that as an insult." I gritted my teeth, but accepted the words with grace, even if it rankled. "Just take care of those emotions of yours... He and I both taught you better than that."

"Goodbye, Master. Next time we meet, I _will_ try to bring you in... You realize that, don't you?" I bowed, giving her an apologetic grin I didn't much feel as I pulled back the tent flap, splitting the space with a burst of sunshine.

"I look forward to seeing you try, boy..." She wove a hand through her hair, spinning the chair away from the door so I couldn't see her face. "Oh. And one more piece of advice before you strike out on your own..." She raised a hand, a serpent of fire weaving its way between her fingers. "Be careful who you trust these days... You can never know who just might be a pawn for someone else..."

* * *

**_-James Ironwood-_**

"And you're certain of this?" I asked the young scientist, turning away from the dozen or so monitors showcasing various recorded angles of AMBR's match against GLDN, or, more specifically, Maxine Argus' performance.

_'Did you know about this, Oz?... And if you did, does this mean you chose not to share it with me?...'_

"The reaction was similar?"

Jacob Ambrose straightened up to his full height, adjusting his glasses as he used his watch to bring up a side-by-side comparison on a few of the screens. "To the data you provided me with, yes. The two data wavelength samples were nearly _identical_, actually, on some levels, though wildly different in others. Whether or not a stable resonance could actually be formed between the two is anyone's guess, though I'd say maybe... Thirty percent, being generous."

"And that's all you could determine?"

"Without the proper time allotted, or knowledge of what exactly it is I'm testing as a baseline, anyway." He shifted uncomfortably, scratching at some of the scarring at his neck around the base of his collar. "Is what you provided even an Aura signature at all, sir? Some of those readings had Allison thinking this was all some hypothetical exercise. I've never seen anything..."

"That's classified information, I'm afraid. I trust you've been discreet with this matter?..."

"Of course, sir. My apologies." The young man nodded his head quickly, all nervousness gone, only to be replaced by a rigid discipline that spoke well of his upbringing.

_'We should recruit more from Bastion. Perhaps aim younger, before the personality issues develop.' _That, however, was a matter for another time.

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help. Between monitoring maintenance for the drones, and working with Penny, I'm finding it hard to manage my time, even with Allison's aid. If you wish, though, I can delegate..."

He stiffened as I clapped a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. "No need. I'm very impressed with your contributions, Jacob. Both on this matter and everything else you've done for us thus far. Have Allison relay the rest of the data to my Scroll, then get some rest. That's an order."

The scientist spluttered out a quick affirmative, snapping off a crisp salute before departing, his face buried in his watch, whispering quick orders to that AI of his. I waited until I heard the hissing click of the door locking before turning back to the monitors, replaying the recording.

_'So it is true... A risk factor, and a possible wrench in months of careful planning, and yet he does **nothing?...**'_

I trusted in the plan. Trusted in the technology Atlas had provided, and in the old Headmaster himself to make an informed decision regarding the potential candidate. I trusted him a great deal, but this matter could possibly determine the future of the Four Kingdoms, and every man woman and child taking shelter behind their walls.

_'I'll need to form a contingency, regardless of what Ozpin might think. **Nothing** can be left to chance. Not in this...'_ I told myself. A back-up measure I was gambling with in case things went awry with the procedure. _'Thirty percent... I might just be worrying for nothing.'_

I watched one last time as the young woman sent her opponent flying before they could harm her leader when she deflected the deadly thrust of an attack. How she manipulated her weapon as if gravity didn't affect it, this power subtly affecting those around her in ways even she was unaware of.

_'We'll need a guardian; an insurance policy if worst comes to worst.' _I would need convene on the matter with Schnee as we proceeded forward, a perfect agent already in mind.

* * *

**_-Edward Briar-_**

"Who the hell was this kid?" the smuggler called over his shoulder to his friends, poking me in the chest painfully with the barrel of his rifle.

**_Th**ump** Thump..._**

There it goes.

"Waltzing in here, saying he's come for us all. Thought he was actually some Huntsman, for a second there, when he didn't go down right away."

_Thump_ _Thump..._**_ Thump Thump..._**

I couldn't see, my eyes shutting from the pain, and now felt too heavy to open consciously. _'Again with this... Shouldn't have charged, I guess...'_

It hurt so, so much, my whole chest feeling cold and wet, except for these burning brands spaced every so often where the spray of bullets had ripped through me after piercing my Aura.

_Thump Thump**...**__ Thump Thump**...**_**_ Thump Thump..._**

_'Did I forget to have it up again?... Oh. That's why... Okay...' _I'd been through worse. If anything, the pain now just reminded me of that time all those years ago, when I'd been born again. _'That lovely time... The game...'_

"Stop playing with the corpse, will ya? The Queen wants this stuff moved by the end of the... Oi, is he really dead!?" He was probably looking over at me, setting down the box he carried anyway with a sharp thud. "Dust, man, just put him out of his misery, will ya? He's just a kid, idiot or not."

**_Thump Thump..._**

I could feel a few of them in there still. Working their way to the surface, just like that time with the hot nails, when those White Fang grunts had discovered exactly what I could do. What made me special.

"What're ya talking about? 'Course he's dead!" I heard the one over me stand up, kicking at me hard in the side, painfully.

He would be first, **and last...**

"See? No... What the?!" He must have lurched back as fresh blood poured from my wounds as my heart righted itself, pushing three small points of lead with them that clattered on the floor, with the wounds they'd caused closing behind them in seconds, flesh knitting itself back together.

_'Did I take my...? No... Ooh, this is going to be **messy...**' **AND FUN!**_

"Just... Oh my..." It was a fair reaction, one I was used to getting whenever I pulled stunts like this. The last time had been a couple months back, when that grunt got in a lucky shot through my Aura.

_'Eddy can play the game, **Duo can deal with people!'**_

My eyes shot open, gloriously tinged red as a wracking cough took me as I clambered to my knees. My targets shook and shouted amongst themselves, but I was too wrapped up to discern what they were saying, as Aura wrapped itself around my limbs, fresh strength flooding through me that had my fingers digging through the concrete beneath them like sand, as their bullets clattered off my barrier ineffectively like gnats.

What was that the one near me was saying? _'Something like "monster," I think?... That's not very nice.'_

I could hear their hearts beating around me in tempo with my own. I could smell the Dust and blood in the air, and could see the fear etched onto their faces, as I felt the smile curling across my face.

-END

**A/N: Alright, now I have a break I actually have time to work on this so in a perfect world this means I'll be able to update more. Don't get used to this though, part of my mindset is getting as much out as I can before work crushes me. Ah well, this was mostly just filler stuff at this point as I figure out what to do with the plot, how to mess with Joel it seems, and stuff which we're finally getting into like Eddy who just might yet get this fic back to M or go down trying, then proceed to get back up. I based a lot of what he is and what happens with his personality on a certain character from fiction with the same name and no it's not the vampire. Thank you Roosterteeth for giving me something I can work with once again. Feel free to leave a review people, know I keep saying it but your feedback makes the story better.**

**P.S: Biggest problem right now is who fights AMBR in the 2v2, willing to break, JNPR, Penny's pair, other? So many choices.**


	50. Chapter 50

**Edited as of: (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**A/N: Okay so before we begin I'd just like to remind everyone this Fic, while having its own plot points, locales, and characters, works within and around the RWBY canon to some extent which means spoilers from the show might just pop up every now and then. This might not even refer to you, you might be completely caught up with the show, so am I, it's just I've never really had AMBR this close to catching up with the show before (usually like half a year behind or something like that) and am giving you a fair warning that this chapter and very likely the one after it is going to spoil a pretty big plot reveal in Vol 3: Chapter 6. This might not be necessary, I'm just saying if you might want to watch it on RWBY first then see mentions of it in a Fanfic.**

FAIRYTALES IN SPRING

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"So... where'd ya run off to, really?" I said as an aside to Psycho the second Blondie had cleared her seat on her way for some refreshments, having somehow managed to burn off her energy she got from lunch in the short trip up here.

_'As if a fortunes-worth of noodles hadn't been enough...'_

"And don't tell me you 'went to the medical station;' Ya don't lie half as well as ya think ya do." Ninjette nodded her head, taking the seat next to the Huntsman as he fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I can forgive the perfume as belonging to a nurse, but the alcohol on your breath, and the fact you recently used your Semblance..." she murmured, glancing over towards where Reika had the Princess and Red distracted. Maxine and her cousin had chosen to run off and tour the floating colosseum in person. A dream of hers, if I understood correctly. "You better explain before I mention these little details to your girlfriend."

JNPR was taking their sweet time getting ready, and it showed in the crowd. Muttered conversations went on as friends placed bets, fans gushed about seeing the "invincible" Pyrrha Nikos in action, along with your standard run-of-the-mill drunken battle maniacs waiting impatiently for the fighting to start.

Joel looked between us nervously, before lowering his head with a sigh, scratching at his hair ruefully. "It's not what you're thinking, Blake..."

"I would hope so. You're not the type... I think..." I agreed with him, nodding as I examined our friend's opponents, Team BRNZ.

_'Standard Vacuan flare. The men look to be brawler, close-range types, judgin' by their weapons, while the lone female member's equipped with a rifle to cover 'em.' _Unlike _Glory,_ however, this rifle was lighter, probably sacrificing power for ease of mobility. _'Though any weapon wielded with Aura's bound to pack some sort of punch. JNPR should be fine, though. Long as they stay on the offensive, and press an advantage while they have it, anyway.'_

"So what _was_ in the note that girl gave you? Somethin' dangerous? Trapper-related, I'm guessin', if you felt ya had to lie to Blondie 'bout it?"

"Not a bad, guess... My old mentor payed me a visit, actually."

I blinked, genuinely surprised at that one. _'Rare feelin'... Don't like it...' _Back to reality, and close your damn mouth; he's still talking.

"Her note told me to come alone, or she'd 'make a scene' in front of my friends," he laughed darkly, shaking his head as he rested his elbows on his knees. "That's why I lied. Fewer casualties that way. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"You had lunch with _Fortuna Marigold?_" I whistled to myself, while Blake looked between us nervously. The Bounty Huntresses' rather storied reputation had obviously spread amongst the White Fang, just as it had throughout the Frontier.

_'We never did deign to share that little tidbit of Joel's past, did we?' _The one-woman disaster. The Law Keeper that had purged the Frontier of its worst criminals, raiders, and rogue Huntsmen. All in less than three months after reportedly assigning herself to the region. _'Even Dad walked on eggshells for a while after that. Big reason he stuck to small time jobs... Well, if you call armed train robbery 'small time,' anyway.'_

"You were trained by _THE_ Fortuna Marigold? The one they call..."

"'Lady Luck,' 'the Mistress of Fortune,' and about a dozen other little titles she really doesn't much care for. Yeah," Psycho listed off with a note of mirth in his voice now. "It's not as impressive as it sounds. I'd mostly already learned how to handle myself, and fully weaponized my Semblance by the time I met up with her." Courtesy of his uncle, most likely, judging from the momentary change in his demeanor. "But Marigold's the one who taught me how to _BE_ a Trapper. How to hunt down my quarry, and a few other tricks besides." The Huntsman ran a lone finger along a few of the tender white scars running down his arm. "Hell, listening to her, you'd think she was the best in the world at her job."

The Cat girl put a finger to her chin, bow twitching as she carried on. "That would explain some things... But why would a Trapper...?"

"Actually, not a Trapper, technically. She went rogue pretty soon after I did, according to my source. First of quite a few, actually. Command's just kept it quiet to keep troop morale up."

Her eyes widened at the info, but she corrected herself all the same. "Why would a wanted criminal risk infiltrating the Kingdoms?"

"To catch up, for the most part. She wanted to see how I was doing at Beacon. Even deigned to pass along some information she thought I'd find useful, which, believe it or not, I _was_ going to fill you in on." He glanced towards the former agent. "...But if I tell you, Yang and the others need to be _kept out of it._ I want them to focus on enjoying the Festival, and not on... this." Didn't exactly seem thrilled about it, but the ninja nodded along, giving him the cue to continue. "Crime's stopped in Vale since the Breach, but that doesn't mean it's gone. Apparently, the White Fang in this area is under new command. Even brought in the Blood Hounds."

That certainly got a reaction, the color leaving her face as she spun around, though careful to make it look casual to the rest of her team. "T-those _monsters_ are _here!?_ How could they...!?" She shuddered, fingernails digging into her seat.

_"Ooookay... Whoever these 'Blood Hound' guys are, it **definitely** isn't good.'_

"I-is that all? D-did she say anything else?"

"Unfortunately, no... A Trapper, a dangerous one at that, went rogue, and may or may not be coming here after me." He says that as if that's not a huge problem. "There's nothing we can do about it now, but I plan on working something out with Ozpin. I'm _not_ having another Capaneus incident. Not again." Judging by the look he had, he definitely meant it... And that he was terrified as all hell.

_'I haven't seen that look since Briar...' _I felt a chill go down my spine at the mere thought of that harpy coming after me, the small scar running down my leg a constant little reminder.

"More Trappers... Yay, just what I wanted to hear. Always fun when we run into more of those." I let my head fall back against the seat as JNPR finally deigned to enter the arena, cheers going off like fireworks, including Blondie, who hoarded snacks in hand down the row, beaming back at us. "Well, long as you think ya have it handled..."

"Not really sure I do. It's sort of..." He stopped as I raised a metal hand quickly over his mouth shushing him with the other.

"_Please_ don't say that."

* * *

_'Come on, Hero, don't run away! You're givin' 'em a chance to push forward! Gain ground! **Fight!**' _Seriously, someone starts shooting, and the kid runs? _'Not a bad strategy if you don't know where the shots are comin' from, but when she's right there, and you have an invincible Mistralian battle maiden... Oh, what's this now?'_

_"Oh-ho! Looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her Semblance!"_ Port chortled over the speaker as one of BRNZ's fighters put a stun baton into the hammer wielder's stomach, obviously shocking her, but, rather than felling her, her Aura only seemed to increase.

_'Really need to think up a good nickname for her... Bubbles, maybe...'_ Valkyrie had always been a friendly face, even before we'd been introduced. The girl literally introduced herself with a bear hug, before Max sent her flying. But aside from friendly banter, I didn't know much about her, aside from a strange obsession with sloths and breakfast.

_"Yes, Ms. Valkyrie's Semblance lets her produce, as well as channel electrical energy straight to her muscles! This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!"_

And send him flying she did, with an honest to god smile on her face. I turned to look at Psycho, who suddenly had an exhausted-looking grin on his face, similar to the one I sometimes saw on Pinky's whenever the Huntress got into some sort of mischief that he had to take care of gladly.

"Was wonderin' why she was always latchin' onto ya whenever she got the chance," I grinned as the Huntress sent her opponent flying. "Personally, I just thought she just had a crush, or somethin'." Blondie sent me a dark look for that one, but Joel merely shrugged, running an idle spark down his hand that was probably more a distraction then a warning.

_'But I'll take it anyway, and shut the hell up just in case.'_

"Pretty sure Ren has that department cornered already. We're just friends. Though I guess it helps that I'm sort of a walking, talking sugar rush for her."

Great. Just one more thing I'd have to work into planning for the next round. "Suppose you guys are 'Thunder Buddies,' then?"

"This damn habit of yours; I swear if you make that our team attack name, I'll...!" He glared at me, but stopped when he noticed his girlfriend and her sister snickering behind him. "_Seriously?_"

"What? It's a cute name! Can't fault him for that. Plus, we kind of owe him for 'Wildfire;' that one's awesome!"

I gave her a short bow of gratitude. _'__Thank you, thank you. I do try my best to... Are they seriously havin' a Team meetin' right now!?'_ I liked Jaune. Good kid, if a little daft in some areas. '_Romance for one.' _But what the hell was Ozpin thinking making him leader_?_

"Sorta wish I'd known she was a perfect counter to you. Kinda makes our lives a bit difficult if we wind up against them. You realize that, don't you?" Honestly, when I woke up this morning, the least I expected was to find out Team JNPR was our biggest rival in this thing.

_'Though to be fair, I wasn't even aware that we'd be competin' up until a few hours ago. If I had time to prepare...'_

"Never really came up, did it?" We both looked back to the fight as the crowd roared. Nora was at the top of the mountain, hammer held high as lightning struck, her aura visibly sparking, similar to how Joel's did when he used his own Semblance. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem, as long as I can avoid contact. Though we never did figure out just how much she can take at once... Wow, that sounded _way_better in my head." He ran a hand down his face as his girlfriend burst out laughing, her sister blushing crimson.

"Least you're learnin', Boss! Improvement comes in inches, not miles," I said, clapping his back as Team BRNZ suddenly crashed against the barrier just above us like bugs hitting a windshield, Nora on the field looking out at her handiwork.

_'Well, then. I'm officially **terrified** of Bubbles now. Awesome.'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"I don't get why everyone's so damn excited to see those idiots," I grunted as I looked up at the screens lining the hallways of the packed Colosseum, those who hadn't managed to get seats practically screaming as SSSN took the stage opposite NDGO. "What's the big deal?"

"Those abs for one..." Sonia purred over my shoulder and into my ears, laughing when she saw me jump. "C'mon, you trained with him, didn't you? Don't tell me you haven't snuck in a peek every now and then?" She leaned in, cupping a hand under her chin as I felt my face burning, as thoughts and memories raced through my head.

_'Sand-kissed skin over taught muscles, shaggy blonde hair, brilliant green eyes... Stop that right now!' _Damn it, why did those two have to look so damn similar!?

"I-I don't know what the hell you're talking about!..." I sputtered, practically drop-kicking my mind back into submission. It was harder than I thought, especially with the veritable sea of teen hormones exploding throughout the stadium, and practically seeping through the halls from people trying to catch the fight.

_'Boy band vs. Idol group. No wonder everyone's going wild.'_

"I am in no way attracted to that cocky, idiotic... How the hell did you get your hands on all that?" Sonia just took a step back, looking smug with herself as she held up a sizable haul of food and drink, way more and much higher quality than either of us should've been able to afford. "Carson didn't loan us that much, and you said your card was...?"

She shrugged, peering back at the boy manning the stall, who was rubbing at his head, looking confused. "No idea. He just started putting it all on the counter when I walked up. Think he likes me." She blew him a kiss that, if anything, only startled him more, sending him tumbling back into the arms of his coworker, who stared at us angrily... Well angrily at me, anyway.

_'Glad to know equality's alive and well.' _I waved back at him with a growl, pulling my cousin with me further into the crowd towards a small bench with a good view of one of the larger viewing screens, the fight already well under way.

From the looks of it, SSSN was already off to a decent start, that Vasilias idiot having already pressed deep past NDGO's line into their biome. _'Wonder why's everyone shouting at him, though?' _I shrugged as I tore at the dumpling Sonia offered me, the smell at least managing to block out most of the conflicting scents in the viewing area.

"You know, I still can't believe we're actually sitting in Amity Colosseum right now!" The Huntress leaned back against the wall, taking in everything going on around her. "It felt like just days ago that we were talking about entrance exams for Haven. And now you're actually fighting in the Vytal Festival Tournament! It sounds unreal." She gestured to the crowd milling around, the whole lot of them cheering when one of Monkey Boy's teammates got sent flying. "Everyone within the Kingdoms is watching, cheering you on."

"Don't remind me," I replied, suppressing a shudder when I spotted a few spectators doing a double take at the sight of me. "Think I'm starting to see why Ambrose hates these stupid things." I noted the sudden look of distaste, and rounded on her with an exasperated sigh. "Oh, will you lay off him, already!? It's getting old."

"What? Excuse me for having a sensible reaction towards a _known murderer _leading your team!" She puffed out her cheeks angrily, glaring at a screenshot of Ambrose's face they had posted up on one of the roster boards nearby. "That's sort of a shocker to just wake up to."

I clenched my teeth, but let the rising annoyance pass, seeing as it wouldn't help matters anyway. _'Weird sense of Déjà vu here...' _It was easy to remember having this exact same argument with the girl back in her dream. _'Didn't seem too keen on accepting it then, either, if I recall correctly.'_ I'd asked a dozen times over the last few days, but Sonia was still lacked any memory of her time while she was under, including that alternate world we'd created together. _'Team SBLE, Ben dead, Trappers attacking... Clutching at Ambrose's bleeding corpse on the ground...' _Maybe it deserved to be forgotten, I wondered, imagining smashing that one kiosk worker's teeth in, replaying the lovely fantasy with a dozen people. Kaplan, Winchester, that Briar bitch... _'There, see? That feels better.'_

"He _killed_ people, Maxi. As in actively _murdered_ them!"

"So have I, remember!?" I spat at her, the food suddenly tasting bitter in my mouth.

_'The cliffside coming down, pushing them into its path.'_

"So if you're going to judge him just off that...!"

"From what you told me, you didn't have much choice in the matter," she countered defensively, shushing me when she noticed people starting to turn around. "It was you or them. That's _worlds_ apart from what that man did to all those Faunus; your own people."

"First off, I don't exactly see it that way. Secondly, they weren't _MY_ people!" I scratched at my ears, thinking back to the reaction I'd got at that little gathering we'd crashed weeks back. "I'm a half-breed mongrel to them, remember? 'Living proof against the purity of our species,' and all that racial bullshit. That lot knew what they were signing up form, and so did my partner! Both sides ended up paying for it in the end."

"He's walking free, managing his own team, and dating a pretty girl. Yeah, _really_ paying for it, isn't he?" she murmured under her breath as the crowd roared again from above us. Apparently, SSSN was still putting up a good fight. Three on three, at least, with their redheaded member taking on two at once, it looked like.

"You've shared a room with him for a bit now. If you want to sneak peeks, then do it at him." It was leagues better now, but I still sometimes awoke in the middle of the night to hear the tossing and turning coming from his bunk, the muffled whimpers in his sleep. "You'll see what I mean."

"I can't believe you're actually _defending_ him!"

"And why _not!?_ You don't have to like him, but he and the rest of AMBR were the ones that've had my back all this time! Made me feel like I had people I could rely on again, while you were...!" I blanched, voice catching in my throat as I felt the familiar well of guilt rear its ugly head again. "I... I..."

"...Maxi, it wasn't your fault," she cooed softly, scratching at my ear in a way that sent electricity rocketing down my spine. "If anything, I'm sorry you had to go through all this in the first place." I blinked away the sudden wateriness in my eyes, cursing under my breath as I rubbed at them fiercely. "I suppose I'm just trying to get my bearings, is all. You actually go out of your way to care, even finding yourself a boyfriend... Didn't think you had it in you for a while there..."

"That one-armed, laid back, womanizing asshole _isn't_ my boyfriend!" I said without meaning to, clapping a hand over my mouth, but the damage was already done. "...Shut up."

"One-armed?... So it was Carson, after all." I cursed my big mouth, ears flattening against my head as my cheeks burned. "Went in for the wrong blonde, I guess."

"Shut. Up."

"Oh, don't be so embarrassed, Maxi! I'm proud of you," she tittered on, excitement overriding her hunger at this point, I guess. "It's just you always seemed more interested in doing your own 'thing,' rather than looking for someone... Not that that isn't okay; it's who you are!" She waved her hands in front of her as I shot a glance her way, teeth flashing. "...So, are you two 'together' together, or...?"

"We're not 'together' anything, alright!? It's just... I don't know; it's complicated!" I blurted out in a vain attempt to fix this, though judging by the smug look on her face, it wasn't working. "Stop looking at me like that!"

I didn't need to take this. I was set in my ways on this. _'It's for his own good. We both agreed to keep this professional... Well, he agreed to, but I practically made him. And a few slips here and there...** DAMN IT!**'_

At least towards the start of the year he'd been flirting and sleeping his way through half of Beacon, and it would've been easy to write it off as a fling of misplaced emotions. Since returning from the Badlands, however, the most "active" thing he'd done was mouth off the occasional flirtatious comment towards a particular Huntress he'd be dealing with, Rose, Murasaki, and Xiao Long excluded, of course. But those were all in jest; nothing serious, and certainly weren't leading to anything.

_'Why couldn't he just be another horny bastard!?'_

"You do like him, don't you?"

"I-I didn't say that!"

"You exactly didn't have to." She cocked her head to the side looking me up and down, before picking. "He knows?"

"We didn't exactly make it... Of course he does. He _better_ fucking know." I added, picking at my flak jacket and torn jeans while biting my lip almost hard enough to pierce skin.

Sonia thought to herself for a few seconds, dissecting the meaning behind my words, sipping at her drink, before almost pulling a perfect spit take at the revelation, eyes darting back to me in pure astonishment, before coughing into her hand, blushing slightly herself, amazingly enough, while I found myself suddenly engrossed in a stray strand of thread coming off of my flak jacket.

"Wait, you mean you two...! You _actually_...! Wow... Did he figure out you'd never exactly...?"

Let me die now. Just strike me down, please, and end it. "L-look, let's just talk about something else, okay? Like how your treatments are going! Much better now, right?" It was a desperate bid to change the subject, and we both knew it was only delaying the inevitable.

She still let it happen, though, and in that moment, I loved her for it all the more for it, a knowing smile playing across her lips as she kicked at the metal cane. "Yeah, really well. Pretty soon I'll able to walk without having to rely on this thing much. Dr. Free says if I keep improving at this rate, I'll be running within the week, and I can start training again."

"You sure that's a good idea? I thought you were going to head home and see Aunt Carmen before you worried about all this?" Her smile wavered, her scent shifting noticeably. "You _did_ manage to get in contact with her, right?"

Carmen Bordeaux had always been a strong-willed woman. However, this didn't mean she was invulnerable. The widow suffered from a weak constitution that would put her down for anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, meaning she rarely left the family estate, a fact which used to work in our favor, when we were using the "master artist living in seclusion" bit to sell my paintings. But after the accident...

"I've tried. The nurse working there say she's sick, and can't be disturbed. But I'm her daughter! They can't just...!?" She bent over, coughing violently, heaving as I leapt down in front of her, holding her shoulders as she steadied herself. A few people turned around, and were staring at us nervously.

"_WHAT!?_" I practically barked, Aura flaring instinctively as I took hold of my Semblance and set fixtures across the room rattling, sending the whole lot of them scurrying away, before turning back to the girl in front of me, SSSN's victory being announced in the background. "Sonny, listen to me! Sonny, you have to slow down, and breathe...!" I'm not sure entirely what happened, but my Aura shifted slightly, barely more than a tremor really. But Sonia's own cerulean-colored Aura flickered to life, her breathing evening out steadily. "Sonny...?" She looked up at me. Shocked, but with that familiar grin of hers.

"I-I'll be alright. I'm... I'm just tired, is all. Sorry if I spooked ya." She looked down as the glow of her Aura faded against the pale skin of her arms. "What was that you did there? I-it's like your Aura reached out to mine; bolstering it."

I knew of similar rituals and techniques. Well... the theory behind them, anyway, such as unlocking another's Aura. _'This was different though; broader. Plus, her Aura's already unlocked...'_

My mind was racing as I glanced down at my own hands, the carmine-shaded glow holding steady, pulsing at my fingertips. "I-I don't know..."

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'Well, I certainly didn't expect my day to end up like this.' _I mused to myself, leaning back against the wall opposite the elevator as I waited, curled up in my poncho, supposedly for the great General Ironwood, or his frigid Schnee Specialist lackey to come and "collect" me, whatever the hell that meant.

When I'd gotten the summons to report to the airship docks at Beacon after the day's matches had concluded, I'd been understandably more than a little put off.

_'If you can call threatening to detain me if I didn't a 'summons,' anyway.'_

That fact was more apparent after the Princess had mentioned something about her sister visiting at the same dock I'd been "assigned" to go to. _'Yeah, she hadn't been too thrilled about that bit, funnily enough.'_

So that's how I ended up as the third wheel to what had been intended as a sisterly reunion, with Ruby tacked on to represent RWBY. Ninjette had ran off with Reika somewhere, and Max and her cousin had never come back from their little tour, so they were in the wind. Psycho and Blondie stayed behind to enjoy more of the festival grounds.

Actually meeting with the Schnee had gone... about as well as could be expected, actually.

* * *

**(A Few Minutes Earlier)**

"So you're Benjamin Carson? Prisoner #24602. I've read your file." Winter Schnee stood face-to-face with me. Like, literally. I probably could've leaned forward and kissed her if I didn't expect that such a move would result in my grisly and untimely evisceration, though some would probably argue that it would be worth it. Inspecting me from my worn combat gear to the dull, silvery arm hanging at my side, and all the way up to my nervous attempt at a friendly grin. "Exactly as I expected, judging from what William reported..." Weiss coughed into her hand, trying to recapture her sister's attention, something I was genuinely hoping for at the moment.

"I'm... sorry?"

"Of course you are."

It wasn't too hard to tell at a glance that the two women were sisters merely from their appearance. Same hair and style, if a little more formally stark on the behalf of the elder Schnee. In terms of demeanor, however, the two couldn't have been more different. While Weiss could be cold, this woman was _ice._ Everything the heiress could possibly hope to become. While the youngest sister sought to demand a sense of authority, this woman expected it without question.

_'Not gonna lie, that's definitely a turn on...'_ Get some control over yourself, idiot! _'I just couldn't get a read on her. One second she's steppin' off her airship, flanked by drones, smackin' her sister over the head for being too formal, then askin' how she's been a second later?' _I hadn't had this feeling about anyone. Not since that one Haven student a few weeks back. _'Caught her match earlier. Let her teammates do most of the fightin' for her.'_

I held out a hand on reflex, trying to at least make a good first impression. "Uh... yes, well, it's a pleasure to..." And she turned away before I could finish, my hand falling back to my side.

_'Okay it's official. I dub thee 'Ice Queen' forevermore. Others may use it on your sister, but I will think of you. And congratulations to Weiss on becomin' my favorite Schnee.'_

I grinned, enjoying my little moment to ramble as the Specialist addressed her sister.

* * *

**(Present)**

From there, things had just sort of escalated accordingly. One minute we're walking, leaving Ruby behind to meet us at another "juncture," and then the next, Miss Congeniality and some seemingly random drunk man with a cape and a big sword, that we later learned was Ruby and Yang's uncle, Qrow, are ripping apart the plaza in a fight I could only describe properly as "incredible," and even then it looked more as if the two were merely testing the other.

Cue General Buzzkill, the Witch, and Ozpin coming out of nowhere to stop the damn thing before the two could tear the school apart, and dragged the lot of us, minus Weiss now, through the school, where the adults took the elevator up to Ozpin's office, with the General ordering me to wait for him below.

_'What the hell did I do?' _I mean, aside from maybe a few petty thefts now and then, I'd been surprisingly well-behaved lately. For me, anyway. _'Nothin' that should've attracted the attention of the Atlesian Military... Unless... Oh, that's **gotta** it.'_

I groaned as the elevator slid open suddenly to reveal Winter, in all her fuming glory, looking as if someone had just spit in her face and gotten away with it. "'Sup." She whirled on me, the temperature dropping just enough to catch my notice as her eyes met mine, my hand wrapping around the handle of the spare knife I kept hidden at my belt. "So am I still waitin', or...?"

"The General will be down shortly... You are to wait for, and accompany him when he arrives." She clicked her heels down on the stone floor harshly, fists clenched behind her back.

_'Okay, whatever went on **definitely** has her riled.' _Understandable. From what I saw, this Qrow person was a lot like Dad: too confrontational for his own good, and more than liberal with the bottle. Fun to hang around with normally, for anyone who could take a good ribbing, but an annoyance to these by-the-book, upstanding types.

"You realize that just 'cause you say a string of numbers that applies to me doesn't mean I'm your prisoner, right? Or that you have any right to detain me?" I commented, relaxing my grip on the knife as I wagged a finger her way. "I know the terms of my dad's deal."

"Loosely, I see. I think your time at Beacon has made you forget that you are here provisionally as part of your own sentence. For robbing my father's company, if I recall correctly." She motioned to my right side, a cold frown etched on her face. "It is by the General's, and Atlas' grace that you aren't still crippled and imprisoned."

I chuckled to myself as I slid the sleeve of my shirt up the metal arm out for her to examine, her eyes narrowing at the sight of the red rose emblem near the shoulder. "If ya want me to pay for the prototype you stuck me with, just ask. Thing was an itchy piece of SDC scrap metal, anyway. No offense." Oh, that got her hackles raised. "This lovely piece here's the property of Ruby Rose. Brilliant girl. I'd say you guys should hire her next time you're out recruitin', but I actually like this kid too much to subject her to that torture."

"Be that as it may, remember that your actions can reflect favorably on your father's sentence. Perhaps even enough to shorten..."

"Was wonderin' when you were gonna play that card. Didn't even last a few _minutes,_" I tutted, shaking my head as her expression darkened even more, if that was even possible. "And your sister actually asked me how I could hate the way Atlas runs things..."

"_You...!?_" The woman took a step forward just as the elevator slid open again, Ironwood stepping out to view the scene before him. Schnee instantly turned in a perfect salute, while I did my own mock approximation. "_Sir!_"

The man glanced between the two of us, rubbing at his temples with a grunt of irritation, before gazing at his underling. "Winter, I was led to believe you desired time with your sister before you departed?..."

"Y-yes, General! I was merely..."

"Then I trust you should go meet with her. Dismissed."

The woman bristled, but, amazingly enough, yielded, bowing her head as she made her way down the corridor, shooting me one last withering look, before rounding the corner, chin raised.

"I see you still have a way with words." He offered me a hand that I took, realizing just how shaky my legs were from my narrowly-avoided near-death experience there, my lungs still struggling for air. "You shouldn't antagonize her."

"And your people shouldn't be threatenin' to renege on the deal you made, Woody." He raised an eyebrow at the name I gave him, but nodded, motioning for me to follow him, which was, thankfully, in the opposite the way the angry Atlesian had taken. "I take it that's the idea for this little rendezvous, though? You're gonna have me do something, aren't you? To help my dad."

"I see Winter let more slip then she was supposed to," the military man stated simply, looking over his shoulder at me intently. "You're aware of the deal that I hold your father under. He works for me, in exchange for yours and Miss Murasaki's attendance here, and in order to work towards his freedom. Something that, at best, would mean years of dangerous assignments to even have a hope of attaining. The life of an Indentured Huntsman is difficult, and Bill doesn't lack for enemies. Especially within the SDC."

"And I'm guessin' I can help him avoid that. That's what ya mean, right? What do you want?"

"Assistance with a matter you are uniquely qualified for," he responded, eyes becoming very serious. "One that, with your aid, could potentially keep the Kingdoms, and perhaps even Remnant itself, from ruin... I need you to work with me; to be my agent. To become one of my Specialists."

_'...What the hell!?'_

We stepped out into the sunny courtyard, now freshly deserted, except for an Atlesian military dropship and a platoon of mechanical, as well as flesh and blood troopers. The General paused, looking to the tower, then over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "...Tell me, what do you know of the _Story of the Seasons_?"

-END

**_A/N: We've got plot people, its going forward. Sorry to all the Winter fans out there by the way, I like her just fine but Ben's a whole other story. Hope you all have a happy holiday season and I hope to have another chapter out soon._**

**_In other news I've gotten people asking for reference as to what AMBR looks like right now. Seeing as I'm not an artist and because my doc manager has a thing against links I've posted stuff up on my Profile page if you want to see em. Mostly drawn from similar character I based the look off of or the closest thing I could find._**


	51. Chapter 51

**Edited as of: (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**A/N: Fifty Chapters, wow this is just...wow. Thanks to all of you for supporting this story along the way. Never would've thought it would come this far and heres to many more to come. - Mojo**

THE PEOPLE YOU TRUST

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"_YOU ARE THE WORST!_" I said through gritted teeth angrily as that perverted old uncle of mine finished telling me about his "defeat." Right where Ruby could hear him, too, the young teen even snickering along with him. I know I might make jokes to the effect every now and then, but even I had a limit where Ruby's innocence was involved.

_'Joel and Blake might call it 'being overprotective.' I call it 'my sisterly duty.''_

"Oh, that's not even the worst, by a long shot," he laughed, restarting the game, forcing me to split my attention. "You should hear about the 'battles' Tai and I used to stir up back in the day. Good times," he reminisced fondly, closing his eyes, yet still somehow managing to wreck my life bar.

_'How is he doing that!? __Urgh...' _I let out a short growl of annoyance as he effortlessly broke through my combo in an instant.

"Can't you at least _pretend_ to be a responsible role model!?"

"Really? From what your dad's been sayin', I'm not so sure you have any right to judge me on that front." He grinned as my face went crimson, and my hair steamed dangerously, the screen showing victory for "Soaring Ninja" yet again. "And for your little boyfriend's sake, he better be exaggerating a few details on what you two've been up to."

Taiyang Xiao Long was an incredible Huntsman, and a more loving father than a girl could ever ask for. But he needed to learn to mind his own business, and stay out of mine!

"You know Dad. Always worrying about nothing. Remember when he sent that one boy running laps around Signal just for holding my hand?"

"That boy was trouble, and you know it. Eyes always wanderin'."

"We'd just had a sparring match; I was helping him up!" Ruby was looking between the two of us, fidgeting nervously, silver eyes unsure of whom to support. "And then there was that time he...!"vBeacon was supposed to be my chance to get away from all this; to start living my own life.

"Can't help but be worried, kid. Of all the people you could have possibly fallen in with, you go and choose the one with the highest body count. We're just trying to look out for you."

"You two don't know a thing about him!" I shot back defensively, putting the controller down lest I break it in my anger. "Ever since I've met him, he's been nothing but kind to me and Ruby, and always willing to help out whenever we needed it."

"He's a _criminal,_ Yang..."

"He _respects_ me!" I countered him, shutting him up as my eyes flashed scarlet. "You and Dad always said that the person I find should be able to make me smile, make me laugh, and treats me as an equal, not to mention lets me speak my mind..." It was a long list, but in my mind, the Huntsman had already filled just about every category, and a few more besides. "Even Zwei likes him, and he's a better judge of character than just about anyone I've ever met!"

In fact, it used to stand that Dad and Uncle Qrow himself were the only men Zwei would tolerate being anywhere near Ruby and me, interposing himself whenever he sensed an intruder in our personal space._'Ben's still treading lightly whenever he comes over'_.

My fellow blonde had made the mistake of patting Ruby on the back affectionately after the young mechanic had fixed his arm as one part show of gratitude, one part test run. The next few seconds after passed in a whirl of fur, teeth, and shrill barks. Since the Breach, however, and the weeks since then, the corgi had not only formed a sort of camaraderie with Professor Oobleck, but an odd friendship with my boyfriend as well. "Mutual respect," he called it.

The first time they'd met had been when Joel had stepped into our dorm, still bandaged up, and with that fresh scar showing above his eye, snatching me up from my bed into a rather memorable embrace in front of my whole team. One that had ended shortly after, when he noticed the dog growling in front of us. Ruby tried to warn him, but rather then falter, the tall boy had gotten down on one knee before the dog, the two staring into each other's eyes unblinkingly for a full five minutes, with the whole lot of us wondering what exactly was happening. Blake had just been about to run and fetch a nurse, when he suddenly laughed to himself, hand reaching out to scratch the dog between the ears. The corgi actually let him do so, to our stark amazement, licking at his hand.

Right now, the two of them were walking the campus, a task the boy had volunteered for to give us the chance to spend time with our uncle, seeing as he apparently had something to do anyway.

"If you want this boy to have any sort of approval from me, he better be able to do a damn sight better than just making you laugh," the old crow muttered under his breath, grimacing as a broad smile spread across my face.

"Of course he does."

A knock at the door drew our attention as I grinned devilishly. I got to my feet, and marched my way to the door with just a little bit more sway in my hips than usual, opening it to find Joel standing in casual wear, holding a plastic bag. The corgi sat next to him, panting happily beside him, both caked liberally in what looked like flour.

_'Perfect,' _I thought, a plan blossoming to life in my head.

"Hey, guys. I made coo..." I silenced him pointedly, grabbing him by the front of his shirt, and pulling him into a deep kiss that earned a "Gross" from Rubes, and a noise that sounded marvelously like grinding teeth, pulling back to see him staring back at me blushing and winded. "Wha...?"

"Joel here can make me feel quite a few things. He's _very_ good at it, actually," I said aloud, wrapping an arm around his back, guiding him into the room, planting one last peck, before glancing over at my uncle. "Especially when he uses his hands."

The joke went right over Ruby's head... Hopefully. But the risk was well worth the look on Qrow Branwen's face as he stared between the two of us, but focused mainly on the young man, eyes narrowing into thin slits. _'Oh, if looks could kill.'_

"Uh... As I was saying, I made cookies. Zwei helped where he could," he added to Zwei's happy bark, raising the bag, which suddenly vanished from his grasp when a red blur swept by with a loud outburst of joy. Ruby reappeared on the bed, gazing down at the chocolate-studded confections reverently, before shoveling them into her mouth. With the discovery that Joel could actually cook came the inevitable reveal, spurred on by the little red reaper herself, that baking was also within the scope of his talents. A fact that Ruby had taken full advantage of, her newly minted personal chef practically helpless against her begging.

_'I really shouldn't have taught her that trick...'_

"...You must be Yang and Ruby's uncle. They've told me a lot about you, but it's good to finally meet face to face," he said in a calm cheery voice, but his eyes looked down at me accusingly, practically screaming "_WHAT THE **HELL** HAVE YOU GOTTEN ME INTO THIS TIME!?_" I couldn't exactly blame him. I wasn't even the target, and I could still feel the killing Aura the Huntsman was letting off in waves.

"So... you're the big, bad Trapper everyone's talkin' about..." Qrow said slowly, words dripping with barely-disguised menace as he stepped forward with a hand outstretched. I could feel Joel's back stiffen, but the smile never left his face. "I caught your match. Not bad, but the heroics could use some work."

"I hear you're a pretty good teacher from Ruby. Maybe you could give me some pointers while you're in town?" Joel replied jovially, taking his hand. It didn't show on their faces, but it was plain to see that my uncle was currently doing his best to crush the other man's hand in a vice, and was surprised to find that Joel was giving as good as he got, both showing no signs of discomfort as Joel bowed his head. "It would be my honor to learn from such an experienced warrior."

The older Huntsman stepped back, shaking out his hand somewhat as he grinned despite himself, looking Joel up and down. _'Is this some sort of weird guy thing?' _Whatever it was, the tension that had permeated the room was fading fast.

"Well, you're sturdy, at least," he chuckled to himself. "And bigger than the pictures made you out to be."

"Three square meals and a glass of milk every day can do wonders." Ruby smiled broadly, shooting him a thumbs-up that her fellow Team leader returned.

Qrow exhaled, smile vanishing quickly as he jabbed a finger into his chest. "Just know that if you hurt my niece, either of them, I'll...!"

"Slice me into little pieces, freeze me alive, break both my kneecaps, rip my still-beating heart out, and show me more pain then I could ever imagine in the slowest, and most brutal fashion possible?..." Joel listed off to the greying-haired man's surprise. "Good to know. But you might need to take a number behind the rest of Teams RWBY, JNPR, AMBR, and one _very_ vocal Taiyang Xiao Long... Regardless, I swear to you, on my honor, that I'll _never_ knowingly place them in harm's way. Unless..."

"Unless they talk you into it. Of course..." he finished, shooting a glance at me and Rubes, chuckling under his breath as we glowered at him. "I know how persuasive these two can be when they want to..."

The rest of the hour before our uncle had to leave passed rather quickly after that, the two Huntsmen comparing stories, including a few about me when I was younger that, by the end, had me putting both of them in a vicious headlock _'I was **three!** Who doesn't do dumb stuff when they're three?!' _Ruby actually managed to beat the old crow for once at his favorite game, though I suspected he'd let her win.

And then there was that picture he'd shown us of Team STRQ. Qrow tried to hide it as best as he could, but he knew where I was looking, covering up the face of the woman beside him in the picture... But it was her.

_'Mom...'_

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"Hey, um, could I... Could I ask you something?"

I glanced up from the book I was reading, or trying to, anyway - a fanciful little novella about a brave young Huntress and a handsome, if cowardly prince - as Blake tapped my shoulder from around the book shelf, a small frown playing across her face. After the Tournament, the Faunus girl and I had split off from the rest of the group, and had traveled to Vale to escape the chaos of the festival, taking shelter in one of the ninja girl's favorite books stores, after Tukson's had mysteriously shut down.

_"Of course you can," _I signed quickly before I realized what I was doing, blushing slightly at the guilty look of confusion on her face, as I quickly moved to type out the response again on my Scroll.

_'This can be so inconvenient sometimes.' _"Post-traumatic vocal dis-articulation," Miss Goodwitch had called it when I first started seeing her, caused by extreme stress.

"_What's up?_"

"It's sort of personal..." She rubbed at her arm nervously, taking a deep breath before looking back at me. "I was wondering if... if it was possible for you to track someone down for me?... An old friend..." I raised an eyebrow, but she didn't seem too keen on elaborating, merely waiting for my answer, one I wasn't quite sure of how to give. "It's alright if you can't. I was just..."

I waved my hands in front of me, hastily typing "_It's not that I don't want to." _Blake had always been friendly with me since the day Joel had introduced us, taking it upon herself to lend me books to practice with, or helping me with difficult words when the Professor was unavailable. _"I cannot track a person I have not met before."_

"What if I could get something of theirs for you to examine...?" she said hopefully, her expression falling as I shook my head. I wanted to help, but finding someone who's Aura I was unfamiliar with was hard enough out in the field. Here in the Kingdom, with all these powerful Aura signatures here for the Tournament mixed in with the populace? It would be even more difficult. I didn't follow trails, or anything like that; I singled out a target to find, and did my best to reach them on my own for the most part.

_"I'm sorry."_

"No, no, it's my fault," she said quickly in a panicked rush to try and smooth over her imagined hurt. "I shouldn't have asked. It was silly. Just a childish wish, I think. Forget I said anything..."

_"You could ask Maxine, if you have an object to use." _I offered, not needing the sudden distaste in her amber-colored eyes to know mentioning her fellow Faunus hadn't been a good idea.

_'Probably still mad from the stunt she pulled during our little infiltration mission.'_

"I'd... rather not get her involved, if I can help it," she said, doing her best to hide her dislike for my teammate, and failing spectacularly. "I need to talk with him; not whatever trouble she can stir up."

_"'Him?'"_

She winced at the slip, blushing lightly as she motioned me to follow her behind a tall book shelf, devoid of any of the other patrons trying to get some peace and quiet from the festivities. "It's a friend... Or he was, once. Someone from the past that I think may be in over his head," she admitted once we were safely out of earshot of any potential eavesdroppers, ears twitching noticeably under the bow she wore. "I think he's working with dangerous people."

_"Does this have something to do with the White Fang that Joel discovered were moving inside the Kingdom?"_

_S_he did a double take, but nodded slowly. "I wasn't sure he'd told you about that."

I nodded, shrugging my shoulders while giving her a small smile. _"Benjamin tells me a lot of things. I'm sort of like his confident.'_

"Do you mean 'confidant?'" she asked, the smirk leaving my lips as I looked at my Scroll, hastily correcting the mistake while she laughed to herself. It was a pretty thing.

_'She should laugh more. It's good for her.' _A lot of people took such things for granted, as well as the ability to express themselves so easily.

"This person used to be sort of like that for me as well. Someone I could go to just to talk with when things were difficult..." she spoke up wistfully, running a finger along the various covers of the books around her. "Whenever the stress became too much, or whenever I just needed a friend..."

That was simple enough to understand. Feeling alone, and wanting someone to turn to. Amidst the chaos of the Badlands, and life amongst Bill's crew, that person had been Ben. Not that any of the other members were exactly rude or dismissive towards me, in particular. Some of those men and women were as much parents to me as Ma and Bill himself had been, and those who didn't take to me weren't with us long. It was just that most times they were too busy surviving through the day, or wrapped up in something to entertain a kid who couldn't vocalize what she wanted.

_"You want to protect him."_

"I just want the chance to talk to him," she replied, leaning against the case as did so. "He was the last person I saw before I defected... One of the reasons I left, actually. I couldn't stand what this fight was doing to him, turning him into a monster. So I ran away. But now..."

She sounded guilty. I probed outward with my Semblance, and saw that her Aura was a mess of mixed emotions. _'More than just some friend, it seemed.'_

"I don't know what to do... Move on, or try my best to convince him?" She kneaded her forehead. "The thing is I don't even know if he'd listen..."

_"He's your friend, right?" _I typed out, putting the Scroll up to her face with a stern look. _"You don't abandon your friends. AMBR taught me that."_

We might not be the closest of teammates, but that statement was the one thing we all agreed to stand by. Max had said it best before that disaster of a first mission. _'We might as well look out for each other, especially if no one else is.'_

I stood up as straight as my small frame would let me, coming up to about chest level with the Faunus. _"I'm willing to help. Whatever you need."_

"But I thought you couldn't...?"

I shook my head. _"Describe him for me. Mood, temperament, the feeling of being around him; anything like that." _It wouldn't make him any easier to find, if this person was even in Vale to begin with, but it was a start.

_'We all deserve someone we know we can trust.'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Just know that I didn't want to have this conversation with you. At least not yet, anyway. I thought we would have more time; years..." James Ironwood, commander of the largest active military force in the world was trying to console me after dropping something this big. "But current developments have forced my hand early."

"Funny. You're probably pretty high on the list of people I _don't_ wanna think about talkin' to. _Ever._ I appreciate it though; makes me feel special."

"Ben, I need you to be serious here..."

"'Serious?' You want me to be '_serious!?_' I'm sorry, just let me just try and get a handle on all of... I don't even know what the hell to think about what this is!" I ran a hand through my hair, leaning back in the steel chair, arms crossed as I gazed across the table at the General, honestly waiting for the punchline to come round. "You're tellin' me that this old fairytale, one I heard back from my caretaker at age five when was wonderin' why it got colder every few months and warmer in others, is actually _real!?_ The whole thing?"

The _Story of the Seasons _was a tale of four girls that helped some old wizard in a shack out with his gardening, and taught him how to meditate, who then suddenly offers them all magical powers to go save the rest of the world with, which, according to Jimmy, here, was real, and that the current "Fall Maiden" was currently being kept alive on life support underneath Beacon as we speak. _'And the primary reason for why the most powerful man in Atlas just dragged me into an interrogation room aboard his fancy airship, and offered me a job_.'

"Do you think this is funny!? Wastin' my time with some crazy kid's story!? 'Cause I'm _not_ laughin' here!"

"Neither am I, Ben." The large man leaned forward, hands interlaced before him. "And this is no laughing matter. You're smart enough to know I'm not lying, and know that, if I so desired, I could detain you in a dark cell for the rest of your natural life to protect the secret of what I've just told you, and be well within my right to do so, no questions asked. Of course, I wish to avoid that disappointing outcome." He carried on, noting my reaction, or more my hand going for the knife at my belt, eyes widening fearfully. "You have a role to play in this. One you are uniquely... suited for."

"...Not exactly sure how, if I choose to believe any of this at all..." I admitted cautiously, wracking my brain for any detail he might've let slip during his explanation. "From what you told me, this 'Fall Maiden' of yours is barely alive, and fadin' fast, after an unknown woman attacked her attemptin' to steal this power of hers, and succeedin' to some extent. Dangerous in the extreme, judgin' by how it's even got ya worried enough to bring me into all this." He was not moving at all, except for a slight tick at the corner of his mouth that might've been a frown. A signal to continue if I'd ever seen one. "The big issue, though, to you and the lot you're workin' with, Ozzy at least, I'm guessin', is that when she does finally give in, this power's gonna leave her body, and maybe go to the last person she's thinkin' about."

"Which may well be her attacker," he intoned, body tensing sharply. "In fact, according to what we've been able to determine, the power may just pass to this woman on principal, given she already possesses the other half of it. My associates and I aren't willing to allow this without a fight, however. Not when generations of brave and selfless individuals have given everything they had and more to this task."

"And, hey, if you're actually tellin' the truth, and this isn't just you losin' your grip on reality, then I wish you the best of luck, sir!" I said cheerily, offering him a mock salute. "Still don't see how I can help any more than you could with all of your power, even if ya do conscript me into your fancy army, which, by the way, _WHAT!?_"

Atlesian Special Operatives, or Specialist, as they are more commonly called. Controversial Huntsmen comprised of those primarily from Atlas Academy, or the rare professional enticed by the benefits, who are then enlisted into the Atlesian Military Special Operations Unit directly under the command of the man before me. Bit of a sore point for other Kingdoms, seeing as the intention was for Huntsmen and Huntresses to be without allegiance to one particular Kingdom. _'And a stacked deck, seein' as the Headmaster for the Academy's also said military leader. Perfect position to recruit hopefuls with talent that pass through the school.'_ Problem was, most of these people, regardless of where they came from, were _GRADUATES_ of a Huntsman Academy, and certainly not in their _first_ _year!_

"Are you displeased with the appointment? While technically a new recruit, you'd still possess all the powers and privileges of a First Class Lieutenant. One with my personal authority, at that," he said with a note of genuine surprise in his voice, as if he couldn't believe why I'd ever refuse. "Most individuals would just be starting their careers at your age. Quite the leg up, wouldn't you say?"

"You're hijackin' me into service! Almost _literally!_" I gestured around to the steel-plated room. "And as one of your personal toadies, to top it off! Are you _insane!?_"

Atlas. The pinnacle of scientific advancement on Remnant, home of the Schnee Dust Company, developer of the CCT, and the shining example of everything I hated about the Kingdoms for what they'd done to my people, forcing us to live outside for some shred of personal freedom, while taking what we worked so hard for, as if they were entitled to it. _'And now I'm to fuckin' be one of **them!?**' _At least Vale was somewhat reasonable... and moral, to a point.

"Exceedingly, if you talk to Professor Goodwitch anyway." He tittered on as if that was actually supposed to be funny. Maybe it was, and I was just too shocked and incensed to notice much else at the moment. "Now lower your voice, would you? I wouldn't want the guards to think something is amiss, and come busting in, guns blazing."

"But _why,_ though? You could've just put a collar on me, like ya did to Psy... Joel, and my dad. Why bother with makin' me a Specialist, of _all_ things, and have me join up with ya?" Even for the commander of an entire military, it can't have been easy to pull this off. Even he had to have oversight; hoops to jump through.

_'He must've worked hard to give some no-name kid control of a good portion of his forces.'_

"In fact, why not just have one of 'em do this? You practically own 'em, remember?

"Your father's currently busy on assignment elsewhere, while Joel, despite being a more than effective fighter, is impulsive in the extreme, and allows emotions to cloud his judgement. You, on the other hand, are able to put aside your feelings, and act appropriately to a situation with logic and planning. And as for why I'd make you a Specialist, well... I wouldn't have an agent operating under my direct command represented as anything less than our best. Even Winter has put forward a recommendation for you." He placed his Scroll on the table, sliding it across from me. A lengthy message was showed clearly on the display, with the Schnee crest stamped at the bottom next to the insignia of the Atlesian military.

"'Tests show an extraordinary level of tactical acumen and comprehension...' 'Practical skills well above the level of projected statistics for his age range...' 'Perceptive, and willin' to put personal concerns aside in the pursuit of a greater goal!?' I thought she wanted to...!?" I shook my head, trying to put the rather glowing words of praise to the practically murderous ice statue I'd seen only an hour or so before. "Did you make her write all this?"

"Not at all," he smiled. It was an easy smile that could win the loyalty of his troops and the love of a Kingdom through personality alone, and one that could easily be a lie. One I wanted to believe. "Though she expressed some personal doubts, given your history, after reviewing files supplied by Beacon, and those who evaluated you beforehand, she had a change of heart. You just happened to catch her at a bad time, is all. She's actually quite impressed by you."

Winter Schnee, impressed by a two-bit, one-armed thief, with a somewhat noticeable I.Q.?... _'OI, **FOCUS!**'_

"You still haven't really answered my question," I said, sliding the Scroll back, taking a deep breath to steady myself. "How am I supposed to help you with this other thing? You said it yourself: the power'll only accept a young woman as its host. Sort of lackin' in that department, if ya haven't noticed."

Ironwood took up the Scroll, staring at it for a moment, before placing it back in his coat with a heavy sigh, suddenly looking his age. A man with what he must've perceived as the weight of the world on his shoulders. "You and I have quite a lot in common, Ben... And not just from a physical perspective..." he commented as he saw my eyes dart from my arm to his. "Like you, I was a boy who spent his life putting the pieces together, and moving them across the board that was my daily life, learning how the world worked, and how to bend it in my favor." I stared at him hesitantly, reading his face for any sign of falsehood, and finding... none. No bullshit, or cover. "But unlike most people, Ben, we can use our minds, our talents, and look at the bigger picture, realizing that we are more than just ourselves. Your match today merely confirmed what I already suspected."

"What do you...?"

"Your fight with Mr. Damask. He was an opponent you knew you likely couldn't defeat on your own. But rather than take the dozens, if not hundreds of safer options, you chose the one that would ensure your comrade's success, even at the possible cost of yourself. An act that shows more courage than most realize. You acted in a way that most would never choose to."

"And got my ass handed back to me, if you've forgotten," I added, realism setting back in as I remembered just where I was, and what this man represented. "What's your point?"

"My point is that, like myself and those I work alongside with, you are able to look past yourself, and see what really matters. The abilities that these young women possess are unfathomable, remarkable, and, above all, dangerous. It's our duty, a duty that has extended back since the days of Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall, to ensure that it is handled safely and responsibly for the benefit of Mankind, and that it is protected from falling into the wrong hands. I'm asking you take up our cause, for yourself. To safeguard the citizens of Remnant from a power they'll never know is more than myth and legend."

"...You want me to play babysitter for the Maiden you choose. Is that it?"

Why me? I was a sniper, a thief, a swindler, and here this man was offering me a duty that, in his mind, is an honor. _'Did I hit my head, or somethin'?'_

"Hopefully at some point, yes. For generations, our brotherhood has worked tirelessly within the halls of Huntsman Academies to train and select not only prospective candidates for Maidens, but Wardens as well."

"'Wardens?...' Like bodyguards?"

"A role that stretches back to the days when knowledge of the Maidens was far more commonplace. One that was almost a necessity in the days of constant warring and bloodshed, but has since fallen out of use in the current times of peace... to our own detriment, it seems." He paused, a pained look crossing his face. "Young men and women sworn to the protection of these powerful individuals, and the world, from those who might covet or make use of the power for themselves... Even if such harm were to come from said Maiden herself."

He paused to let that sink in for a moment.

"...Y-you mean kill them," I breathed, voice catching in my throat. "Stab them in the back if they go rogue..."

"A last resort, and only if it is absolutely necessary, as the power would then seek out another potential host at random," he confirmed, much to my horror, eyes darkening. "Such an action is actually the reason a majority of Guardians were male. A safeguard to ensure that the power couldn't be taken in jealousy, or by accident." It made sense, I supposed, working so closely with someone who apparently possessed vast power. Only one slip was needed to take it for yourself... "We would rather have a random host to rediscover later than one with ill or misguided intentions."

This was so much to take in... A group of people that could bring the world to its knees, these "Wardens." It was just so...

_'...Wait a moment._'

"What did you mean by 'hopefully at some point?' What _else_ do ya want me to do?" I spat at him bitterly. "You don't have a new Maiden yet, so that means you want me to for some _other_ reason... Somethin' only I can do." I surmised, seething at the pleased look in his eyes. "Spill it."

"...Your teammate, Maxine Argus. We need you to..."

I narrowed my eyes, putting a metal arm on the table menacingly as I leaned forward. "...You are _not_ getting her wrapped up in this, you hear me?" I said slowly and coldly, fingers digging deeper furrows into the steel table with Aura-enhanced strength. "Find another host if you need to, but leave her _out of this!_"

"It's far too late for, that I'm afraid." He straightened his coat, pushing his chair back with a wary look at the marks on the table. "We for have a possible candidate to succeed Amber, the current Fall Maiden. However, if our method for transferring the power fails, then it will instead pass to someone else, likely seeking a host already familiar with it, or something similar."

I would have laughed at the fact that the Fall Maiden shared our team's name, if I wasn't incensed by what he was suggesting about my own teammate.

"Yeah! Our mystery attacker and her half! What's this gotta do with Max, though!?"

"It matters because Maxine's Grandmother, Azalea Vernal, later Azalea Bordeaux, was the previous Spring Maiden," he said calmly, looking sympathetically at my shocked expression. "And an immensely powerful one, at that, even when compared to her fellow Maidens and her predecessors. Frightfully so."

"...W-well, what does that matter? It's not like this can be passed down... Can it?"

"To my knowledge, whenever a Maiden does have children, the only noticeable change is a slight increase in their natural Aura capacity, though this might just be due to the usually exceptional nature of the parent," he explained, leaning his head back in thought. "Maxine's Semblance has unique properties beyond the obvious; that much we know for certain. For example, were you aware that it has been influencing your team's Aura? Empowering it slowly but surely?"

"Semblances and Aura do that; increase in power as you use them." Upon realizing what it was, it had apparently taken everything Joel had to bring his Semblance to a lethal level at first. Now, after years of "practice" with the Hand, he had to struggle for it not to be so. "That's normal."

Though, come to think of it, Reika had told me that her Semblance was seeing more now, further, with greater accuracy, and it was becoming easier and easier to use my own in quick succession. _'And to think I thought practice made perfect.'_

"Not at this rate of improvement, or in this short a time span. Trust me when I say that a case like this is... unique, to be sure, and unprecedented. However, when we did a comparison between Maxine's Aura as she uses her Semblance, and Amber's own power, we discovered that the two were remarkably similar to some degree. Too similar to be a coincidence, and enough to warrant her being viewed as a potential candidate, if our plan fails for the same reason."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing? It just means more chance of it bein' in the hands of someone we know we can trust!" Max already had the power to bring down buildings on her own. This wouldn't...

"She has made remarkable strides in controlling her gift, to be sure..." Woody admitted, bowing his head, though I was sensing a "but" coming. "But would you truly trust her with the power to bring a Kingdom to its knees? To threaten the safety of thousands on a whim?... You are close to her, aren't you?"

"She's my teammate; of course we are!" Why did I get the impression this man knew a lot more than he was letting on?

"Then let me lay this out for you. Usually, the process for selecting and grooming the next Maiden can take years, especially when finding a Huntress with the correct temperament and character. And even then, there have been more than a few mistakes over the centuries. Could you _really_ tell me that she's ready for that responsibility?"

"I would. I'd believe in her," I said unflinchingly, staring him full in the face. "Max might not have been groomed for it, but she's stronger then you think, crazy powers or not."

"I can respect your conviction, and your trust in your teammate..." the General sighed, standing to his full height to move around the table towards me. "Though I'm certain you're also able to see how I can't share your optimism." He held out a hand towards me, smiling again now. "Know that I wasn't lying, however, Ben, and stand by what I said earlier. You are indeed capable of great things. I only want to do my best help you achieve them, and help those you care about, including Maxine, in the process."

_'Not like I have much choice.' _He's already given me information he can't let leave this room... And my favorite sadist would have a better shot if I was involved...

"Professor Ozpin isn't the only one who can see the potential in others, and you have a fair amount, Specialist Carson."

I hesitated for a moment, thoughts warring in my head. But in the end, I got out of the chair and shook it his hand. I didn't really have much of a choice.

"...I'll help you... I'll become this Warden you're asking for... On _one_ condition! Whatever happens, whether this plan of yours works, or it's all some big disaster that blows up in your face, you let me handle Maxine. You and your people, other people I mean, stay out of it."

He raised both eyebrows, but nodded all the same. "Despite my words earlier, the chances of the power passing to Miss Argus is hardly certain. It is more than likely our plan will succeed, and this all will have been merely a precaution." He let go, reaching into his coat to pull out a small medal, the Atlesian crest pressed in silver, attached to a blue and green ribbon, and held it out to me. "But we will still need to be vigilant and ready... Just in case."

-END

**A/N: Hey all, this is my first time being so close to the actual events in the canon, messing around with what's going on, yay plot heavy chapters. For those itching for the fighting to come back that's just around the corner as I decide who AMBR's going up against in the next round.**

**So onto the new stuff like Max's Semblance. Honestly when I first came up with it we barely had any info on what these things even were let alone limits for them so the thought of a sort of telekinetic op power that the character could hardly control appealed to me. With the revelation on the Maidens and their own abilities I thought why not make it a point for her, it gives her some relevance in the story and some potential new abilities to play around with. Her passive ability with influencing and strengthening Aura for example, Spring the season representing growth and new beginnings at least to me anyway.**

**I got some questions about what I was doing with Carson learning about the Maidens from Ironwood and becoming a Specialist and yeah I get that, it was definitely a big thing. Again it gives him relevance and reason for him to do some things later on whether things go the way I think they will in canon or not.**

**The Wardens (Originally Guardians but Ozpin actually uses that title with Pyrrha so I wasn't sure if that meant something else plus I love the title, big Dragon Age Fan) were something I thought could feasibly happen and probably like Ironwood mentions would have been useful for Amber. People go after the Maidens so you have people around to help and protect them just in case. The other stuff about them stopping rogue one's made sense as well, backup plan in case they got power mad.**

**Hope that clears stuff up and feel free to PM me or leave a review with any more questions you might have and I'll try to answer best I can.**


	52. Chapter 52

**Edited as of: (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

A TRUE CHALLENGE

**_-Ruby Rose-_**

"Hey, this whole tournament deal is free to watch on any Scroll, right?" Ben asked with an edge of mirth as the crowd roared around us, crying out towards the two pairs, Joel and Reika on one side, while Pyrrha and Nora stood on the other, looking slightly overwhelmed. "Anyone can watch it, even those outside the Kingdoms, for no charge at all? No pay-per-view?"

"Uh, yes. As long as they possess a Scroll or device with a connection to a CCT network, they should be able to stream a live feed of the fighting as it happens," Weiss explained breathlessly, from the looks of it still in shock at the announcement of the contenders for this match up. "The Tournament's founders believed that all citizens of Remnant, regardless of their background, should be able to look upon and judge the skills of their future defenders. Why do you ask?"

"'Cause someone's probably spittin' on their overly-generous graves right about now. I mean, think of the ratings this must be gettin'!" he chuckled, gazing up at the screen shining above us. Team AMBR versus Team JNPR. The "Invincible Girl" pitted head-to-head against the "Runaway Trapper." "Ya couldn't ask for a better opportunity to cash in on the name alone."

As bad as that probably was, I couldn't help but agree with him. The excited atmosphere that had been pulsing through the arena since they stepped into the arena was practically contagious. _'Two of the strongest students in our year, and it's not even the finals. Beyond **awesome...**'_ And what's more, this would be the first time for either of them, the two never having the chance to spar, as Professor Goodwitch seemed determined to keep the two separated in class, to the dismay of the little gambling ring AMBR's own rogue had set up.

Pyrrha and Joel had joked about it themselves, of course, whenever we asked them who they thought would come out ahead in a fight. Back then, they'd always have some excuse or some errand that needed doing whenever someone offered to reserve the arena, deflecting until the matter was settled, or forgotten.

'_Now, it's not like I wanted to see my friends fight, or anything, but come on, who would want to miss out on the chance to see something like that!?'_ I thought with a broad smile as I rushed up next to Yang on the railing, cupping my hand over my mouth. "_Kick their butts, Joel! You can do this!_"

"What are you doing, Ruby?" I looked back to see Jaune, Ren sitting next to him, gazing at me like a sad puppy. "Pyrrha and Nora are your friends, too!"

I felt a sudden tinge of warmth at my cheeks, my face probably red as my cloak as I realized what I'd just said. "I, uh... I-I mean _bring down the hammer, Nora! Break their...!_"

"Tsk, tsk. Bitin' the hand that feeds ya cookies whenever you ask?" Ben spoke up this time with a hearty laugh. "That's just cold, Red. Weiss cold." Yang shot him a thumbs-up at the pun while my partner huffed. "Speakin' of which, Blondie, maybe shoot me a warnin' next time you and Psycho wanna play around with that apron you got him? I do happen to walk in there occasionally." The smile my sister wore suddenly fell, shifting into a blushing scowl.

"Why would you need a warning?" I frowned as the rogue only laughed harder, Blake joining in, if slightly more reserved, wiping at a sudden nosebleed.

_'Am I missing something?'_

I sighed at my friend's antics, suddenly realizing my little issue as I looked back and forth between the two teams on the field frantically, at least until I felt a comforting arm wrap around my shoulder. Yang pulled me into a tight hug that nearly threatened to choke the life out of me, as she put her head on my shoulder comfortingly.

"It's alright, Sis. They're all your friends, and I'm certain they'd understand you rooting for either side whoever you choose. Heck, there isn't a law that says you can't cheer for both." I looked over to her, mouth opening to thank her, tell her how much I appreciated the advice, when she added softly, eyes fixed on her boyfriend, who waved back at us when he saw us looking, "But jerk, or not, Poncho's right about the sweets. I'd hate to have to fill in Joel about your sudden urge to cut back on your sugar intake. He really does enjoy baking for you, after all."

I felt my blood run cold, gazing at her as if she'd just threatened to take away my baby. _'She wouldn't dare!... Oh, who am I kidding. This is Yang. Anything's possible when she's involved._'

"...Still think I should be down there..." Max muttered darkly under her breath to her teammate, just loudly enough for me to make out during one of the rare lulls in the uproar. She was angry, I noticed, one of her ears twitching, though that might just be all the extra noise. "Why the hell did you pick the _pipsqueak!?_ I could crush these guys without even...!"

"For the last time, I made the best decision with the info I had. You're good, Max; a powerhouse in your own way. But ya run out of steam too quickly. Meanwhile, Reika can outlast you and just about anyone else I know by _leagues,_" he commented back, for some reason trying very hard not to look the Faunus in the eyes. In fact, he seemed to be intently focused on Pyrrha herself, following her as she greeted her audience. "You could've talked to me sooner, and I _might've_ been able to think of somethin' else. You _didn't,_ so I took the safer option."

"How could I have!? You vanished without a trace!" she shot back with a low growl. I could hear the sound of metal stressing, probably her armrests. "The fuck did you go, anyway? Even had your partner worried, not that I could get anything out of her."

"None of your business, Argus. I thought we made that perfectly clear, when we..."

"Rubes? _Hey!_ Remnant to Ruby!?" My head snapped up at the sound of Yang trying and failing to get my attention. "You alright? You spaced out pretty hard there for a minute. The match is about to start, and I still don't hear cheering."

"R-right!" I replied quickly, realizing with a sudden rush of guilt and embarrassment that I'd been focusing my Aura to my ears unconsciously, trying to listen in on my friend's conversation, or argument more like.

_'What's wrong with me!?'_ I'd never really understood how those two worked. One minute they were getting along so well, and I actually started considering they might make for a cute couple. _'I'm not as naive as people seem to think I am. I've watched a few of those sappy romances Yang has stashed away..._' However, the next they were at each other's throats, looking for blood. _'Still, I wonder what has him sounding so stressed out?...'_ Now that I thought about it, he just seemed off.

Classes had been postponed for the tournament, so it wasn't homework. The blonde rogue never made much of an effort with that in the first place, anyway. _'Maybe something to do with his weapon? That always stresses me out. Or it could be his arm...'_

I shook my head out, red hair flying back and forth as I tried to focus on the match before me._ 'If he wanted me to know, he would have said so. It's like Yang told me. 'Wait until they're ready to talk...' But how would I know when that is?'_

This was exactly why I preferred weapons over dealing with people. When weapons had problems, there were steps to go about identifying the source of the issue, and fixing it. Simple as could be, if you knew how. _'I'll try talking to him after the match, maybe.'_

Sometimes being a leader was hard work. But someone had to do it. Be their rock, their guiding...

"Ruby, _less_ thinking, _more_ cheering!"

"O-_on it!_" I joined her, the noise levels reaching its peak as the stadium floor rumbled and began to open.

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'Well this isn't intimidating at all,'_ I thought dryly, holding _Circuit_ in bladed staff form across my shoulders casually, watching as the "Geyser", "Desert", "Ice," and what the contestants and announcers had all taken to referring lovingly as the "Tron" biomes rose up around us, shielding my eyes from the artificial sunlight beating down on us. I caught Reika fidgeting slightly, and gave her a reassuring nudge on the shoulder, earning a much harder one to my side that threatened to send me on my ass. _'She could give Yang a run for her money...'_

_"Joel Ambrose and Reika Murasaki of AMBR versus Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie of JNPR, both teams hailing from Beacon Academy..." _Port bellowed over the tumult, voice even more boisterous than usual, and that was saying something, _"in what is, in my opinion, to be a match the likes of which many didn't expect to see until the tournament finals!"_

I smirked, shifting from leg to leg, bouncing on the balls of my feet. _'Yeah, totally. No pressure at all.'_

_"Indeed, Peter, indeed!"_ Oobleck joined in excitedly, mine and Pyrrha's pictures appearing behind him. _"Pyrrha Nikos, a record four-time Mistral Regional Tournament Champion during her time at Sanctum Academy, will be pitted against Joel Ambrose, a top student during his years at Aegis Academy, and heir to a long legacy of accomplished Huntsmen and Huntresses!"_

_'Thanks, Doc...'_ I felt a sudden rush of pride at the introduction, one fit for a Huntsman. _'I owe you one.'_

Feeling a small tug at my shirt, I looked down. Reika glanced around at the field, looking confused._ "Match start soon?"_ she signed, simplifying it down for me. I'd made pretty good strides in picking it up, but I still couldn't handle the sort of long detailed conversations she and her partner could. _"Why?"_

"My guess is the organizers wanted to push up the hype," I replied, motioning to the crowd, almost all of them at the edge of, or out of their seats entirely. _'Max must be loving this...' _"Sorry. Pyrrha and I are probably to blame on that count." I eyed the champion herself, who seemed to be giving a similar apology to the bubbly bomber beside her.

_"No apology... Both praise deserved... Alright..."_ she shrugged, looking over her gauntlet, her face the picture of anxious excitement as she added, _"More people watch us win."_

Now those were words I could get behind, the two of us turning back to our opponents.

"_GOOD LUCK, YOU TWO!_" Nora cried out, putting _Magnhild _through a few test swings. "_I PROMISE I'LL TRY TO GO EASY ON YOU!_" She grinned evilly with her eyes narrowing, putting the hammer through a few fancy spins.

"_Don't even think about it!_" I shot back, planting my weapon at my side as I turned to face her redheaded teammate.

_'Guess it's time we finally settled this.'_ It was a simple little thought. Competitive, but it lit something in me that I'd almost forgotten I'd possessed. Something I hadn't felt in months, maybe years, since leaving Bastion to join the Hand. The chance to go up against a true warrior; to test myself against a capable opponent at my best again. Not in an effort to survive, like my fights with Alexander or Vergil had been, or to kill as I had in the Red Hand. This was a fight I could _enjoy._ A fight that I almost _craved._

"Pyrrha Nikos!..." The Mistralian tensed at the use of her full name, her weapons held similarly at her sides. "It's an honor." I bowed my head in her direction.

Her calm façade faltered for a second as she grasped my words, a calm smile building across her face as she moved to clap the hand clutching her sword to her chest in a similar gesture of respect. "The honor is mine, Joel Ambrose." We both assumed a ready stance, weapons held before us. "May this battle bring glory to us both!"

I shouldn't have been surprised that a famed tournament fighter would know the response to such a challenge, but I couldn't help myself, a fire burning in my chest that already had sparks leaping across my Aura.

"Keep Nora off me," I said as an aside to my mute teammate, the girl only nodding in response as she stared in awe at the two of us.

_"Such a statement! Truly what this tournament was meant to represent!"_ the green-haired professor boomed over the speakers, before turning to his co-host._"How about you, Peter? What are... Are you **crying?**"_

_"Of course, Doctor... H-how could I not, after such a touching display?"_ the portly man sniffled, pulling a handkerchief from his jacket pocket, dabbing at his eyes with it, before blowing into it with the force of a cannon blast. _"Oh, how this takes me back to the days of my youth, as I...!"_

_"**Aaaand** without further ado...!"_ the speedster silenced the man's microphone before the worst could occur, much to the relief of the crowd, appearing back in his seat whilst wiping a bead of sweat from his brow, the beginnings of a Port-brand story being picked up in the background. _"JNPR versus AMBR! Three... Two... One..."_

"Let's do this," I muttered under my breath, letting focus overtake excitement, or at least compliment it, the world coming into focus as I drew upon my Aura.

"**_BEGIN!_**"

Pyrrha's first move was immediate. Her bronze colored shield, _Akouo_, flew through the air straight towards me with an accuracy only her Semblance could provide. Reika tracked the disc, intent on stopping it, but paused as I shook my head, already darting forward towards her, tossing a dagger her way. She hadn't been expecting the move, and, upon realizing her Semblance was having no visible effect on the non-magnetic silver projectile, she was forced to knock it away with _Milo_, giving me just enough time to slide on my knees underneath the shield without her able to influence it. _Circuit's_ bladed end sparked as it dragged across the ground. Vaguely registering Nora blasting her way past me towards Reika, cackling madly as she went, I kicked up to my feet to continue my charge. The champion, meanwhile, stood her ground with a determined look, as if waiting for something.

_'Ah right... The return trip.' _It was an effective move, and one I'd seen her make use of during her spars. Throwing the shield as a projectile, while secretly using her Semblance to return it to her. If the first throw hits, she plays it off as the force of the hit sending it back. While if it misses..._'It comes around like a boomerang.' _Any normal Human would've been hit, likely even a Huntsman using Aura to enhance his senses might've had trouble. For a former Trapper, however, with ears rivaling a Faunus', it was easy to track the shield as it cut through the air behind me, coming ever closer. Just when it seemed it would hit me, I leapt high, feeling the metal disc pass underneath me. The crowd really went nuts for that little stunt, as I landed on me feet, bringing my staff around to strike at her before she could ready and bring up her shield.

My weapon, however, felt strange in my hand, and, if I hadn't been waiting for it, I likely would've missed it, dismissing her attempts to manipulate and angle the metallic sections of the weapon as a simple mistake on my part.

'_But I know better.'_

Gritting my teeth, I sent my Semblance pulsing through the weapon sharply, electricity roiling across its surface as her control weakened, her eyes widening as I brought the weapon back on its intended path, scoring a glancing blow across the Aura covering her stomach, as she reacted at the last possible second to minimize the damage. _'It worked... It actually **worked!**'_

Pyrrha's _Polarity_ Semblance gave her a massive edge in any close-range fight, allowing her to angle her opponent's weapons away from her body, making it look as if she couldn't be touched using magnetism. As my weapon relied for the most part on Dust-treated Silver for the blades and wires, however, this meant she would have to target the steel casing in order to use her ability against me. That little trick I had pulled had been the only counter I could think of, relying on what I could remember when Violette forced me to study my _Conduction,_ and what it could do in detail.

_'Magnetism depends on electrical fields and currents. Run a bit extra through, and I can screw up her control. Not by a lot, but by enough that, in a high-pressure situation, she can't do it so effortlessly.'_ I resumed my stance as she checked where I had hit her, it having only taken a sliver off her Aura, but that it had happened at all...

_'Nora might counter my Semblance perfectly..._' I thought, grinning as the look vanished off her face only to be replaced by a more determined air as _Milo_ shifted into spear form. _'But mine's more than enough to counter yours...'_

Still, if the Mistralian had been at all put off by the revelation, she didn't show it. Instead, she moved her spear around in a sudden swipe that forced me to duck back, losing a few hairs in the process. _'She's fast,' _I thought with a grunt of effort as I kicked back to my feet, throwing my shoulder forward into a tackle that sent us skating unevenly into the Ice biome, the champion managing to throw me off before my Semblance could do more than spark ineffectively against her Aura. _'__Skilled, too.' _I skidded across the slick surface, drawing a knife to plant it in the ground as she struggled to her feet, emerald eyes fixed on mine, and waiting for my next move.

_'Oh, this is gonna be fun.'_

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"_Woohoo!_" I leapt aside, managing to clear the floating platform before the hammer wielder brought her weapon down, smashing right through it, and sending debris flying and crashing to the ground below while she landed on a lower platform. "Almost got ya, Rei-Rei!"

I couldn't exactly shout back, so I replied in the only way I could, sending one of the larger chunks of what was once a platform hurtling her way, catching her in the chest, and sending her tumbling off the platform. She got up wincing, rubbing at her behind as I stood over her arms crossed, cocking my head to one side. "..." I wagged a finger back and forth.

"Oh ho, looks like someone wants to play Queen of the Castle with me!" She gripped the handle of her hammer tightly, shaking with unspent energy.

_'She's so strong...'_ I grimaced, prepping my gauntlet. _'Even without her Semblance.'_ I glanced out towards where Joel and Pyrrha fought, the two having pushed through the Ice structures, before forcing the conflict deep into the Geyser Biome.

Even with my Semblance, I could barely get a read on the two, weaving in and around each other in some mad dance, spear and staff lashing outward as each tried to gain the advantage over their opponent, stray sparks falling about as the weapons struck one another. Joel was faster, dodging each counter by mere inches even as he delivered his own. But Pyrrha had a much better defense that forced the Huntsman to try and get around her shield. _'I could strike while she's distracted. Finish her off in one blow.'_

"Pay attention, silly!" I glanced back just in time to see a trio of smoking pink projectiles hurtling towards me, survival instincts kicking into overdrive as I forced myself off the platform, my small form buffeted by the ensuing explosions. I landed, only to have to dodge backwards to avoid a rising swing from her hammer, coming up in a crouch a few yards away, while the girl herself struck a heroic pose. "You're fighting me, remember?"

"..." I glanced back towards our teammate's fight. Nora, having caught me looking, shook her head and finger at me.

"Nuh, uh, uh, Rei-Rei." She motioned to the two just as they entered a deadlock, both struggling with the other for a few seconds, before breaking apart with a sharp clang of steel on silver, as a geyser rose up between them suddenly. "I mean, look at how much fun they're having!"

It was true. Looking closer, I could make out the determination and focused strain on both their faces, alongside the broad smiles they both wore. Pyrrha was practically laughing as she threw Joel back with a bash from her shield that pushed him into the yellow, the team leader using the force of the blow to land in a roll, before breaking his weapon apart into its dual weapon form, while Pyrrha's spear became a rifle, sending him scrambling for what cover there was. All the while, he kept her on her toes with his knives.

"I haven't see her this happy since Jaune put on that dress for her!" Nora said cheerily, leveling her own weapon at me, making what was to happen next perfectly clear. "So no, you won't be interrupting them! Her orders!"

I leapt forward, grenade whizzing past my head as I fell towards her. My gauntlet then slammed down on the ground with enough force to crater the arena floor beneath us. Dust and debris flew everywhere, but I could still sense her, moving erratically, and stopping right... I fell face forward as the hammer shot out of the smoke, swinging just above me.

The next few moments passed as if in slow motion. Having pushed myself into a crouch, I brought the violet-colored gauntlet back, the metal still hissing steam, steeling myself as Nora stood above me menacingly, her hammer brought over her head while the girl was glowing a bright pink as she drew upon her Aura. _'So this is what it's like...'_ I thought, as I slowly watched my Aura-coated fist and her hammer come together in what was likely be an explosive level of force. _'T__o enjoy one's self in a fight... I could get used to this.'_

Regardless, the organizers were going to have to take this particular field out of the rotation for a while...

* * *

**_-Pyrrha Nikos-_**

I felt the blast ripple through the arena long before I heard it, the shock wave sending Joel and I tumbling backwards, as the biome Reika and Nora had been fighting within exploded, sending debris flying about the arena, and forcing a few screams from the crowd as some of the larger pieces shattered against the barrier. Thinking fast, I stabbed my sword into the rocky footing beneath me, digging a long furrow as I brought myself to a halt. Meanwhile, Joel had shot forth one of his tethers to draw himself back before the wave could force him from the arena. The two of us shielded our faces as a miniature sandstorm swept by us, though I managed to catch another one of his knives across _Akouo's_ face before I lost vision on him entirely, my reaction time dulled slightly by my instinctive attempt to catch the weapon with my Semblance.

It had been an unpleasant shock to discover my abilities had little effect on Joel, his own skill set somehow able to negate mine to a degree, which was more than enough to give him an uncommon edge. Rather than panic at the thought of my greatest defense failing, however, it only made my heart race. I was facing challenger I had no idea if I could defeat, and felt a thrill of fighting an opponent whilst relying only on my skills, and not some inborn advantage. After a few moments, the dust settled, and I caught sight of the Huntsman getting to his feet, his face tense, gloved hand going towards a slowly darkening stain on his side, gripping it tightly.

One of many injuries he'd seemingly sustained over the course of our fight, though easily the worst. Most of them were only a few small scuffs and tears in his clothes, and cuts sustained from near-misses that had already closed. Injuries that shouldn't have even occurred, seeing as his Aura was still well within the yellow margins, but the look in his eyes had given me pause, urging me to continue.

'_Unbelievable..._' At least I now understood the need for the fellow Huntsman to be so agile, even with an Aura such as his protecting him. His Semblance, while a powerful advantage, also seemed to limit his ability to defend himself, by drawing on, or converting the usual barrier Aura projected for its wielder during its use. His greatest offense was also literally his greatest weakness, as he was unable to attack at his greatest potential without risking harm, necessitating the need to tank damage, or dodge entirely to defeat his opponent.

It was a fighting style that took no small amount of talent, courage, and sheer recklessness to execute effectively _'No wonder he has so many scars...'_

I gave him one concerned frown, but he only smiled confidently, delivering a bit of pressure onto the wound as I noticed his Aura finally patching it. _'He'll try to end this soon. Neither of us has much left._'

With a battle cry he charged forward, weaving through a network of geysers erupting at his feet one after the other, masking his movements. I braced myself for a head-on approach, but a sudden jet of water from in front of me obscured my vision for a split second, which was more than enough time for him to leap through from the jet mid leap above me, soaking wet, and his Aura sparking wildly as he came down in my blind spot. My arm was hardly able to raise _Akouo_ in time to fend him off, his weapon slamming against the shield with enough force to numb my arm. Pressing his advantage, he moved his way forward with a low sweep from a quickly-reassembled staff, followed by a rising palm that set my hair on end as it passed, and continued with a kick at my knee that threatened to set me off balance on the slippery floor...

Not to say I didn't give as good as I got. I forced my attacker back a few steps, dazed as I caught his staff between my arm and my side, before striking him across the face with _Milo's_ pommel. _'I won't give ground!'_ I rallied myself forward, even as exhaustion plagued every muscle, the arm clutching my sword feeling like a lead weight. My Aura bordered at its limits, as we both sprinted towards the other in one final charge. _'I won't surrender!'_ The beating of my heart in my ears matched the roaring swell of the crowd, spurring me onward. It was beyond thrilling. I felt unstoppable!

The final strike rang through the entire colosseum in a final dance of sparks, the space falling eerily silent as we came to a lurching halt. Blue and silver armored warrior opposite crimson and bronze plated champion. And then, to the shock of the entire crowd, the white-haired Huntsman lurched forward onto his knees, barely catching himself with his weapon, even as I myself struggled to stay upright, fighting with every breath to keep my footing, until I felt someone move to support me.

Nora's beaming, if somewhat bruised, face looked back at me. "You did it, Pyrrha! _You did it!_"

_'...I did?'_

_"A-and there you have it, folks! In a stunning conclusion, Mr. Ambrose's Aura has been placed firmly into the red at three percent, alongside his teammate, Miss Murasaki, at her own eight percent! The winner, by double elimination, is **Team JNPR!**"_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'And so the people's champion, the great Pyrrha Nikos, defeats the seemingly unstoppable ex-Trapper, Joel Ambrose, in single combat before the whole of Remnant,' _I mused despondently as the crowd roared its approval, my eyes fixed on the red-haired warrior being supported on her teammate's shoulder. _'Can't think of any better publicity than that for the next to-be guardian of us all...'_ It still hurt to see Joel on his knees, though. Almost felt unreal, actually. Thankfully, Reika was on her feet, sort of, having taken a lucky hit from that hammer, though, that put her into the side of that desert cliff. The small girl was slightly wobbly, but already moved to tend to our leader.

In the end, though, the result spoke for itself. And if I'd held any doubts about who Ozzy and Woody would be choosing as the prime Maiden candidate, they were erased with this. _'Strong, humble, kind... Dust, **I **would've chosen her in a heartbeat.'_ It made sense. Though, if what the General had told me was accurate, this whole "process" of ensuring that Amber's power could go very wrong, indeed. _'But I suppose, to them, the risk's well worth it in the end.'_ I tapped a beat against the metal armrest, mind racing. _'And it's gonna my job to protect her...'_

"_Told you_ I should've been in the damn fight!" Max spat angrily from next to me as she stood up, moving to join Blondie and her sister on the field, the two having leapt off the balcony the second the barrier had come down. "Way to go, Carson!"

"Hey, at least they put on a good show!" I said, shooting her a grin I certainly didn't feel. "C'mon, admit it! You were lovin' every second!"

She grumbled something scathing as a reply, before leaping down to the field, my eyes following her as she went.

_"Could you **really** tell me she'd ready for that responsibility?"_

I clapped a hand to my head, realizing a moment too late that the limb was basically a slab of metal. "Damn it all!"

I had come to Beacon merely to serve my time, maybe learn a few useful tricks, then scarper off at the end along with Reika a free man, ready to ensure my father soon followed. As the months passed, however, that reality slowly began to change. Reika opened up little by little, meeting friends I'd never thought I'd need... _'Meetin' Max, of all people.'_ Honestly, by this point, I was actually starting to take what Dad had said seriously, actually considering starting over with a new life as a Huntsman. A respectable one worth living. _'Now all this business with these Maidens, the Wardens, me as a Specialist for the Atlesians...'_

Even if things did go the way they were expecting, and Miss Nikos became Miss Nikos the new Fall Maiden, or, hell, if everything went wrong, and suddenly Maxine herself was the one, it still meant some mysterious bitch on a power trip was after their heads. After people I cared about._ 'Imagine what I would've said to that months ago...'_

Still, even if it meant lying to my friends, betraying what little dignity I had to play Ironwood's little game, I wouldn't let anyone, whether it be this power-hungry assassin, or the General's own people, come even close to hurting her... _'And anyone who tries won't be dealin' with stun rounds.'_ I felt my grip tighten resolutely, moving to assist my teammates in helping Ambrose to his feet, the large man giving them a fair bit of trouble.

_'Damn it, when did I start to care so much?'_

* * *

**_-Natalie Corbell-_**

"Whew! That was a close one," Leah exhaled in relief as word of JNPR's victory rolled across the screen. The cameras were still replaying those tense last seconds that had decided the match. Played it again and again from various angles, as analysts and critics picked over the fight like vultures. "Least the Queen bitch herself should be off our... You alright?"

"I'm _fine!_" I perked up, realizing that I'd been staring just a bit too intently on a screenshot of Joel slumped on his knees in defeat.

_'I'm sorry... But it had to be done.'_ I apologized, despite knowing the whole act was pointless.

When Cinder asked me to ensure the former Trapper wouldn't be a problem, it was either get him out of the tournament, or risk her "displeasure," which was something most people who crossed her didn't live to regret. JNPR had been the best bet. "She just sent a message saying how she was entertained by the performance. We're in the clear."

The Fox Faunus nodded, but I could still tell she wasn't really convinced._ 'Of course I'm not okay... I just sold out my best friend, someone who sacrificed himself more than once for me, just to save my own neck...'_ Of course, I did. It was for the cause... Or at least that's what I told myself at night to help me sleep...

"...You did what you had to," she said after a few moments of tense silence, patting me on the back affectionately, before turning back to her own screen. "Oh. Hey, look at this. Some of Taurus' boys picked up some kid off the street, asking anyone he could find to meet the Black Queen. Cinder wants a name to the face." I shook my head with a barely-held groan of sheer annoyance that I instead attempted to drown with coffee. "Sending you a picture now."

I glanced up from my keyboard as my Scroll pinged, opening the message... only to do a spit take that would likely ruin the device in front of me, and set Leah reeling back with a curse. "What the... Natalie!?"

I ignored her protests, scrambling for my personal Scroll set up, pushing past the indignant Faunus. _'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,** NO!**_'

It was _him_. His dark hair was longer and more unkempt then I recalled when I'd seen him last, but there was no mistaking those eyes. The same color eyes as his sister's, but full of false innocence. I'd seen them in many states: dead to the suffering of those around him, excited as he ripped his foes limb from limb...

_'What the hell is **he** doing here!?'_ No, that question could wait. Right now, I had to get in contact with those holding him, and warn them before it was too late.

"Natalie, what the hell!? You know this idiot?"

I paused, one hand on the keyboard while the other clutched my Scroll, poised over the call button. "Y-yeah..." I choked out, eyes moving once again to the picture those hapless White Fang grunts had taken. The one where Duo was staring back at me with a seemingly bored expression on his youthful face. "Y-you could say that."

* * *

**_-Adam Taurus-_**

_'It's always something, isn't it?'_ I asked myself as I stared at the young Human sitting on the chair before us, hands cuffed behind his back. Our men had picked him up while he was asking some old bag about the "Black Queen." Harmless enough normally in itself, but with the Atlesians on the lookout, the witch wanted any leaks regarding her activities silenced, and any loose ends dealt with. This boy could've heard the alias in passing from some drunk on the street, and now here he was paying for it.

_'But honestly, for me to have to come all this way to oversee it personally...'_

"Answer the question, and the pain stops," the interrogator, one of the Blood Hounds sent along with Hector, said slowly and deliberately, delivering another sharp backhand to the Human's face that rang through the small space. "It's that simple."

"Look, this is fun and all, but I already told you..." The raven-haired boy spat out a glob of blood to the side, surprisingly nonchalant about the whole ordeal, "I want to talk to this Black Queen of yours everyone's so wrapped up with."

Strange. I'd heard our agent's hand make contact, but there isn't even a bruise. _'__His Aura's unlocked, then... A student at Signal, maybe?'_

"I heard she wants to change things in Remnant, and I want to be a part of it."

He had spirit, I'd give him that, especially for one his age. Hours of painful interrogation, and we were still struggling to get a name from the boy, let alone anything particularly useful. _'If he weren't a dirty Human, I'd have offered him a position among us already._'

He moved his jaw around gingerly, before glaring sharply at his attacker. "You know, you shouldn't hit me..." That little bit of lip earned him another slap, this one hard enough to rattle the chair, and almost sent it toppling over on its side. "...I'll get angry."

"And I don't give a shit! All I want to know is where some punk Human heard that name!" the large Faunus standing over him spoke out, massaging a tusk like tooth with a free hand as he held what looked like a dull-grey steel bat covered in tiny ridges and dark stains to his face, the only object of note on the boys person aside from his Scroll, which the techs were combing through now. "The police!? Maybe you overheard it in class!?..."

"One of your lot, actually," he said conversationally, perking up for the first time since he'd "arrived" into our care, his emerald eyes lighting up. "Karl Lovat. Some punk spy you had working out of Vale General. Told me the whole deal himself! About how the White Fang was working alongside some women in red calling herself the 'Black Queen.' How she's going to change the world for Humans and Faunus by showing the Kingdom's what's what!"

The name wasn't ringing any bells, and from the looks of it, neither the interrogator nor the guard I had posted at the door seemed to know of him either. _'There was once a time I tried to know the people involved in this fight... My brothers and sisters.'_ Unfortunately, with the realities of command came the realization of just how many faces that meant remembering. _'Blake had always been better at...'_ I grimaced as I tried my best to remove that traitor's face from my mind, shoving the memory of watching her speed away, as I had for months, back into the shadows where it belonged.

"Lovat, Lovat... Just another leak we need to plug up, it seems," the Hound spoke up menacingly, doing a few practice swings with the strange weapon as the boy looked on, bemused. Impressive, seeing as those practice swings were mere centimeters above his head. "Used to be you could trust your men to keep quiet even to the bitter end. It's this generation, I swear." The older man looked over his shoulder at me, the tone he used sending a shiver of irritation down my spine at his impudence. "Has me wondering what else he told you."

"Oh, _lots_ of stuff! Couldn't get him to stop, once I got him going. Heh, had to smash his skull in with that piece you're holding just to shut him up," our prisoner replied, leaning his head back wistfully, seemingly unaware of every eye in the room turning to face him, the guard gripping his rifle tightly. I even found myself placing a hand on the hilt of my blade. "...Might still be a few bits of him stuck on it, if you look closely enough. Never was one for maintenance."

"I've heard enough. Deal with him. _Now!_" I snarled, turning away to leave, when my Scroll suddenly started buzzing. My _personal_ Scroll. Only a select few had the means of contacting that number, key members of our leadership, and certain agents I worked closely with.

_'Her...'_

I shook my head as I pulled the device from my coat pocket, noting with no fair bit of concern at the unfamiliar contact number, holding it up to my ear warily, while signaling the interrogator to carry on with the execution. The Hound shouldered the admitted murderer's bat with a nasty grin on his masked face. "This is Taurus. Who am I speaking to?"

_"Oh, thank **Dust** I finally got through!..."_ I flinched back at the sudden audial assault hitting my eardrums through a wave of static interference. _"Adam Taurus, it's me, Natalie..."_

"_Corbell!?_" Cinder's personal hacker, and pet ex-Red Hand analyst. I'd met the rather eccentric girl briefly during the early days of our partnership with Cinder, and I remembered vividly how it had taken every speck of willpower, and the knowledge that many of that witch's plans depended on the girl to be successful, not to remove her bigoted head from her shoulders upon learning what she really was. "How the hell did you get this number!?"

_"No time for that!"_ her voice said shrilly in a panicked fervor, what sounded like the rapid fire clatter of fingernails on keys in the background typing away. _"You brought in a prisoner, right!? Black hair, young, asking about Cinder!?"_

"How do you...!?" Of course. That red woman's little moles in our ranks must've made contact the second we brought the boy in.

_"Look, you need to... Oh **shit**, you're in there with him **now!?**"_ I gripped _Wilt_ tightly, now struggling to contain my anger, especially as I heard the telltale whirring of the small camera we'd had set up in the room moving independently. _"Oh no... Look, you need to get **out of there!** Get everyone out of there! Evacuate that entire facility, if you can!"_

"You're in no position to be giving me...!"

_"Shut up, and **listen to me**, you stupid oaf!" _My eyes widened behind the ornate mask I wore, suddenly very intent on the uncharacteristic outburst I'd just heard, especially the layer of fear it failed to keep concealed._ "Look, I get it! You don't like me, and I'm terrified as all hell of you. Now, we can spend time going back and forth over who has more authority over who in this situation, until I inevitably convince you to take me seriously! Thing is I'm trying to save lives here! **Your people's lives!** And that means you need to listen to what I have to say, **now!**"_ She paused, gasping for breath, seemingly shocked at her own daring. I know I was. _"You're in danger! **Everyone** in that base is in serious **danger!**"_

"_...Explain,_" I hissed into the microphone, trying to ignore the sound of the interrogator giving the boy one final little speech about pain, inevitability, and all that nonsense.

And explain she did, quickly and efficiently. My heart suddenly froze in my chest as I heard the snap of a metallic chain, and a sickening crunch from behind me, followed by a heavy thud and a shout of alarm from the guard as he attempted to level his weapon, only to cry out as the bat speared through his Aura, and embedded itself in his chest with enough force to carry him into the wall.

_'What the...!?'_ I spun around, dropping the Scroll in my haste to face my foe, who now stood massaging his wrists as the interrogator's body lay limply in front of him, with his head at an odd angle.

"I... I tried to warn him," the boy... no... the _Trapper_ spoke up in a voice sounding very different from the easy cadence he'd had before, deeper, his voice tense and almost pained as his Aura sparked to life, the sheer volume of energy making me take a step back on raw instinct alone. "You should take her advice and run. It won't be as much fun otherwise."

-END

**_A/N: Hey all, another chapter down and what a chapter it was. To be honest I had a lot of trouble with figuring out what I was going to do for this bit and whether or not I was going to put AMBR in the finals. I did a lot of back and forth and decided that in the end this was what I wanted as it frees AMBR up to do their own thing while other people focus on the tournament. That and I finally wanted to put Joel up against Pyrrha, a match up I wanted to do ages ago but chose to stick him up against Mercury instead. I'm sorry if some might find the outcome predictable, I only hope I was able to provide an entertaining scene nonetheless_**

**_In terms of possible opponents I entertained the thought of another OC team, special thanks to The Baz for offering his characters, I promise that though an old favorite didn't appear in this chapter that certainly doesn't mean he won't show up in this world soon enough (Especially seeing as I wound up shipping the guy with our favorite little sadist even in Canon, it's that entertaining) Personally I'm looking forward to it an hope I can do him justice._**

**_And yay another crack in Joel's armor for people to exploit, when he uses his Semblance he loses that helpful barrier that negates damage that most if not all hunters enjoy meaning if he misses he better dodge or get ready to take that blow, not really an issue for him mentally but physically it stacks up. I've hinted at it before like when he gets grazed on the docks fighting White Fang ages ago but this is the first time it's been explicitly stated. Unfortunately for the guy when you get a rather OP semblance to play around with I feel inclined to make life difficult for you._**

**_EDIT: I did feel the need to work on this after I put it up, something just didn't feel right. Sorry for the false alarm._**


	53. Chapter 53

**Edited as of: (11/12/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

BLOODLUST

**_-Adam Taurus-_**

"Commander Taurus, you need to stay still! Your ribs...!"

_'This is insane! **Madness!**'_ I thought with a grimace as I shoved the young medic working on creating a splint for my arm away as gently as I could, despite her protests, clutching _Wilt_ and_ Blush_ closer to my blood-soaked chest, the far off screams of my men ringing through the halls once more, followed by an impact that shook the complex around us, and sent dust falling from the carved stone ceiling of the corridor. "Update! _Now!_"

_'I don't have the luxury of giving in... despite the pain.'_

"Sir, that thing just took out Squads Three and Four!" the soldier manning communications, a slight boy barely into his teens with dog ears poking through short blonde hair, cried out in reply, straining his ears to hear anything useful out of the downpour of information from our strike teams, most barely even aware of the situation, and demanding updates. "Nothing seems to work on it! I-it just takes what we can throw at it, and heals without a trace! Even the heavy ordinance is just slowing it down."

I swore under my breath, struggling to my feet while ignoring the burning pain in my side from my earlier encounter with this... _'Calling him a 'monster' is more appropriate then 'Trapper.'' _And to think this morning I would've said there was little difference...

The boy we'd captured was different, though. While Trappers reveled in the slaughter of my comrades, this creature tore through us with a fervor almost akin to the Grimm. _'Worse, even. The Grimm are at least unfeeling, soulless beasts_.'

After those last muttered words of lucidity however, the Trapper had lost all control of himself, falling into a mad rage that consumed his sanity and reason, as I tried to put him down and failed. It had taken all my strength just to pierce his Aura and wound him, but every time I did, he merely shrugged it off.

I prided myself on my courage, standing tall, even after watching that Witch exercise her strange powers in front of me back in that camp. But when I'd stabbed _Wilt_ into his stomach, only for the madman to pull it with a bloody cackle on his lips... I shuddered despite myself, grateful that my people had managed to pull me away from my opponent before he could finish the job. Then I was wrathful, as I remembered the cost it had taken to do so.

_'All those lives for mine... I will **not** have their sacrifice be in vain.'_

But what to do?

Our strongest agents were all either out in the field, or currently in deep cover elsewhere serving the cause. Even if they had been present, though, I would've felt confident sending maybe one or two of them against the man now rampaging through the depths of our base, killing all in his path...

"Sir, he's coming this way! He's... He's forcing his way to us!" the boy called out, voice tinged with fear as he glanced down the long corridor, pale face soon joined by the other troops present.

It took no real guesswork to figure out how our attacker was doing. The near-constant tremors echoing through the facility coming steadily closer made that perfectly clear. I still didn't relish watching the concrete wall at the end of the long hallway being torn down, as a large heaving figure stepped through the fresh hole, eyes glowing a dull sickly green.

_'This was a Grimm-rated bunker from back during the revolution...' _I gritted my teeth as I watched him approach, heart pounding in my chest. _'And he tore through it like **cardboard.**'_

What clothes he had on that weren't completely torn apart were stained liberally, along with a good portion of his pale skin, in crimson blood. Both his and that of his victims. His dark hair was matted down around his face, where an enormous grin dominated his youthful features.

Clutched in his twitching hand was his weapon, a long, dull grey club covered in dents and dark stains, many currently dribbling down into a slow drip to the floor to stain the ground. It was a thing out of nightmare; something that shouldn't exist.

_'And won't for much longer, if I have any say!' _I tightened my grip, teeth clenched as I put one foot in front of the other.

Before I could manage a few steps, however, intent on bringing the fight to this abomination, my own troops beat me to it. The three still with us drew steel and charged towards the Trapper, Aura's flaring brightly in an attempt to draw his attention.

_'So I can escape,' _I realized in horror, as the medic and radio tech tried to drag me away. "You fools, stop! You can't...!"

"_Die, you monster!_" the man at the front of the pack cried out, only to have his battle cry cut off, along with his head, from the force of a lazy swing of the Trapper's club, splattering the wall in brain matter. The man beside him faltered at the sight, only to have his top half separated from his lower body before he could even move, the force behind even so blunt a weapon more than enough to crash through their Aura's admittedly weaker barriers as if they weren't even there.

"_For the glory of the White Fa...!_" the last screamed, slashing at the hulking figure while his back was turned, only for the blade to snap down the middle upon contact, her neck following suit soon after almost as an afterthought.

_'Damn it...'_

_Wilt _was freed from its scabbard before I'd even registered the action, my chest burning painfully, though I pushed it aside, stepping in front of the two quivering Faunus next to me, feeling his eyes fall upon me. A flicker of recognition, and almost childlike giddiness rippled through him as he hunched over, his club held before him in a crude copy of my own stance.

_'He'll come at me head on. He doesn't know any better.' _I breathed out, acknowledging my foe. _'I'll hold him off, and allow these two to escape. To continue fighting until our people are free.' _I might fall, but I'd be _damned_ if I wasn't going to take one more head before I did.

With a roar, the Trapper, "Duo" Corbell had called him, charged at me with speed greater then I'd have expected of so large a man, appearing before me in an instant, his club falling in a downward arc towards my skull with enough force the split me in half, too fast to dodge.

_'Blake...' _Her face pulsed through my mind...

But I was then knocked aside by a dark armoured figure shoving me into the side of the wall so hard, I thought I might've cracked another rib, though it was better than how I would've been if they hadn't. Duo cratered the ground where I had stood moments before, the tech trying his best to shield the medic with his body, crying out when a stone struck him across the back.

_'Who would...? Oh no...'_

My savior stood up, revealing herself to be a woman with long, straight black hair that hung down her back, bedecked in a variation of the standard White Fang uniform, though with what looked to be dark-colored chainmail, and dull red strips and patches styled to look like claw marks stitched or bolted across it. The domino mask she wore was similar in style to my own, though the marks were designed to look like the eyes of a spider.

"You all righty there, handsome? Didn't break anything else, did I? How's your face?" she said in a smooth melodic cadence, thinly-filed fangs just visible in the place of incisors, hands already reaching to cup my face. Her fingers even moved towards my mask, but I knocked them away angrily before she could unclasp it. "_Ooh!_ Still feisty as ever, I see."

"Charlotte..." I spat out in irritation. _'Of all the possible people who could've saved me, it just **had** to be her.'_

Duo spun around, glaring at the new interloper with a snarl of fury, which was quickly cut off as a red shelled fist crashed into the side of his head, sending him sailing down the hallway to land in a crumbled heap, his attacker cracking his hands together menacingly. "Boris."

About a head shorter than myself, with slicked back blue hair, Boris made up for it in bulk muscles straining his armored chest piece, sleeveless to better show off his arms, which were both covered in a light red chitin plating. "Now, that's no way for two old buddies to meet up after so long apart! Especially after saving your ass like this." At his side, flanking the two terrified Faunus clutching one another, were maybe half a dozen or so others dressed in similar styles, each with their own mask design, sporting various weapons and animal characteristics, though all had the same easy grin on their faces, especially Charlotte as she tried to "help" me up. "Damn, girl, let the man breath!"

"_GET OFF ME!_" I scowled, shoving the Faunus away, her mouth a perfect pout.

The Blood Hounds. A more insubordinate, uncontrollable, volatile force I couldn't even imagine. _'And yet **I** called them here...'_

"It's _Charlie._" She leaned forward, licking her lips while peering at me like a piece of meat. "And sorry if I offend. I just thought that, with Kitty Girl gone now, we could finally..." She let out a sharp intake of breath as _Wilt _appeared at her throat, slicing through her Aura to reach skin beneath.

"_Don't. Mention. Her. **Ever.**_" I punctuated each word by applying pressure to the sword, even drawing blood, forgetting for a second in my anger just who I was talking to. A blush appeared across her cheeks as her hand went to her neck gingerly. Her fellows snickered behind us as I knocked her hand away and removed the blade. "Get a hold of yourself."

This obsession of hers was getting out of hand. _'Of all the people that bastard could have brought...'_

"Anything for you, love," she sighed, looking lazily to the side to see Duo getting to his hands and knees shaking out his head. Stunned, but overcoming it fast. "Those reports we picked up were right. He really _is _a tough one."

"Nah! He ain't nothing special..." the crab Faunus intoned, motioning for two of the others, one clutching a short rapier and the other a fancy looking set of claws, to follow him, as he began making his way down the halls. "He's big, can take a punch, and gets mad. Not exactly anything new. Mind if we take this one, Boss!?"

I froze, gaze turning to a well-muscled man shouldering the bladed shotgun variant that most of his men carried, dressed in sleeveless armor similar to the others, if of a slightly higher quality. He rounded a corner, sporting fur accents around the collar, sleeve sections, and belt, with tattered bandages running up his forearms. Blood red tattoos ran up and down what was visible of his arms, which seemed to shimmer in the flickering light of the hallway. He had shaggy auburn-colored hair falling to his shoulders, and ragged, similarly-colored canine ears twitched atop his head, his face a full face mask depicting some terrifying beast.

He was neither the tallest among his fellows, or the bulkiest, but something about him still managed to set my hair on end just looking at him.

_'Conan...'_

**"Sure. Don't see why not..."** he replied in a filtered drawl, cocking his head at the Trapper, who was searching frantically for his weapon. **"Go nuts! I'll step in if things get too hectic."**

From any other person, that might've been encouraging. From him, however... Boris gulped, gesturing for those with him to follow. Meanwhile, those staying back joked amongst themselves, taking bets, my eyes widening as I saw lien exchanging hands.

_'Disgraceful...'_

**"What do you think, pup?"** The commander stooped down next to the tech, spooking the young man as he pointed a finger towards his men. **"How long do you think they'll last?"**

"W-what?" he stuttered as the medic shivered beside him, the two looking like sheep among wolves.

_'In a way, they are, with an unsavory reputation like theirs to live up to.' _Each of those people had taken more than their fair share of lives, Human and Faunus. One of the qualifications for joining the group was that they had to be so dysfunctional, so bloodthirsty, that no other group could handle them. _'And to think I once wanted to be one of them...'_

I was younger, then. Less focused... I and a few others had been screened, but, thankfully, my own student had been there to hold me in check. _'Blake, you were right...'_

**"How long do you think Boris and his boys there..."** He pointed to the diminutive man cracking his fists yet again, **"will be able to hold their own?"** He shifted his finger to Duo. **"Go on, join in the fun! I'll even spot you."**

"U-uh, uh, um..." He looked around at the assembled group, the whole lot of them hanging off his words, looking eager. "F-f-five minutes, maybe?"

"Five minutes!? Kid's low balling you, Kingsley!" One of the Hounds leaning over his shoulder shouted, startling the pair of them.

The commander silenced him with a sharp glare, before getting to his feet. **"Five minutes. A fair bet,"** the older Faunus nodded, ruffling the boy's hair before scratching behind his own ear with a free bandaged hand. **"Got that, Boris!? Five minutes!"**

Boris muttered darkly under his breath, screaming some obscenity back at my fellow Faunus as he reached a thick fingered hand into a pouch at his belt, drawing a small case that he thumbed open, and poured a light bluish powder onto his arm that he snorted with a ragged hiss, a thin smile spreading across his face as his Aura flared brightly. His men performed similar actions, one injecting a small tab into his neck, while the other puffed his through an inhaler, both experiencing a similar reaction as their leader had. As one, they charged at the madman, driving him further and further down the hall away from us, weaving about like wolves chipping away at his defenses, all the while those watching heckled and shouted encouragement in equal measure.

It was sickening, especially when one of the fighters, the one clutching a thin rapier, was caught off guard mid taunt, mad laughter cut short with a crash as his head was blown off by a sudden backswing, painting the wall behind him a deep red. Rather than balk at the death of one of their comrades, however, the whole lot of them merely laughed, more money exchanging hands as the tech and medic watched on in abject horror.

**"Onyx always was a cocky prick,"** Conan said with a shrug as he drew up next to me, glancing to my bloody clothes with a raised eyebrow. **"Should've known better. His opponent was good enough to put _you_ on your ass, after all."** He was silent, watching the fight with a critical eye as what wounds on the Trapper healed near instantaneously, before speaking again. **"I had a man here. Pollux. Last I knew, he was with you..."**

"Dead," I answered him, the man nodding his head matter-of-factly, as if it were a comment on the weather, and not the life of his subordinate, pulling out a small tab similar to the one I'd seen the fallen Hound use, and moving it towards his neck with a practiced air. "First victim. Set him off, I think, and started all this."

The other Hound fell to the ground numbly, clutching at a hole in his stomach. Boris stood alone against his blood-covered foe, breathing heavily, eyes dilated, and sweat running down his face. Whatever he'd taken, as with the drugs all the Hounds carried, numbed pain, along with a dozen other benefits, such as heightened senses by even Faunus standards, to an improved ability to channel their Aura.

_'What they don't tell you is that it's basically a rumble drug...' _The benefits were many, but so were the side effects. Erratic and violent behavior, hallucinations, and that was on top of the addictive nature of the drug itself. It shortened their lives, but to these men and women, it was well worth the sacrifice, or the high. _'A sacrifice I once would've respected... Now I can only regret the need for it in the first place.' _The Humans would answer for this. For every measure and boundary they had forced our people to cross.

The Dog Faunus shuddered slightly, as whatever he'd just injected himself with worked its way into his system, his tattoos glowing for a brief moment as a blood red Aura flared across his body, veins pulsing visibly. **"S-somehow I think that twisted old pig would've enjoyed that."**

Duo leapt forward, bat coming down in an arc that crashed against the White Fang's arms with enough force to put a few large cracks in the smaller man's shell. But it did stop him cold as he tried to push forward, the crab laughing as he drew back his crimson colored fist...

"Got you, you cocky pr... _Ack!?_" he cried out as the bandaged back of a fist smashed through his Aura, and drove him head first into the wall with enough force to leave a sizable hole in the concrete. The Crab Faunus slumped to the floor unconscious, with blood running down his lip.

**"Five minutes on the dot! Good guess, pup!"** Conan pulled his hand back, not even looking at the man he had just put on the ground as he examined the Trapper, who had leapt back, snarling at him with bloody foam frothing from his mouth. **"Big one, aren't you? I'd heard the Trapper's had some sort of berserker secret weapon on their side, but I wasn't expecting a kid."**

Rather than even attempt to respond, Duo merely howled once again, his sickly-looking Aura flaring like fire as he charged, only to be met with a shotgun blast to the face, sending him reeling back as the Commander cocked the shotgun in his hands, firing it again and again as he advanced down the hall.

"_Go get him, Commander!_" Charlotte cheered excitedly, howling into the air in a call that was quickly taken up by the others, the sound ringing through the hall hurting my ears.

"_Tear him apart, Boss!_"

"_Oi, Shorty! You still breathing!?_"

"_Yer aim's shit, Argus!_"

**"_DIE!_"** the monster roared as a few of the Dust-fueled pellets tore through his barrier and into his shoulder, sending a spray of blood through the air.

**"Oh, so you _can_ speak! Cute..."** the commander congratulated him, his gun's chamber clicking empty. **"Hmm?"**

Taking his chance, Duo sprinted forward, eyes triumphant as his bat swung around to take off the Faunus' head as he moved to reload his weapon. He then screamed in defiance as the Faunus ducked the swing, dropping the weapon, before Argus planted his heel, and drove a dual-fisted punch into the boy's exposed stomach that blew him backward in a cloud of Dust and debris, and skidding across ground. He then tore apart the wrappings off his forearms, exposing the thick-ridged, red and white gauntlets beneath.

**"Always forget to reload these things... Knew there was a reason I hated these damn things."** He kicked at the axe/gun with a tinge of annoyance in his voice, before clapping his fists together with a solid clang.

"Been a while since I've seen him bring _Wicked Grace _out to play," the woman next to me noted, licking her lips as she moved closer to me.

_'One stab. It'd be **so** easy.' _I schooled myself into some semblance of focused calm, focusing my Aura on healing my wounds, standing as an example. If not for myself then for those two remaining.

"He must want the Hand to suffer before finishing him off."

"Good. It'd be the least that he deserves. Vengeance for our fallen brothers and sisters," I replied curtly, gripping my blade so tightly it hurt, as I watched Conan's gauntlets shift. Three small serrated blades ejected outward along the length of his forearms, the furthest long enough to jut out past his elbows. A fearsome weapon.

_'But it doesn't hold a candle to its wielder.' _An air of palpable menace surrounded the man, a distinct sense of danger and oncoming disaster that set the hairs at the back of my neck on end.

"Sure, love. Whatever you say!" I shot her a stern glance, but decided not to fall into the spider's web.

Recovering from the blow quickly as ever, the Trapper charged at him, that seemingly the only strategy he had aside from crushing the old dog into the floor. He surprisingly had the presence of mind to feint, and reached out with his forearm in an attempt to catch the Conan where he stood. The plan might've worked, if the Blood Hound hadn't tracked the move, sidestepping as he delivered a quick jab, that popped the appendage at the elbow with an audible crack that rang through my ears, followed shortly by a keening scream of pain, a follow up strike across his face, and a slice across the chest with one of his blades, putting the youth on his knees, pawing at his wounds.

**"You've got quite the Aura, don't you?"** The fist fighter crouched down before his writhing opponent, cocking his head to the side inquisitively as the red sparks razed vivid paths across his wounds. **"Well, what you're feeling quite vividly now is mine trying to acclimate to your body... And tearing it apart in the process. Bit caustic."** He delivered a few "light" slaps to the youth's face to make certain of his attention.

'_Like a thousand blazing nails dragging their way across his veins.' _That was a fair way to describe how "caustic" his Aura could be. Every blow injecting more and more, building until his foe begged for mercy, or, more likely, an end.

**"Now, where I come from, we make it a point to introduce ourselves to our opponents. Gives a sense of honor to the whole thing."** He pointed his thumb towards his chest. **"Names Conan D. Argus. Field Commander of these rowdy bastards. A few of which you've you managed to kill yourself, it seems."** He tapped his index finger against the stunned berserker's forehead. **"So I'm going to be watching you suffer in agony for a while, and, though you can't really see it, I'm gonna do it with an honest to god smile on my face."**

A saw a twitch of movement from the wounded murderer. From that, a flash of recognition dawned on my face, as Argus looked back my way. "_Stay focused!_" Duo lunged forward, managing to get his hands on both sides of my comrade's face, preparing to snap his neck, his arm having somehow popped back into place incorrectly, though enough to get movement back.

My warning saved his life, as the Faunus man managed to smash a mailed fist across his jaw, putting his attacker back on all fours, and followed up with a nasty rising knee to the underside of his jaw with a crack. His mask had been freed by the Trapper's attempt, revealing a somewhat gaunt, if sharp olive-skinned features, a wispy auburn-colored goatee, and reddish-tinged brown eyes that burned with a sudden mad vindictive fire as self-preservation and Aura took control. He launched into a brutal onslaught of fists and slicing elbows, that I was barely able to keep track of. I was not the only one, it seemed, judging by the stunned amazement of his troops.

Duo tried his best to defend, but the feral Hound was just too fast, his feeble attempt to lash out either dodged or blocked, returned by three more blows in its place, each leaving behind red-tinged burning sparks in their wake, that only furthered the agony. Finally, mercifully, the Trapper fell forward, bleeding from a dozen sparking cuts like a slab of meat, covered head to foot in bruises at the brawler's feet, Aura flickering out as it focused more on keeping him alive than keeping him standing.

"Now _that..._ was a dirty... trick," Argus panted out between breaths, straightening up while swiping at a few flecks of the boy's blood that hadn't yet been burned off by his Aura barrier.

'_If the man had even used it.'_

"Was wondering how a punk like this managed to put a mark on you, Taurus." He paused, watching as even the deepest, worst injuries closed before his eyes. "I've seen healing, but nothing like _this._ You really are a treat, aren't you?"

"Finish him, Argus!..." I spoke up, moving forward, bringing _Wilt _to bear. "Or allow me! What are you waiting for!?"

"Didn't you hear, Taurus?" He stopped me, hand gripping my wrist just tightly enough to let me know that he could snap it like a twig in my current state. "Command has a standing bounty for Trappers brought in alive! And it seems that pretty friend of yours is recruiting."

"You _can't_ be _serious!?_" I snarled, pulling my arm away sharply, pointing my sword at the prone Human. "He slaughtered my people, _our_ people, not even a minute ago, and you want to bring him to that bitch!? Have him _work_ _f__or us!?_"

"Why not?" he replied jovially, grinning a toothy smile at me, before replacing his mask with a hiss. **"Way I heard it from Pollux, he was brought in asking to speak with her anyway. And if she doesn't take him, I'll paste his head to the closest wall, and toss his body to the Grimm."** He picked up the larger man with a grunt of effort, tossing him over his shoulder, and striding towards his fallen. "Now can someone pick up sleeping beauty over there!? Falkner, how's Rouge!?"

A woman with feathers instead of hair, in the same armor, if less bulky, stood up from the Blood Hound at her feet, still clutching at his stomach, groaning weakly. His face was pale as his Aura tried and failed to mend the damage. "Bleeding has slowed down, but his spine's pulverized; barely even dust. He might live to get out of here, but he won't be walking when he does."

The medic moved forward, shaking under the sudden scrutiny of all present, but standing tall nonetheless. "I-I can treat him! Get him help, sir!"

The Canine Faunus scratched at his ears with a sigh, staring at her for a moment, before reaching to pull another tab from his belt, and passed it to her, ignoring the confused look on her face. **"Stab that in his neck. That dosage should be more than enough to put him down without too much trouble. After that, go treat the lucky pup back there."**

"I-I... W-_what!?_" she balked, glancing from the small syringe in her hand to the prone soldier with a look of horror dawning across her face. "T-that's barbaric! He's still alive! H-he can still serve a purpose...!"

**"His only purpose was to take down any enemies he came across, or die in the process. If anything you'd just be helping him along in the long run. Trust me, the kid'll be asking for it himself sooner or later once his dose wears off. Might not be so easy when he does."**

He then nodded at her, looking woman on the shoulder as he passed her, while two of his men worked to haul the unconscious crab along with them, passing by the numb tech on the ground. The boy let out a little squeak of fright as Charlie hissed in his ear, causing her to giggle madly. I only hoped she hadn't taken a liking to him. Dealing with her was difficult enough for me at the best of times, and the objects of her affections had a tendency to wind up maimed or worse.

_'Not that they could ever prove it.'_

**"Been looking for an excuse to visit Vale!"** Argus bid farewell with a mock salute as he looked over his shoulder. **"Personal business. I'll even tell the Queen Bitch herself you said hello!"**

I waited until they were out of sight and earshot, their cackling laughter fading, before slumping to my knees, hand going to my sides as I slammed a fist into the floor. _'**DAMN IT**! **Damn** him and that woman!'_

"Send a notice to our people in Vale, and warn them to expect trouble!" I harshly ordered, shocking the tech out of his shivering stupor. The boy then scrambled for the communications set up, doing his best to avoid looking at the bodies, while sneaking glances at the medic, who was doing her best to comfort the wounded sociopath. "And give me a sit-rep on damages and casualty counts! We have work to do if we're going to be ready on schedule."

The burden of command meant little time to mourn our losses, dwell on our failures, or spare a moments thought for Blake, who was in the city. _'**Damn it!**'_

-END

_**-CODEX-**_

**Reinforcement- **One of the many particularly useful and common aspects of Aura is its ability to strengthen the user's physical abilities, allowing for fantastic feats of strength and speed beyond what most would consider possible. By channeling one's Aura in focused bursts, however, one can push this even further, and can be applied in many various ways. From augmenting one's reaction times, to granting a blow with the force necessary to bend treated steel. While one of the more basic skills taught at Combat Schools across Remnant, one's ability to make use of this skill efficiently and in rapid succession can mark the telling difference between a rank novice and an experienced Huntsman.

* * *

**_White Fang Data Logs_**

**Blood Hounds Conditioning Factors: **Originally proposed as a counter to the "Trapper" operatives under the name APEX, the "Blood Hounds," as they have come to be called, is a volunteer unit. However, many of its members have been referred due to personal problems or behaviors in recent years. Due to the group's shift from specialist to assault missions, each member has been exposed to, and continues to receive a cocktail of various enhancers and other stimulants in the form of injections and other methods to augment their natural abilities even further in combat (See Attached Notes…)

_...steroids, three variations of chemically-enhanced adrenal supplements, and, to top it all off, a distilled Dust enhancer for the sheer hell of it. Forget the combat benefits for a moment, and consider the fact that we've already lost a half dozen subjects to the withdrawal symptoms alone. I have reason to believe my daughter has also been skimming off our doses for her own use out of her dedication to the cause. Something I can no longer allow. These people are addicted and suffering for it, shortening their own lives. Even their Auras have been altered, and their Semblances have somehow dulled. I am a doctor, not a dealer, and can no longer stand to be part of this cruel madness, beneficial or no._ – _Partial message recovered from the desk of the late Dr. Tobias Falkner, head of Research and Development on Project APEX. Addressed to White Fang High Command._

* * *

_Dr. Falkner's growing paranoia and subsequent death in a workplace accident, while unfortunate, is only one of many our cause faces every day. He should rest easy knowing that I will be continuing his work noble work, and have accelerated the selection process of volunteers for Project APEX. Recruit Argus has been especially receptive, the few documented side effects of our current formula having little to no visible effect due to the destructive nature of his Aura, allowing him to process a greater volume more efficiently. It is my hope that he and the others will be a tipping point in our fight against the enemies of equality, and I thank you for your continued support at this time. - Official notice to White Fang High Command sent five years prior by Dr. Erika Falkner regarding Project APEX._

* * *

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Charlotte "Charlie" Cerise - Michelle Ruff

Boris Kingsley - Steve Blum

**_A/N: So yeah when I said all those chapters ago that Eddy was going to try his damndest to get this fics rating back up he wasn't kidding. Kind of a short chapter here I know and a single POV to boot, (haven't pulled that since the first chapter I think) but I hope it was entertaining nonetheless. I haven't exactly gotten to play around with the Blood Hounds yet, their appearance more a plot point in the story thus far so actually putting them in has turned out to be a lot of fun and I hope I did them justice. People who read LMNH my other RWBY fic might recall Boris and Charlie, two OCs I took a liking to but sadly never used again._**

**_For those who think Adam should've been tougher know that in a straight up fight he'd have crushed Briar, he was just caught off guard by Edward's Semblance, "Rapid Regeneration" or what Jaune did to that little cut of his on steroids as long as his Aura (Which he has a lot of) is still running strong. Now if Adam had cut off his head then that would've been the end of it, only he didn't. Argus on the other hand had more warning and could adapt accordingly._**

**_Not sure whether I'm going to be doing the little memory segments or not. Basically it would be the Fanfic equivalent of filler for the most part as I wait for the story to continue describing short pieces of each members past overtime (How Ben lost his arm, Joel's time in Bastion and with the Trappers, etc.)_**

**_Also want to thank Thatjtkguy and other reviews giving their support for this story. I started this as a learning experience and it soon became a hobby I truly enjoyed and every review positive and otherwise has been grounds for me to continue on and keep improving. You're all amazing and I'm glad my work has turned out to be something you and others can enjoy, something I never expected when I started this. - Mojo_**


	54. Chapter 54

**Edited as of: (11/13/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**_A/N: Just a quick note to make reading this easier. Each section is a moment in Joel's life important or not, each line break representing months or even years of time apart. - Mojo_**

MEMORIES OF AMBR - A

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Joel?... Joel, I know you're in there." I glanced up at the sound of my Uncle Lucas calling out to me from the entrance of the dark little burrow I'd barricaded myself in beneath a gnarled oak tree, sniffling to myself as I rubbed at my nose fiercely, wincing as I irritated a few of the fresh bruises those bullies had covered me with. "Come on out. I want to talk to you."

"You just want to yell at me like Mommy did!" I called back angrily, before realizing I'd just given away my position, clapping a hand over my mouth, and burying my face back in my knees. "Go away!"

"See? Told you he was in there." That was Robyn's voice, the traitor. She wasn't supposed to tell anybody about this spot, especially not any grown-ups!

_'But she's gonna be a grown up soon, too.' _It's all anyone talked about anymore. How she'd just gotten her Aura unlocked, how she was going to go to Aegis soon, and be a Huntress like Mommy, and kill all the monsters.

_'I wish I was ten... Then maybe I'd be bigger...' _I thought glumly, eyes burning again as a fresh stab of pain shook me.

"He always hides here, even when we're just playing around."

"Do not!" I shouted, crawling out through the small hole into the fading sunlight and leafy floor.

Uncle Lucas was standing there, looking me and the state I was in over with a worried expression. The same I'd seen on Mommy's face when she'd seen me. Twelve-year-old Robyn was at his side looking proud of herself, light blonde hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, a braid running through her long bangs to fall over one ear

_'Oh no!'_ I tried to scramble back inside, but my uncle was too quick for me, picking up my small frame by the back of my shirt one-handed, and hauled me opposite him and the tree, my arms crossed petulantly as soon as my feet hit the ground again. _'**I HATE BEING SMALL!**'_

"We need to get some of those looked at," he said slowly, gingerly scraping the edge of one of the large bruises on my cheek with a callused finger, noting the tenseness in my face. "They look like they hurt quite a bit."

"I'm fine. Honest, it doesn't hurt!" I said quickly. Too quickly, I realized, as his eyes narrowed, Robyn moving behind me to clap a hand to my back, smile gone, only to be replaced by a look just like her father's. "_Ah!_" I leapt away from her, tensing as my eyes burned, threatening to shed more tears.

Rather than try and continue her little assault, however, the girl just looked... sad, looking me over like this was all her fault. I didn't like it. If anything, it just made this all worse. "I'm sorry, Joel. For all this."

"You're certainly stubborn; I'll give you that. Thomas' influence, no doubt." Uncle Lucas ran a hand down his face as Robyn did her best to tend to my injuries, running a soft blue glow from her hands over the worst of the bruises, her face screwed up in the effort of keeping it up. Her Aura was warm, and though it hurt a bit as she made contact with the tender skin, it soon was lost in a nice airy feeling, and, to my utter amazement, the skin actually looked so much better as she pulled it away. "No wonder your mother was livid. What were you thinking? Starting something with those kids; you're five! If your cousin hadn't been there to make them stop..."

"Dad, calm down; he gets it," his daughter chided him, letting her Aura fade slowly as she teetered a bit, looking tired. "It was my fault. You and Aunt Patrice should be mad at me, not him, so...!"

"No!" I cut her off, shaking my head angrily in defiance, my tiny fists clenched as I looked up into my uncle's stern face. "It's those bullies' faults! They were yelling at her! Calling Mommy and you cows for helping Dad!"

"...Cows?" he raised eyebrows confused. "Why in the world would they...?"

Robyn shook her head, laughing but not happily. "_Cowards,_ Dad. They were calling you and Aunt Patrice cowards for helping Uncle Thomas with his police stuff," she corrected, me nodding my head along, the word sounding right.

"It sounded mean, so I asked them to stop. And when they laughed..." I stopped mid-sentence, frowning as I remembered what that larger boy had said right before I got him in the eye with a jab just like I'd seen them do it in video games. Right when his Aura was down, too. "A-and called me a useless w-weakling!" The others had cheated, kicking at me while I couldn't do anything to fight back. The mere memory caused another knot in my chest as I scratched at my eyes. "...A-are they right?"

"Joel..." The tall man put a hand on my shoulder firmly, crouching down so his teal-colored eyes were equal height to mine, as he thought on what to say. "Your parents and I... We're trying our best to change things around the city. Make it so Huntsmen and Huntresses will focus more on what happens inside the walls, and not just on the Grimm. Like the police do; catching bad people."

"A-and they think that's a bad thing?" I asked, nodding my head as I looked in the direction of Aegis, the ancient stone and steel fortress that had stood proudly tall in the center of Bastion for generations; the one constant in a time of change. It was the training grounds for some of the greatest Huntsmen the Frontier had ever seen.

_'At least that's what Grandpa says.'_

Uncle Lucas' face fell somewhat, though he did his best to keep the warm smile on his face. I still caught it, though. Mommy always said I was good talking to others. "Empa... something," she said. "A lot of important people believe that Huntsmen should stay focused on fighting the Grimm, as they always have been. That those wanting to do any less are afraid of the beasts; cowards."

But that didn't make any sense. From what I'd heard other grownups saying, he and Mommy had hunted down lots of Grimm before. Big ones, too. Enough to get those fancy medals, anyway. How could they be "cowards," then?

"And as for you being a weakling..."

"A weakling wouldn't have stood up to a bunch of older kids twice his size, and asked them to shut up!" Robyn giggled, ruffling my dark hair as I tried to fight her off. "My little hero. Always trying to look out for his big cousin, isn't he?"

I didn't show it, still rubbing at my hair, but I felt an enormous swell of pride at those words. _'I'll grow up big and strong, like Grandpa and Uncle! Kill all the monsters, and save people!' _It didn't matter what people said when they thought I couldn't hear. I'd show them all!

"Heroic, but _foolhardy._" Her father shot her a look that had her blushing scarlet, before putting his attention back on me. "You ran into a fight without thinking ahead, which, while brave, could've ended with you getting hurt a lot worse. You're too young to be worrying about what people say about you or anyone else." He faltered, coughing into his fist when he saw my lip quivering, eyes shining brightly. "But with a bit of time _AND_ practice... I think we might just make a true hero out of you, yet. A _smart_ one," he added quickly at a look from his daughter. "When you're older, of course."

_'She's getting to be a lot like Auntie Rachael,' _I thought idly, looking between the two, beaming broadly, especially when the Huntsman stuck me up on his shoulders, letting me reach out to pull at a couple of the lower hanging branches.

"Hear that, Joel? It's going to take a lot of work," Robyn said teasingly, skipping along next to us, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "You're not gonna give up if things get hard, are you?"

"Never! Not ever!" I said firmly in my best serious voice, accidentally pulling on a branch too roughly, sending a deluge of sap covered leaves raining down on us. The teenager let out a little shriek as she tried to use her Aura to avoid the worst, while my uncle and I laughed as we chased after her.

_'A hero... Yeah. **That's** what I want to be.'_

* * *

"_...murdered them both!_" I flinched as Uncle Lucas' voice echoed through the door frame, pained and angry. "They were on their side, supporting those... those _animals!_" I shivered at the sheer venom in his voice. The fury...

_'Shouldn't I be mad?' _a thought echoed through my skull, tears threatening to fall for the hundredth time since Mom had told me about the attack on the White Fang Equality rally. How Aunt Rachael and Robyn had been caught in the middle of it. Jake had been crying in his room for days, not being old enough to really understand what was going on, but feeling the atmosphere around the house. Around the city.

It had been sudden and unprovoked. According to what it said on the T.V., some Faunus had suddenly turned violent in the middle of the excitement, and explosives had gone off, killing both Faunus and anti-Faunus protesters alike. The perpetrator was found to be a Faunus attempting to work his way towards those government officials attending, only to have it go off by accident after being stopped by police.

Robyn had talked about the setup for weeks every time they came over for dinner, saying how she was working alongside Faunus students at Aegis to set it up, as well as the White Fang's representatives at the school. Uncle Lucas had always seemed so concerned, but Mom, Dad, and Aunt Rachael had been thrilled. I'd heard about it from a nice Faunus girl in my class I ate lunch with during breaks, whose parents were members, that had said they were going. She hadn't come to class since the attack, either...

_'I wonder if she ever made it home?...'_

"Lucas, _calm down!_" That was Mom, I could hear her moving around in the room. "You'll wake the boys."

"Don't ask me to be calm about this, Patty!" he roared again. Thankfully, I'd made sure to close the door behind me when I'd left the room, so Jake should still be asleep. "Those bastards, those... **_animals_**_killed _my wife! _Killed_ my little girl! Damn it, she was on their side!"

"No one expected that the White Fang had dissenters; even the Faunus were surprised! Everyone's confused; it caught us all off guard." That was Dad now. His voice was leveled, just like when he was chiding me or Jake on something. "But even still, we can't fly off the handle, here, or it'll just make things worse."

"Wor... Worse!? How could things be _worse!?_ If your superiors had been open to working with us, if we could've had more than a token force of Huntsmen supervising...!"

Was it their fault?... If the town's police had only worked with the Huntsmen... _'Why would this happen at all? Why would Faunus be angry with what the White Fang was doing?'_

"My men did their _best._ Most of them are beat cops drummed up from Aegis washouts, or even folks without their Auras unlocked!" Dad's voice was rising now defensively, calmness forgotten. "They aren't equipped to handle terrorists!... I'm sorry. I lost friends, too, Lucas. I know I can't possibly understand..."

"You're right; you _can't_ understand how I'm feeling, Thomas! Neither can your father! I'm intent on stopping these bastards by whatever means it takes, because this is only the beginning! They _will_ do this again, and someone needs to stop them!"

"Lucas, you don't know that!" Mom cried.

"Do you think it was just them!? This will only encourage those dissenters in the Fang! What will happen if the dissenters take control of the organization!? It's only a matter of time, then!" he argued ferociously. "Somebody _has_ to stop them before they become dangerous! Someone who can do what needs to be done! Justice and vengeance, _both!_"

The door next to me crashed open, with my uncle, face unshaven, hair and clothing disheveled, on the other side, with his hand going to the sword at his hip. I leapt back in fright, but he relaxed once he saw it was me. It was still enough to freeze me in place, my eyes wide as his Aura burned away.

"U-Uncle...?" I shivered, but tried to stand up tall.

The man looked on me sadly, eyes darkening, before striding towards the front door. The tears finally fell down my cheeks unbidden as my mother's arms wrapped around me tightly while we watched him leave.

* * *

"So that's really them?... The survivors?"

I stood up straighter, tugging at the light black dress shirt I wore before the two small plots as the whispers started. A young woman sobbed by my side silently, clutching a bouquet of flowers in her hands left over from her father's service.

"That big one's the Ambrose heir. He killed one of the animals behind the attack."

Why? Why couldn't they just _shut up!?_

"The killer died just from him touching him... Keep your distance."

"This... This doesn't feel real..." Natalie said between gasps, having forgone her glasses, eyes tinged red from the night before. "Any of it... It couldn't. I-it just can't..."

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer, keeping a tight rein on my Aura as I felt another painful jolt run along my spine, while the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. It was getting better now, slowly. I turned up the volume of the music going in the single bud I kept in my ear, drawing a few stray looks, but it was almost a necessity. The beat helped me take hold of my Aura more easily.

_'A trick they teach kids after unlocking their Aura.'_

It had been a few days since... since the attack. Since the Fang.

_'Since everything fell apart... Since I... Oh **god...**'_

The doctors said it would improve as my body and Aura acclimated to the power my Semblance exerted. It still didn't help that I felt the searing fire run through my veins with every move as they burned white hot, keeping me up at night whenever memories of what had happened didn't. The aching numbness spread through my muscles... Those effects might improve, but will likely never fade completely. So for now, the music stayed.

Jake was doing his best to remedy that for me with a more permanent solution, of course. The project seemed to be his own way of coping, penned up in that room as he was. He could move now, somewhat, but until a prosthetic was fitted, he would be stuck in bed. That was not even mentioning the burns that, even with constant round the clock Aura and Dust-based treatments, still pained him.

_'What am I doing complaining about pains?... At least I can hide mine... At least I can walk...' _He couldn't come to the funeral. Not like he was complaining. He didn't want to be put on a spotlight for the city to gawk over.

Grandfather had presided over the service, before moving back to his duties. He only had a few weak words of comfort, the white-haired giant of a man speaking somberly of bravery, sacrifice, endurance, honor...

_'There wasn't any 'honor' in what happened... Just murder...'_

It wasn't honorable that there had barely been anything left of my father to burn, or that my mother had to die saving her youngest boy's life. A few days after the fact, I still thought about the Faunus I killed. I could see his face as my hands went for his throat. The burning sensation of my Semblance... _Conduction_ was an accurate name for it, had come to life, finally, after lying dormant for so long.

_'Justice_.'

"A random act of terror and intimidation" was what they called it. I knew exactly what it was. A bunch of hypocrite murderers speaking out for equality, who used force to get what they wanted, even from their own people. _'Even most Faunus want nothing to do with them anymore.' _Nothing had changed for the better with this attack. There was only more people mistrusting and mistreating what few Faunus had deigned to remain in the walled city, which would only mean more enmity, and would have more acts of violence resulting in new fighters on either side. _'And people I cared about dead, either way...'_

So wrapped up in my thoughts was I, that I didn't even realize the whispers had all but silenced, as footsteps plodded I the grass behind me.

"...Joel."

I jumped at the sound of the familiar voice behind me, startling Natalie as I spun around, and catching sight of a man I hadn't seen in _years._ A man most people had thought dead. Lucas Violette had changed. He had the same face, if cleaner than the last time I'd seen it, with a good deal of more grey in his slicked back brown hair, and was wearing a dark suit fitting for the occasion. His old Huntsman's badge was emblazoned in silver on his chest, marking his status for all to see.

"It's been a long time..."

_'I thought he was gone... I thought he he was dead!?'_

"...Uncle..." I replied to the greeting, eyes narrowing darkly. Even those words had been more for Natalie's benefit, her reddened eyes looking between the two of us in confusion. "... Are you here for the service? You just missed Grandfather."

"Boy, I didn't come here to..."

"_Obviously,_" I snarled, surprising myself at the anger present in my tone. Many of the other guests who'd been listening in flinched away sharply. "Six years... You were gone for _six years..._ Mom was inconsolable; she thought you'd thrown yourself at the Grimm... We even held something for you." I pointed towards another section down the row, where Robyn and Aunt Rachael had lain for years. "And now... Now that all of this happened... you choose _now_ to come back!?"

Someone to blame. That's what I wanted. Someone I could pin this all on, now that that bastard was dead. The anger refused to leave me, boiling to a rage threatening to spill over. _'If he'd been there... he could've done something! He could've saved them!' _It was an unfair belief, with no proof or reason, but I felt myself latch onto it desperately as I stared the man who'd been almost like a second father growing up. Remembering him storming out into the night, never to return.

"I've been busy, Joel. Too busy," he said in a measured tone, eyes glancing towards my arm, where I knew sparks must've been dancing, The crowd was alert, as those Huntsmen that had remained behind tensed up, the more posh ones going for those fancy swords at their belts.

_'Let them come!'_

"The White Fang has only grown stronger in the years I've been gone. As I predicted, the dissenters took over. I warned your parents when I left that this might happ...!?"

I interrupted him with a snarl of fury as I lashed out, hand leaping towards his face, sparks just tickling his skin... My back hit the soft ground before I'd even registered what was happening, my eyes widening as years of instinct put me back on hands and knees, only to meet the tip of a thin saber that he had kept compressed in his coat sleeves, the weapon ejecting in his hand, battle ready in an instant.

"Leave us," he said to the crowd, many of them hesitating, unsure of how to respond. "_LEAVE!_" he roared this time, voice dripping with authority that sent the guests scrambling away with mortified looks and whispers, the Huntsmen giving the older Huntsman a short bow, before moving to join in the retreat. "..._Calm yourself,_ boy."

"Don't you _dare!_ Don't you _dare_ imply that this is their own fault!" My fingers dug into the soil, body burning with barely-contained energy.

"...I see your tendency for throwing yourself headlong into trouble hasn't improved," he noted, not even seeming to have heard me, keeping a wary eye on Natalie as she moved to go to my side. "Rampant and impulsive. A fitting Semblance, though it has been pushed too far, too quickly. Your body hasn't had the time to fully acclimate. Your hair..."

"_Shut up!_" I tried to lunge again, but an Aura-fueled boot slammed down on my back, keeping me pinned. The barrier managed to repel the worst my Semblance could offer, as I slowly tired myself out. "J-just... Just _shut up!_"

Weak... Weak... _WEAK!_ We were all too weak. Even Mom hadn't been able to stop what had happened. She was just another casualty for equality.

"Sir, please!" Natalie ran up to the man, silvery Aura flashing as she tried to push him off me. But the man was like a wall, solid and unmoving, his eyes bearing down on me. "He's just...!"

"I know _exactly_ what he's feeling, Miss Corbell. What both of you are feeling... Now, let me talk to my nephew," he ordered again, pushing her aside as if she were weightless, and sending her tripping over her dress to the ground next to me, before looking upon me again.

"The anger, and the loss... It's a feeling that those beasts use to intimidate others." He stepped off me, letting me jump to my feet. I pulled Natalie up with me, shielding her with one arm. "Like I said, Joel, I've been busy. Busy trying to find a way put an end to this type of suffering, and stop the White Fang for good... One that I can say I've certainly found. Make no mistake, Joel, I came here to mourn for the fallen. Despite how things ended before, I still cared greatly for your parents. For your father and your mother; my sister..." He glanced over to the plots behind us, and for a moment, I saw genuine grief overcome them. As soon as it arrived, however, they were gone, were replaced with the stoic determination he had when he arrived. "But I'm also here to make you an offer... I will not lie to you. The path I'm showing you will be painful. You will be tested brutally, perhaps fatally so. But if you make it through it, you will be stronger than anyone. You will gain the tools to prevent what happened to you from happening the others... The power to save them all, even if they'll spit on you for it..."

"What are you...?"

"A _hero,_ Joel..." he said, extending a gloved hand, his sword braced in the other at his side. "I'm asking if you're ready to become a Hero of Remnant. One that will do what must be done."

My eyes stared into his own, briefly looking back down at the short sword at his side, before looking back to him. "...What are you going on on about?"

My uncle seemed to have noticed my eyes falling on his weapon, and quietly compressed his saber again, before putting it in his sleeve. "Come. Let us talk elsewhere. You can bring Miss Corbell with you, if you'd like," he urged, gesturing me to follow with the outstretched hand. "Tell me, have you ever heard of the Humanity's Hands Front?"

* * *

_'Of all the stupid, idiotic, suicidal...!'_ my mind screamed as I slid through the mud just in time to avoid the sweep of a massive clawed hand aiming to tear my chest open. As it was, I still had to grit my teeth hard to avoid crying out, as I felt one of the sharpened razors scrape my Aura and the skin beneath. '_Trying to play the hero again. Why can't you just grow up, and...!?'_

"_Hey, watch out!_"

The warning snapped me back to harsh reality as the Alpha Beowolf let out a snarling bark, and attempted to bat me away with an arching backhand that would've taken my head off my shoulders if I hadn't ducked underneath the blow. With its chest exposed and presenting such an inviting target, I angled the shimmering VA blade to my shoulder, and leapt forward with a rage-fueled cry of my own, and straight into its guard in a cutting thrust. With a sizzling hiss, Dust-treated silver parted fur, flesh, and bone as the single-edged sword tore a deep furrow in the beast's side. The Alpha let loose a gurgling howl, before slumping to the ground to dissolve in the heavy rain, as I took in a deep steadying breath to calm my emotions, and the inevitable burn as my Semblance reacted in kind.

Taking an Alpha nearly single-handed... It was hard to believe that only a month ago such a thing would've been something to celebrate. Something to praise, and admire... An honor. Of course, there was no time to sit there and feel good about myself. Not when the rest of the monster's pack was still alive, and already nipping at my heels. Spinning on my heel, I ducked, cutting a neat line in the stomach of another Beowolf before it could get around me, before finishing it off with a quick upward stab to the throat, this one's body dissolving before it even hit the ground.

No nonsense, no unnecessary flourish. The Trappers had taught me that... To eliminate the target. My hand strayed to my hip on reflex, as another target caught my eye, pausing when I remembered the heavy pistol was no longer holstered there. My teeth gritted in silent fury at that. It had been a necessity, though, if a painful one to swallow. The scar on my thigh tingled, a reminder of what had happened during basic training when the electricity of my Semblance had cooked off the Dust ammunition within the weapon.

"You're pretty good, big guy!" I glanced over in the direction of the praising voice, and the current cause of my predicament, who was currently twisting around with a knife in one white-knuckled hand, and a raised pistol clutched in the other, sighting down at some oncoming Ursa. "There's too many!"

"We need to break for the ridgeline!" I gestured to the sloping wall of stone and mud that made up the natural barricade pinning us in with the Grimm, with more and more piling in from the surrounding wilderness beyond.

My fellow recruit, Elizabeth Briar, nodded. She was an Atlesian civilian recruit picked up from one of the HHF orphanages still in operation, who had joined up with the Red Hand militia only shortly before Natalie and myself had, and had been assigned to the same barracks during processing. We hadn't talked much about our lives before all this. Really, we just spoke about the standard complaints over what we were being expected to do, making jokes; a way of lightening the dour aspect of our ordeal. I'd actually started to think of the raven-haired girl as a friend, even though Natalie had never liked her, stating as much during our brief moments alone. Something about her feeling off, she said...

'_Maybe she's just jealous? It's not like I'm... **FOCUS, IDIOT!**'_

I'd been shocked to see her as a Trapper volunteer the first day during muster. The girl quite honestly looked even more unfit than Natalie, herself, who at least had the benefit of a brief education at Aegis, and was used to the rigors. For someone who had had their Aura unlocked only a few weeks ago, however, I was astonished at the ease she'd picked up the skills drilled into us by the Drill Instructors, if you could call those sick, sadistic bastards 'Instructors" at all. Evidently, for all her skill, however, she was still a novice, and was unused to operating in the field alongside the Creatures of Grimm, her emotions drawing them like a beacon.

The assignment had been simple enough: navigate several kilometers from one end of a forest, more a marsh than anything else somewhere in Mistral, if I had to guess, to a predetermined pickup by the allotted time, or else we would be walking back to base on our own two feet, instead of riding in relative comfort on a Bullhead. We were pretty much on our own, dozens of Trapper hopefuls armed with nothing more than the weapons we'd chosen in training, and light grey fatigues that clashed horribly with the surrounding environment of reds and browns.

I did my best to ignore the obvious similarities to Aegis' own initiation exam, and my uncle's likely hand in it. That train of thought only brought up painful memories, when my mind would be better served focusing on the fighting. Easy enough to rectify, as I swept the foot out from under a Creep, sending the scaled reptile to the ground, before I slammed my hand down, and sent a pulse of electricity coursing through its nervous system, frying synapses to ash.

It had been going well. Compared to navigating the towering Grimm-infested forests surrounding Bastion, which would invariably shift and change every few months, as the ground itself was wracked with quakes and other natural and unnatural phenomena, meeting up with Nat and making our way through this glorified swamp had been utter child's play. It had taken most of the day, but sure enough, we were so close. The waiting ship had been practically in sight...

I'd heard the gunfire, along with the howls as the monsters had fallen upon someone obviously attempting to follow our trail. I had been the first to recognize Briar's shouts of alarm and cries for aid. Nat had been against it, as we weren't supposed to help others, and reasoned that it was likely already too late, besides. Of course, I had neglected to remind her I'd been the one who'd dealt with most of what Grimm we'd encountered... Pretty much all of them, in fact, but even still...

Her recriminating words sprang to mind as I shouldered Elizabeth out of the way of an oncoming Boarbatusk looking to catch her unawares. The spinning beast crashed against my guard like a truck, and threw me to the ground wheezing, as the air was knocked from my lungs. Thankfully, my comrade had seen her chance, sprinting forward to jab the Grimm while it lay on its back, squealing helplessly as it tried to right itself.

"Good job," I told her breathlessly as I took her offered hand, allowing her to pull me to my feet as more rallied in the pig's place. Something about the girl's Aura seemed to draw me in, and made me feel braver than I felt. I had to protect her... "Come on!" I half pulled, half dragged her by the wrist to the muddy sloping incline.

Neither of us had the Aura left to jump, so we climbed on our hands and knees. Using my sword as an anchor, I stabbed it into the ground while the Grimm prowled below us, mere feet away.

Many leapt and snapped at Liz's retreating form. "Ambrose!?"

With a herculean effort, which I held back, seeing as I had to keep one arm on the girl to keep her from falling back into the ravine, and the other clutched tightly around the hilt of the blade, despite the freezing rain threatening to have us slip with every heart-stopping step, I dragged us up, barely inches from the edge along the top, when I dug the silver sword in deep, and lifted my squirming passenger to safety. The recruit was barely able to hoist herself over the lip.

"I-I think I'm good... Yeah, it's clear! Holy..."

"Hoist me up!" I called back frantically, feeling my feet begin to slip under the incessant downpour, my limbs shaking from fatigue "They'll be up here any second!"

She appeared over the edge of the lip, hair slick across her face as she held an arm out towards me. Relief shot through me as my arm rose to take hold of hers, when I saw a flicker of something I wasn't quite expecting in her brilliant green eyes... Cold logic, and triumph. I realized it too late, the spell of whatever she'd done to cloud my senses lifting the moment she snatched my sword away from my rain-soaked grip, and shoved me backwards in one fluid motion.

"Thanks for the distraction, big guy. No hard feelings!"

A sense of weightlessness took hold of me, along with the distinct pang of disbelief, as my last sight of the girl was her wide smirk and a blown kiss before she was gone, leaving me to slide helplessly back into the ravine, back towards the waiting maw of almost a dozen Grimm. I landed hard in a flailing mess, managing to set the Grimm back a few paces with a few electrical discharges to keep them from pouncing on me all at once, though, of course, this meant I was badly bruised and cringing from a searing pain in my shoulder, as my arm caught something on the way down.

I remembered her face, burning it into my mind as I coughed and spluttered, spitting mud and sludge from my mouth as I gazed up at the milling Grimm. I noted the glint of something metallic stabbed into the mud behind an Ursa's lumbering figure. The traitor had left me her knife. How nice of her... I felt my fist clench, my hair standing on end, even amidst the rain, as steam began to billow off me in waves from the sudden heat, the searing burn giving me focus.

She'd left me a weapon, one I'd be sure to return next time I saw her.

I swore to that.

* * *

**"Again!"** Vergil's voice called out as I propped myself up on my hands and knees, trying to keep a grip on my weapon, chest aching painfully from the sudden vicious strike that had sent me flying across the training room. The blind man's wooden sword was already brought to bear yet again, it's wielder seemingly unfazed by the hours-long training session. **"Or have you finally decided to prove me right,_weakling!?_"** My eyes flashed brilliantly as I drew upon my Aura, jumping to my feet, and lunging back at him, sword held high, only to be struck down by a sweep to my unguarded shin, sending me writhing to the floor, as I felt the limb give way with a snap. "Pathetic."

"Go to hell!" I seethed through gritted teeth, trying to draw on my training, focusing on something pure, something to ease the pain as I let it fade from mind. _'Helping Dad cook. Mom congratulating me after my first tournament win. Listening to music. Robyn saying I was a hero that day...' _"_Damn it!_" The pain receded, but slowly. Any attempt at actually moving the appendage was near excruciating.

All the while the Trapper apprentice watched on dispassionately from behind that damn face mask of his, unseeing eyes likely examining the extent of the injury, before letting loose an angry sigh. **"We'll break here. Heal that leg. I suggest you do it _quickly._ We start again in thirty, regardless of whether or not you can stand."**

Every day, for weeks, this "training" had progressed since Lucas had introduced me to his sociopath of a student, telling him to "teach" me to fight.

"_I know how to fight,_" I'd managed to growl back at him, before the blind man had promptly shown me otherwise, my uncle making it clear that I was to either learn what Vergil had to teach me, leave, or die trying.

_'All great options, you old asshole.'_

"You have a real _charming_ personality, you know that!?" I spat back at him as I poured Aura into my leg, sensing the grin behind his mask as he sat cross legged before me. "Enjoying this, are you!?"

**"Not really,"** he said in that distorted voice of his, pulling a small booklet from a pouch at his belt, opening it to a bookmarked page, as he began to run his hands along its surface. **"Watching you play at all this, as you spit on your uncle's generosity. No. I _don't_ enjoy this."**

"'_Generosity!?_'" I laughed, choking on it as a fresh wave of agony shot through my limb while my Aura reset the bone back in place. "That's a funny word for it. Admit it, you probably asked for someone to kick just wanted to show off for him."

**"...You really don't get it, do you?"** The apprentice shook his head, somehow managing to look baffled, even through that mask, the distortion in his voice echoing through the room to my ears. I was still not used to their new sharpness. **"I'm not here to _torture_ you, Ambrose. I'm here to _teach_ you in a way he can't himself, and to help make sure that you survive to get your vengeance, or whatever reason it is you're here."**

"I never asked to be coddled, if this is what this is!" My head shot up, glaring at the boy as my uncle's face seared across my mind, letting the pain loose for a brief moment. "I told him I wanted to be treated like anyone else when he brought me here!"

**"I quite agree, but he was rather insistent I do this for him. He even made it my last task before I become a full-fledged operative. Told me privately to make sure you survived,"** he spoke calmly with a nod, flipping a page in his book, though I could sense raw fury in the motion, his body taut. **"And I want you to know how much that _disgusts_ me. That a man I respect so much could have such a weakness to exploit. That he would willingly debase himself, for your sake, before his own student."** I gripped my leg, more than prepared to defend myself if it came down to it, hand sparking slightly as my eyes followed the Trapper's movements as best I could. **"So if you ever feel like I'm being a little too rough with you, realize it is on purpose. To take advantage of that weakness, just as he taught me to."**

"Bit of a vindictive son of a bitch, aren't you?"

He chuckled, the sound practically demonic in my ears as he motioned back to my leg. **"Likely. Now hurry along. I'd rather have you fall to my sword than a useless limb."**

_'If this is a student, I can't wait to see what working with an actual Trapper's going to be like.' _I shuddered, chilled by the very thought as I resumed my focus, a strange warmth in the back of my mind knowing that I had someone looking out for me. In his own way, at least. It felt nice.

* * *

"...A-and then he says 'But I had pants on when I came in here!'" Fortuna Marigold acted out to the roaring laughter of all present, sweeping her hat off her head with an elaborate bow, before doing a neat flip off the table into the wooden chair next to me, propping her feet up, cackling madly when I put my head in my hands. "C'mon, kid; live a little!"

"Remind me why we're here again?" I mumbled into my thickly-gloved hands, head almost splitting now from all the noise, despite the stupid furry hat the old harpy had me wearing as a disguise. _'Enhanced senses. 'Worth the pain for their benefits in combat.' Yeah, right.'_

The dark-skinned woman took another draft, gesturing with her foot towards the back of the room towards a lunge bedecked in colorful curtains and furnishings that made our current setup. It looked rural in the extreme, rough-looking types cheering and laughing as barmaids ran, trying to avoid groping hands. Sitting in the center of it all was a thin man, who might have once been handsome if not for a few scars across his face, wearing rich clothes modified for combat. There was heavy-looking sword sitting across the low table in front of him, which acted as our confirmation.

_'Huntsman. Rogue, probably, if he's in a place like this.' _More noticeable, however, was the young woman sitting at his side in a colorful, low-cut blouse and skirt to show off her assets. Curly blue hair framed her face as she laughed along with something he'd said, pouring him another drink. Her green eyes caught mine briefly, before winking flirtatiously, setting my face on fire.

"Is that...?"

"Yep. Good, isn't she?" My teacher's smile widened, amber eye flashing as she shoved my face down into the wood. "Now stop staring, or you'll tip him off. Our friend over there's known for being a bit jumpy. That's why he works through intermediaries within the White Fang, selling shipment routes he's supposed to be guarding." I had to choke down a snarl at that. He was supposed to be a Huntsman, sworn to protect people, and here he was drinking, while selling out whatever poor sods were running those shipments almost literally to the wolves. "Lizzie there's been infiltrating their camp for a week, now. Passed herself off as a Huntsman enthusiast looking for a master..." Briar laughed, faking a blush as one of the man's hands probed a bit too far up her skirt. "...And it just so happens that he and his followers were taking on recruits."

It was strange, seeing her like this. I'd almost forgotten how well she could play people. Any other time, and that old bastard would've lost the hand, and a large part of me wanted to be the one to take it. _'Why the hell do I suddenly care so much?'_

"Later, she's gonna lead our lucky target upstairs for a little fun with her friend... You." She smirked at my expression, pouring herself another glass. "Catch him off-guard alive. We'll need his sources; all of them. After that... You know what to do, don't you?" I nodded, running a finger along the new dispensers at my belt, peering out of the corner of my eye at the Trapper.

According to my uncle... 'The Commander,' I mentally corrected myself, she used to be a well-known Huntress and bounty hunter. The best, in his very telling opinion. She certainly didn't act like it, dragging me to a bar in our hideout, and essentially ordering me to drink until I was on the floor, unable to remember a thing. _'We'd talked. Something about my family...' _I shook my head out, looking towards Briar again while passing it off as reaching for my drink.

Realizing I was to be assigned to a Trapper already mentoring someone was annoying enough. It was more evidence of the old man's favoritism. Learning that my fellow student was Elizabeth Briar, the same woman who'd tried to stab me in the back in training, and the one I'd put on the floor for attacking Natalie all those months before, had just been icing on the goddamn cake.

"Like what you see?" I jumped as she clapped a hand on my back, a small spark leaping out from my hand to rattle the glass. "Careful with that one. I'm thinking she's more woman than you could handle."

"Wasn't looking..." I rubbed at my hand, somewhat displeased at the charred black burn mark on the underside. "Besides, I'm seeing someone." I gritted my teeth as that was met with another cackling laugh. "I'm serious!"

"I know. You told me all about her the first night." She wiped at her eyes, teetering dangerously on the back two legs of her chair. "I'm teasing you. Dust, I knew you and old Grouchy were related, but I didn't think his dour attitude would be genetic."

_''Old Grouchy?''_

"You treat everyone like this?" I asked, sort of doubting my uncle these days would even hesitate before removing her head from her shoulders if she tried half the stuff she'd attempted on me since I'd started training under her.

She nodded her head, spinning a finger wistfully as she tapped her foot along to a tune the band on stage was playing. Horribly off tune, of course. "Used to do it all the time with my Fennec, teasing him about girls until he went off like a little firecracker. Think he'd be about your age actually, by now. Maybe a bit older."

"Then why aren't you off bothering..." I started, before realizing the tone in her voice having been distracted by the relaxed atmosphere, cutting myself off quickly, and putting my head down to avoid looking her way. "S-shit. Shit, sorry, I-I didn't mean..."

"I know you didn't, kid..." she said slowly, a sad smile on her face as she reached into the coat pocket over her heart, drawing out an old photograph with burnet edges, before passing it to me. I took it, glancing down at a younger Fortuna, her hair shorter and still possessing both eyes, standing next to a man and young adolescent. They looked so alike, they could only have been father and son, as both possessed a pair of fox-like ears atop their head. "Surprising, I know. Lizzie had the same look on her face when I showed her. He was my master's son, and I was his mother's student. It just sort of happened."

"...W-why?" I stuttered, passing the photo back with trembling hands. "Why are you even here?"

"'Cause I _hate_ the White Fang with more passion than most would deem safe to be around," she said, the first shred of anger I'd ever seen her reveal crossing her face. "Folks that don't take too kindly to a man and his half-breed son supporting a wife that's hunting them." A section of her glass began to melt, while another froze over in a series of splitting cracks. "I used to think of them as a job; just some Faunus that lost their way. Now, I know better. And they get to know _very intimately_ how much they fucked with the wrong bitch." She finally seemed to notice the glass, shifting it out of sight before anyone could see it with a little sleight of hand, the perfect excuse for another. _'She really puts it away.' _"This can really be a shit job, sometimes."

"Then why do it, then? The heroics?"

If she'd been laughing before, then that sentence really got her going. I actually had to reach out and grab her chair to keep it from toppling over, as the Huntress-turned-Trapper rubbed at her good eye. "'Heroics!?' Leave that shit to the Huntsmen! I do this shit job, my boy, because we're _bad people._ No getting around that." She gestured to herself, me, and then to Briar, who was currently sucking face with our target, acting the scared, yet determined consort. "Bad people who just so happen to be really, _REALLY_ good at tracking and taking down other bad people so the public gets to sleep at night. Speaking of which..." She motioned to the private area where our Huntsman friend had Liz in his arms, making his way towards the stairs to the cheering applause of his boys. "Looks like you're up, big guy. I'll hold down the fort and get drinks when we're done."

I sighed, getting up from my seat to follow after the pair, doing my best to move unnoticed in the roaring crowd as the woman's words rang in my head. _'I wonder what Mom, Dad, Robyn, and everyone else would say if they could see me now?...' _I mused, stopping in front of a door, where I could already hear exaggerated moans and rustling of fabric, before reaching out to knock. _''Bad people hunting bad people...' Cute.'_

* * *

_"Okay, I've heard of using the object of your anger as a focus before, but **this?...** This is just getting to be a little much,"_ Briar commented over the intercom, sounding more than a little amused at the sight of me throwing knife after knife into the targets spaced along the live fire training room floor, and dangling from the ceiling, all of them having the same picture taped over the face. _"Think you might have a problem."_

"Shut it, ah... will you!?" I shot back venomously as I weaved, leapt, and darted between pieces of cover, narrowly avoiding Dust rounds, and other nasty surprises as I rolled over a stone barricade, sending a silver bar flying with enough force to tear the last rubber dummy's head from its shoulders, and plant it in the wall directly behind it. As the exercise went on, my Aura shifted and roiled around me like a miniature thunderstorm. With a loud earsplitting siren, everything suddenly ceased, leaving me amidst the carnage as my former partner strode in from the sliding double doors, along with the techs designated to clean it up for the next run. Making her way over the sparking a fallen drone, she picked up a photograph from its face, sweeping a dyed lock of hair behind one ear as the rest threatened to fall into her eyes.

"You mind!?" I tried to snatch the photo, but she was too fast, leaping out of my reach with her lightly freckled face grinning widely.

"Just looking," she taunted, peering down at the photograph with a raised brow, looking as if she was suppressing a laugh, and failing. "This was _seriously_ the best photo you could find? _Honestly?_"

"The best of his 'face' we had on record, anyway." I swept around her, plucking the photo from her grasp, and peering down at it. The picture wasn't too high-res, originating from a security camera. Still, it showed the face of the masked Faunus with canine ears, wearing a dark blue trench coat over a black kevlar vest and t-shirt, with black pants and boots and a scarf, who was leaning upwards to flip off the camera with his bandaged hand, while a terrified-looking Red Hand trooper was caught in a headlock under one arm. "Nothing even close to having him unmasked." I crumpled it, using my _Conduction_ to burn the offending image to cinders in my grasp. "The _fucking_ Dead Wind... Not even bothering to be subtle, is he?" I asked, letting the ashes fly.

"Your call sign's the 'Immortal.' Like you have any right to judge on subtlety?" She pressed herself up against my back, raising herself up on a stray stone as she shoved an arm over my shoulder, already clutching another photo. "Shame about the mask. Least he's got a decent body, though. 'The man who kicked Ambrose's ass' has a nice ring to it." I spun around, but she'd already flipped out of reach, falling back against a metal barrier, looking pleased with herself.

Just what I needed. To be messed with after weeks of humiliating downtime recovering from that cluster fuck of a mission. My first real command operation, and I come back off that mountain half dead, with a good deal of my men lost or worse. The Commander hadn't looked very favorably on that, no sir. High level, blacklist bounty or not, I should've come back with a head, or not at all, in his book. What made it even worse was that I'd grabbed a Scroll as soon as I could feel my fingers again, and started searching down every lead I could about the masked bastard, only to find ghosts and dummy accounts under obvious aliases practically slapping me in the face. Thinking about it now, I could've gotten Natalie involved, but things had been icy as of late.

_'Just seeing her around the base these days is bad enough...'_

"So did you actually have something for me?" I looked over at the young woman, wrenching a knife from a nearby dummy. "Or did you just come to gloat? 'Cause if you're looking for a reaction..."

"I do, actually." She pulled out her Scroll as an official briefing flashed to life on the screen. "Guess who gets to play bodyguard for some rich kid?"

"...The _fuck!?_" I gaped at her Scroll's screen, my silver weapon clattering to the ground with a ringing clang as I read it.

* * *

"I'd like to go over the chorus again. I faltered on the second note a tad too harshly."

**"I thought it sounded just fine, actually,"** I suggested idly to the fuming heiress, and her rather offended-looking voice coach.

_'Forgive me for actually trying to give a compliment...'_ I was not even sure why I was even speaking... Oh yeah. Right. The three hours of hearing the same damn song over and over again. Not that it was bad, by any margin.

**"Maybe you could draw out the end a little bit to get that building effect, but otherwise..."**

"Excuse me, did I _ask_ for your opinion?" Weiss Schnee said to herself, not even bothering to look towards the doorway where I'd been standing since we'd arrived, her icy blue eyes still on the sheet before her. "_No._ No, I don't think I did."

_'Wow, you arrogant, spoiled, stuck-up, little bi...!'_

**"Of course, Miss Schnee. My mistake."** I bowed my head respectfully before I could finish the thought, an act I knew would get to her more than anything else I could possibly say. The reason why was beyond me, but hey, I took what I could get. **"Please do carry on; it's such a lovely tune."**

The tutor looked ready to add his own insults to the mix, but thought better of it, seeming to remember I was only obligated to ensure the safety of his student, not jumped-up peons with a big mouth, and a vulnerable neck.

He made the intelligent move to instead focused back on Weiss. "Maybe we should carry on, Mistress? You're so close to having it perfectly, as to be expected of someone with your credentials, of course."

She huffed, actually giving me a nasty glare this time, before clearing her throat and starting again. She actually took my advice, though she'd never admit it to herself or anyone else.

It had been like this for weeks. Me plodding along with the heiresses' air-tight schedule. Waking up at six in the morning, sharp, spending an hour and a half to get ready for the public eye, and another half to get to her tutor for morning lessons. '_Which, for the most part, I use as a way to catch up on my already shit sleeping schedule.' _Not that learning about complex business models and the theories of Dust control could ever be considered 'boring;' of course not. Four long, dragging hours later, and we're in the halls of a personal training facility for lessons in swordsmanship, with the aspiring Huntress throwing herself up against this week's newest instructor. By the time dinner rolled along, I would always be surprised that Weiss could stand, let alone present herself favorably to the public whenever the family "ate out." Other times, we'd be alone in the enormous palace-like mansion, while Daddy never came home, running late with business, or whatever it was he told the staff to relay to her that day. _'And sadly enough, those are the **lucky** days.'_

Whenever the Schnee patriarch was home, he'd have these updates on his daughter's performance, dressing the girl down right in front of me over the smallest error, whether it be her music, or issues mastering her Semblance, comparing her to her sister studying at the Atlas Academy, where my comrade watched over her, not that a woman like that needed watching. What's worse was that he would ask for my input on matters from her performance in combat, to her looks, as if wanting a second fucking opinion. To which I tried to respond honestly with a little bit of actual praise, only to have him twist my words around and make them biting.

_'Guy's prolific at this.'_

From that point, it was patrolling the grounds as the heiress slept, before I could rest myself. The worst parts were having to walk by her door some nights, when my ears could pick up the muffled sobs she tried to hide. Her will could rival any Trappers I'd met, only breaking down once in a private moment aboard her personal airship, where I'd done my best to comfort her awkwardly as she cried into my chest. It didn't last long, though, and soon she was her icy self, quickly reapplying her makeup, and eliminating any trace of weakness that might be exploited by a lucky camera for some tabloid.

* * *

_'It was strange. I would've done anything I could to leave the Schnee's service, short of murder, and only just that, if it would mean distancing myself of that... No. I can't even call that place a 'home.' But in the end, I'd always wondered just what I might've done if the heiress had asked me to during those moments when her true self broke through. Could I have helped her? Saved her? That regret would hang with me long after I left Atlas, and much longer after that...'_

* * *

I stepped out from the dark passage, shielding my face from the glare of the new day's sun just barely cresting the horizon, enjoying the first rays of natural light I'd seen in months, and the first breaths of fresh air after that cell...

"Move it, scumbag!" I was shocked out of my little daze by Mr. Mohawk, the asshole guardsmen shoving me forward towards the armored rover with the butte of his rifle, the chains binding my arms and legs almost sending me to the tarmac.

_'That would've been bad. First day at Beacon, and with half of my teeth missing.'_

"I said _move!_"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going! I'm going!" I shambled forward as his fellows flanked me, rifles on me at all times, looking for just the barest excuse to blow me away.

_'Okay, I get it. Trapper. Still, I'm saying this is a little excessive, even for me.'_

"Don't see what's your hurry, though... It's not like you could have any hot date planned with _that_ mug..."

"_What was that!?_" he bristled, raising his rifle higher to his shoulder, barrel aimed squarely a my head.

"It's an insult. I'm saying something bad about you. C'mon, this can't be the first time it's happened, surely?" My little brother could be an insufferable, know-it-all prick at times, but _goddamn_ if he didn't know how to take a chance when he saw it. Years of growing up around him had taught me well. "I'm still all for an airship, you know. Could use the chance to stretch my legs."

I felt giddy, for some reason. Excited. _'It's just more school... No.' _It was _more_ than that; I could feel it.

The cigar-chewing sergeant locked me securely into my seat on the truck, moving to sit beside me, before looking at me askance. "Smiling a bit much, aren't we?"

"Why not?" I shrugged, leaning back in the most comfortable position I could find, preparing myself for the long haul as I took one last look at the horizon. "I just think it's going to be a good day, is all."

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Young Joel Ambrose - Luci Christian

Robyn Violette - Hilary Haag

**A/N: One down three to go, hope y'all enjoyed the first of my little memory segments cause some of these bits were a little tough, especially kid Joel, never wrote from a child perspective before. The hope is these little breaks in the story show off a little of what the characters have gone through and how they are today while still being somewhat entertaining. Main goal is to also get some wiggle room from the show as I see how things go through more than likely there's going to be just as many OC actions away from the storyline as I can manage. It is fanfiction after all.**

**Next up is Max's which is going to be…well I'm going to try and be fair to each of these and hopefully they each get close to the amount of time this chapter did, Joel was sort of my main so I had a lot to write for him, guy's been places. Also would you rather have them in one chunk of four or would you guys prefer a more spaced out release for these?**

**Anyway I hope you enjoyed, the White Fang Joel was raging about is a fun OC from _The White Mask_ I've mentioned before courtesy of The Baz who's very likely to come back at some point in this fic, still working out details for the when and why but I felt guilty for his absence. Said it before and I'll say it again check that story out seeing as its badass and from a personal view the authors been more than willing to share thoughts and OCs in the past to help me out.**

**Shameless promoting aside I hope to have another chapter out soon but my breaks almost over and I'll likely be swamped with stuff for the next few weeks come February with thesis stuff so I might have to take a rain check especially on this update every few days thing I've had going through damn I'll miss that. Anyway thanks again for all the support and new follows and favs and I hope you have a good day wherever you might be. – Mojo**


	55. Chapter 55

**Edited as of: (11/13/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

ROGUE

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"I'm telling you, I'm fine! See?..." Psycho stammered out quickly after a particularly nasty wince had set Blondie on her feet reaching for the call button, putting a hand at his side gingerly and applying some pressure, while stopping her gently with the other. "This is barely even a flea bite. Give my Aura a few hours, and there won't even be a mark left," he grinned reassuringly, which at least seemed to have the desired effect of getting her to sit back down with her finger off the button.

_'True enough, I suppose...'_ I nodded from my place against the wall by Reika's bed, letting the two sisters have their moment with the man before RWBY's match. The tournament was on hold for an hour, as work teams did their best to clear up the rubble from our own match. _'Really glad I'm not the one coverin' the bill for **that...**'_ Despite numerous small injuries, and his passing out for a second there back in the colosseum, the worst the big guy had sustained was Aura exhaustion. With a good night's rest, doc's orders, he'd be good as new. _'Still, I'd hate to see what the boss actually considers an injury...'_

"I'll hold you to that, Sparky," the brawler said with a short breath of relief, giving his arm a firm squeeze. "I want you front and center for when I take this thing! On your feet, ya hear me?"

"How about you win your next match? Then we'll talk, Sunshine," he replied in a mock serious tone, the blonde faking a look of offended disbelief at the mere thought of losing. "Wouldn't miss it." I read on his lips as he let go.

_'Certainly not lackin' for confidence, I see...' _Red, however, was still looking at him worriedly. The guy had already waved off the scratch when Nikos had limped her way in to see him earlier, too, right before congratulating her on the win with a smile, actually seeming keen on a rematch once this was all over, which the stunned Mistralian was more than willing to accept. _'Startin' to think that whole 'Immortal' thing ain't just some fancy title, after all.' _Of course, he could just be downplaying the injury. Wouldn't be the first time.

"I'm sorry about your match. It was _so_ close... even though it was totally _awesome!_" Red amended quickly, head springing up as she looked to my partner cheerfully, her silver eyes shining brightly in admiration. "Especially you, Reika! I've never seen anyone but Yang even come _close_ to going toe-to-toe with Nora head on! You almost had her at the end, there!" One lucky swing with that hammer was all that it had taken.

The mute fidgeted in her bed, looking abashed at the praise, nodding slowly, before signing a few words at me while gesturing to the girl. "_..._"

"What? It's sorta obvious what you'd mean. I think she'd get it without me...?" Her hand gave another flash of movement, these ones a lot more negative than before, and a threatening fist. "Alright, alright, chill out!... She's sayin' 'thanks,' by the way, and 'good luck with your match.'" I conveyed to the diminutive leader, flashing a thumbs-up of my own while the little mute crossed her arms haughtily.

_'Someone's gettin' an attitude...' _This place really was having a positive effect.

"I mean, face it. You guys are practically in the Finals, already, with the fair Princess and the unstoppable Blondie leadin' the way. In fact, there's a pretty good chance you guys might just take it all, actually."

I picked up a small huff of disapproval from Max's little corner of the ward as she sat curled up on her chair with her cousin by her side, shooting a glare my way. The Faunus girl had been... less than enthusiastic about getting denied her chance at the Finals. A fact she'd been quite vocal about, with Sleeping Beauty acting as back up noise.

_'Not my fault Nikos came out ahead... __Ignore it. Just ignore it. And maybe it'll go away.' _It didn't help that I could still feel her eyes drilling their way into the back of my skull, my arm moving behind my back slowly, subtly flashing a finger her way, which, while getting a shocked gasp from Sonia, actually earned an amused snort of laughter from the feisty sadist. _'Lesson one of workin' with Maxine Argus, as taught by Professor Benjamin Carson: 'Don't take shit, and give as good as ya get.' Got me this far, at least.'_

"Maybe..." The redhead glanced at the floor, blushing from the praise, though still sounded unsure of herself. "But even if we do make the Finals, there's still Pyrrha and Penny to worry about. And who knows what the other teams might have to surprise us...!" She let out an adorable squeak as Joel patted her on the shoulder giving her a firm shake to get her attention.

"Don't go selling yourselves short, now," the Huntsman laughed, leaning back in his bed. "I mean, look at where you guys are; where we _all_ are!" He looked around the room, Max in particular. "We just had us a fight people are already going to be talking about for months, if not _years!_" Max grunted, ears twitching, but she said nothing. Hell, she had a small half smile. Even her cousin was listening in, and, to my knowledge, she was thoroughly uncomfortable with the man. "And Ruby, you guys still have the potential to win this thing. In your _first year_ of competing! Do realize how incredible that is!?"

"Well..." she stammered, before Xiao Long hugged her to her side, looking at her boyfriend thankfully.

"Give your big sis some credit, Rubes. They won't even know what hit 'em, after I'm done!"

He returned her look, before focusing on the little leader yet again. "See? You guys will do great. And even if something does happen, there's always the next one around the corner. No pressure." The words were level, and his tone was uplifting. Even made me feel better about our own loss, anyway.

_'If anyone had any doubts in this room about why he's leader, well...' _I grinned, mentally comparing where AMBR had been in the beginning as opposed to now. _'We've certainly come a long way from barely beatin' down Chimeras, haven't we?... Huh?'_

My Scroll buzzed to life as an incoming message notice flashed across the screen as I pulled it from my pocket. The sender... _'Jimmy Ironwood... When the hell did he get this num... You know what? It's probably better I don't ask.' _A quick scan told me all I needed to know, as a frown soon flickered across my face, before I'd schooled it back into my usual grin.

"Everything alright, Poncho?" I looked up to see the whole room staring at me quizzically. "Looked a little put off there, for a sec."

"Yeah, yeah. Of course." I waved a metal hand dismissively, shoving my Scroll back into my pocket as I made for the door. "Just have to sort things out with one of my many admirers. Nothin' too big, but this one does require a bit of a 'personal touch.' Catch y'all later. Blondie, I expect to hear about an amazin' win by the time I'm back. And I'll be wantin' details, Red!" The lame excuse seemed passable to all but Reika, who was looking at me suspiciously. I wasn't sure if that was more a shot at me, or them. Meanwhile, Max looked indifferent, or tried to. And as for the looks on Psycho and Beauty's faces...

_'**Annnd** that's my cue to leave...'_

I ducked from the room with a word of good luck for RWBY, and closed the door with a sigh. "Specialist... The hell was I thinkin' agreein' to all this!?... Ah, right. The whole imprisonment thing..." Hopefully, I would be able to catch the tail end of the first one-on-one, if I was lucky.

"...had the guy eating out of the palm of your hand. What'd you show him to make him...?" I looked around to see that pair of Haven students from the other day, Mercury and Emerald, if I remembered correctly, marching out of the infirmary office, looking pleased with themselves. Oddly, the two dropped their conversation the instant they saw me, probably thinking that actually worked.

_'Oh, **this** should be good.'_ I didn't recall either one of them getting too banged up in their last match against CVFY. If anything, it was the other way around.

"Uh... Hey!" the dark-skinned girl said with a cheery tone, raising a hand in greeting while plastering on a smile that was so innocent, it just _had_ to be fake. Or maybe that was just the cynic in me talking? Either way, I wasn't buying it, though I had to give her props. The girl had real talent. "Ben, right? From AMBR? We were just looking for where your teammates were assigned. We wanted to make sure they were okay, and congratulate them on their amazing...!"

"_Wow,_ just... Just _stop_, okay?" I raised a hand to my forehead, while raising the other to give her pause. _'I **don't** have time for this.'_

"It's hard enough stomachin' it while RWBY's around, but do ya really have to pull that out while I'm alone, too?"

"I-I'm... I'm sorry?" Aw, the whole 'act innocently hurt to deflect suspicion and inspire guilt' trick. Classic and effective... If you're four, I supposed. "Stop what? I don't...?"

"Look man you need to b... _Ack!?_" Her partner moved, putting a hand on my shoulder. A big mistake, seeing as he wound up pinned against a wall with a metal hand clenched around his trachea. His partner shot into motion, hands reaching for her weapons, but she froze, noticing the pistol that practically appeared so fast, almost as if out of thin air, in my other hand trained on her face.

I had to be careful. Just going off what I'd observed in their fight against CVFY, it was plain to see I was outclassed, especially by the man I held before me. I'd thought I'd gotten a good read of him when he fought, and was beaten by Psycho earlier in the year. But his moves against the giant Yatsuhashi had made it obvious that he'd been holding back a sizable margin. _'I'm not even sure Psycho would be able to win in a close up fight with him now. As for me...' _I tightened my grip on the kickboxer even so, praying against all hope that this bluff worked.

"Your whole nice act. It gets annoyin'," I spoke up, shooting her a taunting wink. "I've been workin' around people who could charm the life savings off the greediest bastard with only a smile and a compliment since before I could even walk. You?..." I turned my gaze on the grey-haired man. "You're probably one of the _worst_ liars I've ever seen. Probably why she doesn't let ya talk much..."

"Ah... _Hey!_"

I ignored his protests pointedly. "While _you,_ on the other hand..." The mint-haired girl bristled angrily as I addressed her. "I mean, I'm an alright liar, when I wanna be. But _you..._ you're good. _Damn_ good, even by my standards. But a thief always knows another thief, and the way you work... Well..." I trailed off, knowing I was right. It was all in the movements, and the way she held herself. Her eyes always checked her peripherals, or singled out the most valuable object in the room, fingers twitching. She would've fit in well around my father's crew, though something about her just rubbed me the wrong way.

"What are you...!?" she growled, but I made a show of putting my finger on the trigger to keep her quiet, shaking my head.

"_Ah, ah, ah!_ I said no more actin', didn't I!? Now, I dunno what's _really_ goin' on with you two, or what game or tricks you _think_ you're playin' at..." I kept my words slow, my voice dripping with menace as I motioned back towards the room I'd just walked out of. "But here's a fair warnin' for the both of ya: keep AMBR out of whatever grudge you might have, or _else._" I released my hold on the other man, letting him slump against the wall as he shot a hateful look my way, while I simultaneously lowered my pistol on his partner, holstering it back at my side. "The rest of my team's not as nice as I am, and that's sayin' somethin'!"

I left the two Haven students standing in the hallway, whistling a jaunty little tune as I made off towards the airbus hub for my little rendezvous with the General, wondering what he could possibly want of me so soon.

* * *

**_-Mercury Black-_**

"Well, that was something... Cocky prick," I coughed, rubbing at my throat as that poncho-wearing prick marched off down the hallway towards the airbus docks, whistling like a moron. "You know you could've helped, right?" I added to my mint-haired partner irritably, the thief busy thumbing through her Scroll. "Hey, I said...!"

"I heard you just fine, idiot, now stop whining!" she shot back, red eye flashing dangerously. "What did you expect me to do, anyway!? He had a gun drawn on me!" I opened my mouth to argue, but she shushed me with a waggling finger. "And before you say it, no, I couldn't use _THAT,_ and risk the whole plan, just to keep you from getting your pride bruised! That one's sharper than his friends. We don't need him getting suspicious."

_'The guy doesn't have a clue. Probably thinks we're looking to gloat, or something stupid like that.' _I sighed, grumbling under my breath as we kept moving right past the door where the rest of those Team AMBR morons were hanging around. The bimbo and her little sister exited soon afterwards, heading off to the arena alongside that auburn-haired dog and her tag-along.

"Fine, forget it. We have everything we needed, right?"

The thief flashed her Scroll my way, a wicked smile forming on her face. "Uh huh. The entire medical work up of one Joel Ambrose submitted for the tournament. Straight from Beacon's private records themselves." She glanced back to the display, her eyes widening in intrigued wonder. "Hmm. Well, this is... _Wow._ No wonder Cinder was so interested. The guy's a medical mystery walking."

"Doesn't seem so special to me. He's tall, sparks a bit, looks like he bleached his hair badly once as a kid and liked it." I waved my hands sarcastically, kicking a stray can into the trash bin.

_'Score.'_

"What else could the guy be hiding that the Boss thinks is worth the trouble of poking around?" Not that I was really complaining, though. School life was more boring than it sounded, especially for a Huntsman Academy, and it was always a treat to see just what the girl decided to pull with her Semblance if she was feeling nasty. Once, she made a boy in Vacuo who'd been pestering her see the entire crowd as Beowolves. The results had made for quite an entertaining show, especially when the cops showed up.

"Haughty attitude you got there. Still smarting after he kicked you around?" she chuckled darkly at my sudden grimace, working her way through the file. "Well for starters, his heart beats almost twice as fast as yours, and he's built a lot sturdier then he looks, too. Increased muscle density, reaction times, sensory pickup..." she read off, intrigue shifting quickly into disgust. "What the hell did those Red Hand lab coats do to this guy to manage even _half_ of this!?"

I shrugged half-heartedly, the matter having already lost all interest in my book. "So he's a freak. Big deal. Just send the data over to the Boss, already! I'm starving, and I saw this awesome sandwich stall a little further up."

Come to think of it, if everything went well, I'd get some measure of payback on the white-haired bastard for that match, after all. If everyone played their cards right, that is. _'Two birds with one stone.'_

She gave me another annoyed glare, huffing as she keyed up the data and sent it along, though I did notice she kept a copy of her own. _'Naughty girl.'_

"You're such a child. Would it kill you to take this seriously?"

_'Probably not. Maybe you, if you don't stop nagging me,' _I thought with a bit of vindictive fury, a wicked grin crossing my face for a moment at the possibilities. _'Reminds me of dear old Dad, sometimes... Lucky she's easy on the eyes, at least.' _But alas, the Boss said I needed to learn to play nice. And as long as she was running the show...

I put my arms behind my head, stretching out a kink in my back left over from the sword-wielding Beacon student I'd fought. "Aw, Emmy, you know you love me."

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

* * *

**_-Elizabeth Briar-_**

"C'mon, c'mon! Open, you stupid...!" I snarled, pulling at the wide set of metallic double doors angrily as alarm sirens blared around me, making it almost impossible to think as noise barreled down from seemingly every direction. "Screw this!" I focused my Aura into my legs, eyes flashing as I kicked the barrier down with a groan of tearing metal.

_'Loud; I'm being too loud!'_ the more rational, tactical part of my mind screamed. But I ignored it, instead keeping my senses trained for any potential danger.

A flicker of movement passed just before I cleared the threshold, noting the bodies and metal casings littering the floor, as a dark armored trooper with a Red Hand on his chest rounded the corner into the hall behind me, with rifle on one hand, and Scroll in the other. "_Over here! Sector AB-12. I've sighted a trai... Ack!_" His voice faltered into a gurgle as one of my standard Thorns sliced past his throat. My body was already in motion, with no time to see if I'd actually put him down for good, and I had no inclination to meet his friends.

Gunfire and the clash of steel on steel echoed all around me, even through the chaos of the alarm, as well as screams of pain and death.

_'Crap, crap, **crap!**'_

They'd done it. The Commander, Vergil. Their whole mad crusade had actually gone and pulled it off. A hostile takeover: a purge of every man and woman, tech to full-fledged Trapper agent in the whole of the Red Hand not explicitly loyal to Lucas Violette and his goals.

I still had trouble believing it, and I'd been right there in the room beside him, watching as the swordsman and his former protégé had executed the other members of the leading council, along with their guards, in moments, and declared themselves in full command of the organization's forces, and the lives of those unwilling to pledge themselves to their cause forfeit.

Suffice it to say, that included people currently on the fence as well. So I did the only thing I could, and ran like hell while they were distracted. _'Why didn't I stay? **Why!?**' _If I had, I'd likely have a high position. No more bureaucratic bullshit from higher-ups too afraid to get their hands dirty. The chance to actually cut loose and maybe, just maybe... _'But Eddy's still out there somewhere! And then there's...!'_

I ducked back, my body moving on instinct to avoid the sword edge racing towards my throat. Honed reflex was all that kept my head attached as it passed close enough to clip more than a few hairs. Using my momentum, I slid along the floor on my knees, fist crushing a vial of powdery crimson Dust I kept at my side that flickered and writhed about in response to my Aura, and turned into a crimson mist that wound around my arms.

**"Not bad."** That damn voice. Just my luck. I was so close. **"Your movements have certainly improved since our last fight."** Vergil stood before me, saber held at his side idly, his masked face cocked to the side. **"Though, you seem panicked. Frayed nerves? Your heart's pounding like a drum."**

"Bastard..." I muttered, already hearing the far off sounds of fighting growing steadily weaker. Judging by the looks of things, Violette's little coup was going swimmingly. "I already knew you were the Commander's little lapdog, but to actually go through with all this!?..." I motioned to the building as a far off explosion rang in the distance. "I mean, didn't we swear an oath, or something, to protect those old sods? Not that I liked 'em much more than anyone else, but they were our bosses; our leaders!"

No getting away. He could very likely pick out every soul in the building on each floor with that Semblance of his... And there was to be no help, either. Anyone still alive, and not one of his, would be focused on doing the smart thing and getting the hell out of here, rather then come back for me. Especially with this sociopath as my opponent.

_'Remember your training, and what Fortuna said. There's **always** a way out of trouble!... You just have to know where to look.'_

**"We swore an oath to protect the world from the tyranny of the White Fang, and those that would threaten Humanity,"** the blind man recited, hand slowly reaching for the second saber at his back.**"Those cowards on the council cared little for that goal, merely profiting off our blood and effort, while holding us back from what we could really become. Master Violette saw this travesty, and acted as any true warrior would. By expunging the problem."**

He paused, almost seeming to hesitate as he noted the fire. Nervous around fire, are we?_'Tough!'_

**"I thought you, of all people, would understand that. You seemed so committed to our cause before...?"**

"Sorry to disappoint. Though why don't you just admit it!?..." I ejected a whole row of Thorns into each hand, embedded with various Dust types, before tossing them in a wide, spread-out pattern towards him, sending a few flaming clumps of Dust hurtling after them like white-streaked bullets, looking to overwhelm him before he could move, and take advantage of his pause. "You're just in this for the fun of it, you psycho!"

For a second, one glorious, beautiful second, I thought I might have had him cornered. Catch him miraculously off-guard, or off-balance. _'Figures... It's just **not** my day.'_ No such luck, it seemed. Rather than winding up skewered and torn apart by the elements, as I'd intended, my fellow Trapper instead reacted with a speed I would've thought impossible, weaving and spinning in a violent dance, swords racing through the air as they knocked aside flame and steel alike, somehow, moving forward as the shattered weapons erupted in bursts of ice, flame, and lightning, that devastated the space around him. _'You're**kidding** me! What is this monster!?'_

He was good. You didn't become the one in charge of an entire generation of potent killers without being exceptional in comparison, of course. But this... this was just _inhuman,_ even with Aura backing him up. I waved my hands in a tight form, sending a fresh wave of flame Dust sweeping across the tiled floor. He merely leapt through the inferno, using his Aura to smother it before it could have any effect. The heat licked at his armor, but he kept coming forward dauntlessly, seemingly uncaring.

His sword lashed out, catching me across my shoulder in a shower of sparks as it glanced off my Aura. Pain lanced through me as part of it gave way into the flesh and armor beneath. "_Gah...!_"

**"Honestly, this just pathetic,"** he commented as I reared back from his follow up, doing my best to dodge and fend him off with what was left of the flames. But he merely batted them away with the broad side of his saber, almost in disgust, before landing a kick to my chest that knocked the air from my lungs, and sent me tumbling down the hall with enough force to set my bones creaking, even with Aura to disperse the damage. **"You always _were_ more focused on dirty tricks and Dust, rather than actual fighting. But I still expected better than this. Ambrose's words must've poisoned your resolve more than I thought."**

"Anyone ever tell you that you talk too much, asshole?" I grunted painfully, coughing as my lungs tightened like a vice had been wrapped around them. Vergil swept what still remained of the fires, flickering at his feet aside quickly as a distant chorus of voices and grunts pulled up the rear. Soon, he was flanked by around a half dozen guards.

_'Shit... **Really** not my day.'_

"Sir, we've quelled the majority of hostile resistance on this level! A few holdouts, but no serious threats!" their leader, a pudgy-faced man not wearing a helmet, with a red arm band singling him out from the rest, along with a bloody sword. "As it stands, we should have the whole building secured within the hour!"

Barely an hour. That was how long it had taken for the Red Hand as I knew it to fall from the inside out... I groaned inwardly at the irony of it all, my mind racing. _'I think the wall at the end back there is the only thing between me and the outside... No windows, unfortunately.' _About two dozen stories up, of course, but I'd deal with that in a moment... If I had the chance.

**"Very good, Captain,"** Vergil nodded to the man, "looking" back at me for a moment. **"This is your last chance, Elizabeth. Pledge your loyalty, and join us. _Survive._ It's not a hard decision."** He had a point; it wasn't. A few words, and I'd be off scot-free. And all it would require was my undying loyalty to a dangerous radical wanting to "save the world," as he put it, and the knowledge that I owed my life to this bastard...

"_...Go to hell!_" I spat back, giving him a sly smirk.

The swordsman faced me for a moment, before sheathing his weapons with a modulated sigh of regret.

_'Yeah, not buying it.'_

**"End this disgrace."** He motioned to his men, the whole lot of them bringing their weapons to bear. I could take down maybe half of them before their bullets would pierce my Aura, or possibly have the chance to injure the blind man somewhat before the same result.

"What? Too afraid to finish me yourself!?" I taunted, fingers twitching as a low grinding noise issued out from my wrist guard. Too low, hopefully, for the Trapper to hear, especially over the alarms and shouting.

_'Keep him distracted for just a second more... Almost...'_

**"You haven't earned the honor, or the attention, coward."** I adjusted my Aura signature without conscious thought, as a flash of anger stole across my face, intimidating the guards, with a few backing up somewhat as the mere sensation of being near me chilled them to the bone. **"A cute trick. Captain, tell your men to fire when...!"**

His commands were drowned out by a loud, bell-like chime, as glowing runes, followed by a torrent of pure white Dust flowed outward across the floor and walls like a snowy wave, spreading from my hand, that encompassed all that it touched, before blooming into a field of icy spikes that filled the small space, and found their way through the armor, and into the hearts, of most of the guards, who barely had time to scream as they were impaled. Only Vergil and his captain managed to repel the worst of it, though not without a few grunts of surprise and pain.

_'Don't mess with a Dust Mage, bitch!'_ A phrase I'd heard numerous times from the lovely Fortuna Marigold, herself. And, frankly, I could see the appeal.

Grinning at him cheekily, I shakily got to my feet, clutching at my side where two... no, wait... _three_ ribs were cracked at least, and my leg jarred. _'Been through worse. **Way** worse...'_

The Trapper roared angrily as he attempted to force his way free of the still-encroaching ice, despite the wails of his comrade. His Aura-fueled fists blew out great chunks, as he went for his one of his swords. He'd be free in seconds, but that was more than enough time for what I had in mind.

Limping somewhat, I moved away from them, pushing the pain aside for later as I increased my speed, lungs burning as I checked my weapons, doing a mental inventory. _'Cleaned out of ice... Fire and lighting still holding steady, even with that vial lost... Maybe a dozen Thorns left...'_

**"_BRIAAAAAR!_"** Well, that didn't hold him as long as I thought. Should've factored in motivation.

Only a few yards from the door, I could hear the heavy plodding of rapid footfalls behind me. Ejecting a single diamond-shaped projectile with a red crystal lodged in the center, I threw it towards the wall. The Trapper behind me paused to shield himself when he became aware of my action as it lodged itself into the pale white wall, and blew inward in an explosion that shook the entire building. I was soon assaulted by a rush of air, revealing the path of escape. I cringed, feeling a few larger bits of white hot debris crash against my Aura, and through flesh at some points. It staggered me, but I kept going forward, one foot in front of the other, even as my stomach roiled, and the greyish smoke seared my lungs.

_'C'mon, Lizzie, just a **bit** further!'_

A few more yards... A few more feet... Just another step... Soon enough, I felt myself falling forward into the light of the fading distant sun, my back on fire as a sword scored a deep furrow mere inches away from my spine, and almost having me pass out from the pain.

_'Not yet! Too slow!'_

I let out a cackling laugh, though the rush of air made it almost inaudible. I managed to turn in midair as I began my stories-long fall, focusing my Aura towards the second Thorn I'd left just at the edge of the new exit, where my old partner-in-crime stood heaving, his dripping blade in hand, and covered in bloody ice shards. The one who, thankfully, only just realized what I'd intended. The resulting blast from the Thorn went off, and outlined him in brilliant white light for a brief moment that seared into my retinas.

_'Of course I had to watch. Who would miss a sight like that?'_

...A sight which also sent a wave of super-heated force outward, that only served to fling me deeper into the night above the bustling city streets below.

The roar of air whipped past my face, the dull numbing chill of the night air easing the pain in my injuries, which may or may not have been blood loss at work. The sensation of flying through the air like a bird was freeing. I even managed a glimpse over that damn wall surrounding the city into the Frontier beyond. It was almost... peaceful, in a way. Relaxing.

And then gravity kicked back into overdrive, and I was falling like a brick towards the ground, moving closer and closer with each passing second, flipping end over end, as bile rose up in my throat.

_'Really should've thought up a decent landing strategy, in retrospect...' _I mused, before throwing my arms out in the last few desperate seconds before impact, pushing all I had forward, as the stone pavement and screaming pedestrians rushed up to greet me.

-END

_**-CODEX-**_

**Infusion**– A two part Aura and Dust manipulation technique developed during the height of the Faunus Wars by famed Dust Magus Wisteria Marigold. The first form requires the user to channel their Aura into the Dust they are using directly to guide it along, even in its unstable state, as a malleable viscous mist, where it can be activated and channeled as one, or in parts for a variety of uses, all without requiring the direct use of weapons or clothing, which might dilute or contain the reaction.

The second, and far more dangerous form takes an opposite approach, by infusing Dust directly into the Aura of the individual themselves through the bloodstream, empowering and focusing one's Aura with a chosen element for a short while, though even careful use may lead to severe withdrawal-like symptoms similar to other similar processes. And, apparently, there must be a level of compatibility to use safely without rejection.

**_A/N: All right really moving to kick it into gear with the OC plots, realized I've been focusing more on canon and left the Red Hand in the cold, my mistake and I intend to correct that in the future as things go forward seeing as their always so fun to write. Nothing like a chaotic takeover of Red Hand HQ to spice things up in my opinion. Time didn't just stop for them and Joel's uncle has been busy._**

**_Also just a note I have no idea just how Emerald compares to most of the characters, she can definitely beat Ben up close at least and likely more then hold her own but seems to depend more on tricking her opponents and taking them by surprise which he didn't exactly factor in to his analysis. Mercury though is apparently a trained assassin with the moves to match and is a much more obvious threat so yeah he's gonna be the one the rogue keeps an eye on. (Which ironically means Emerald wins regardless.)_**

**_The time between chapters is also likely to increase a bit, been trying to stockpile them after this little rush over the holidays and with things going how I expect during the next few months I'm not going to have a great deal of time to put one out nearly as frequently as I have (Not that I regret the rush, just wish I'd thought ahead a bit). As always thanks for all your support and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. - Mojo_**


	56. Chapter 56

**Edited as of: (11/13/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

CONSEQUENCES

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'Well, this is awkward...' _I thought, shifting uncomfortably as Pyrrha's confused, and somewhat betrayed eyes fell on me again yet again during Ozpin's little explanation for the situation. _'Not that that helps much.'_

* * *

Upon arriving back at Beacon, I'd been immediately guided via Scroll towards the Headmaster's office, walking in on what was very likely one of the more tense and awkward moments of my life, as far as the intensity of the Witch's glare was concerned. Ironwood provided a brief explanation for my presence, that, if anything, only made the situation worse. Ozpin's eyes had narrowed sharply as he stared at the General, but said nothing. Goodwitch looked ready to bust a vessel, while the man, who, if I remembered correctly, was Red and Blondie's uncle, Qrow, had his bloodshot red pupils fixed on me curiously.

_'And with Pyrrha Nikos sittin' smack-dab in the middle of it all. Poor girl.'_

After allowing the Headmaster to finish his explanation, which had the unfortunate side effect of confirming that old Woody _wasn't_ in fact as insane as I'd hoped he was, we'd taken the elevator down, going further than I'd thought possible. Minutes of uncomfortable silence passed, until the lift had dropped us off in a large, elaborate hall, where at the end of which sat...

_'Aw hell...' _My breath had caught in my throat as I stared at the young woman sitting in that machine, being kept alive by its slow, yet steady processes. She'd been beautiful. And on the outside, she still certainly was, even with the strange scar she bore across her face. But there wasn't any shred of life or spirit in her at all. Frankly, it felt as if I were looking at an unsettling, human-sized doll.

_'Or a corpse...' _my mind added unnecessarily.

Either way, based on what I'd been told days prior, there was no doubt that this poor woman was Amber, the current Fall Maiden... if by only just a thread.

* * *

And now, here I stood, staring at the lifeless Maiden, and feeling somewhat ill. Pyrrha had been sent away to recover from having her world, and everything she'd ever thought she'd known shaken to the core, and think on her future.

_'Imagine trainin' your whole life to save the world, only to be offered the chance to do just that... at the added possible cost of losin' everythin' ya are in the process...' _No. I didn't even want to imagine the redhead's situation. The Headmaster and his assistant were currently in the middle of arguing with the General. About me, most likely. Meanwhile, the drunkard...

"Looks like you've certainly made quite the impression. Makin' Specialist at your age, and a Warden to boot," he sighed, taking the spot next to me as he took a swig from his flask. The motion reminded me so much of my father, I almost wanted to smile. But the act would've been just too inappropriate, given the situation. "Carson, right? From Team AMBR? Your leader's..."

"Datin' your niece, yeah. I take it you've met him, by now?" I shifted as the man let of an Aura that set my whole body on edge seemingly unconscious of his will.

_'Or I hope so, anyway.'_

"He's a handful at times, but he's got heart. And he cares about them both."

"I saw. Good kid, all things considered. Damn shame about his matchup, though I suppose if he was gonna lose to anyone..." He trailed off as the level of shouting picked up. Goodwitch ripped into the Atlesian, with Ozpin throwing in his own disapproval on top of that. "I'll admit, I was expectin' something like this to happen, but not this soon. Or for it to be someone like you." I chose to ignore the possible insult there, and merely nodded along calmly. Not like I couldn't understand where he was coming from. I didn't exactly scream 'reliable.' "Those two were already on thin ice before with the Breach and the Council. And here you come along, fallin' on your ass."

"'Pushed' is more like it!" I replied sharply with a hiss, sparing a glare towards the large man's back as he motioned my way broadly. "Woody there basically threatened to lock me up and throw away the key, if I didn't say yes."

The nickname seemed to catch Qrow off-guard for a second, but he went along with a small hum of approval. "Yeah, sounds like the sort of thing he'd pull. Would've happened eventually with or without you, though, knowing him. Atlesians, am I right? Always something." I did manage crack a smile at that one, nodding my head idly as the man beside me glanced at the comatose woman.

"It's... So he really _wasn't_ crazy," I said, feeling my mouth dry up as the reality of the situation crashed down on me. "These Maidens... The fairy tale, and the wizard... It all really happened?"

"More or less. Who knows with these old stories?" the man shrugged. "The powers they wield, though. Those are certainly real enough. And dangerous. _Very_ dangerous."

"_...Shit..._"

"Like I told that girl before, it isn't exactly an easy thing to believe, at first." He paused for a second, glancing at me sympathetically, before continuing. "Even _I_ still have trouble coming to terms with it sometimes, and I've known for _years._ Tends to change your perspective."

I nodded again, clenching a metal fist. "I don't know... This whole secret society thing you have goin' is kinda bringin' it home for me. Even have a hideout... Sorta." Is that what this place was? Surely not. These were some of the most powerful people on the face of Remnant, with their own fancy offices and what not.

He let out a low chuckle, but there was no mirth in it. "You get used to it... eventually. Just wanted you to know that if you're looking for someone to blame for your new lot in life, then it might as well be me."

"Why would I...?" I looked his way, voice dying as I saw the way he was looking at Amber, guilt etched over his weathered face. "Wait... Y-you were...!"

"Her 'Warden...' Yeah. Or the closest thing we had to one at the time, anyway," he nodded, eyes narrowing as they fell upon the scar across her face. "The good general back there might not have mentioned it to you, but the actual title fell out use a pretty long time ago, and the assumed need for the Maidens to have their own group of constant protectors watching their backs even longer than that. The role was viewed as becoming less and less necessary as time went on, as we believed the world slowly forgot about them... Our mistake, obviously." The Huntsman cocked his head towards the woman in front of us. "And this one's all mine. James obviously thought I needed the help..."

I'd received a rundown of the man's story soon after I'd "accepted" the role, and had reviewed the story. He and Amber had been set to rendezvous in an isolated location, far from any prying eyes. When she missed their scheduled meeting time, Qrow had sensed something amiss, and went searching for her, only to find her at the mercy of three unknown assailants. He'd managed to fight them off, but not before one of them, a woman in red, had managed to make off with half the Maiden's power, somehow, while the woman herself technically still lived. Something that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't have even been possible.

"...You did all you could," I said, trying to sound optimistic, and immediately kicking myself mentally at the slip. "She's still alive, because of you."

"This isn't 'living,'" he spat back with a touch more venom then he'd intended, each beep of the machine seeming to cause him pain. "All I did was get her body back for Ironwood and his mad scientists to poke around with. Meanwhile, those who did this are still out there somewhere. Closer than we think." He sighed, taking his eyes off the Maiden completely for the first time since first speaking. "Amber was a good woman. Brave, strong. A hero... She didn't deserve this."

"...I'll do what I can to help out," I said, trying to put some confidence into the statement. "Anyone willin' to do somethin' like this to a woman as wonderful as you're sayin' _deserves_ anythin' that's comin' to 'em." What can I say? Chivalry might be a dying concept, but the Badlands always had been slow on the uptake.

"You wouldn't stand a chance, kid. If you _really_ want to help, focus on keepin' the next girl safe, and leave hunting these people down to me," Qrow growled, crushing my little moment, before scratching at his head, and pointing a thumb at Amber. "And _learn_ from this right here. _That's_ what happens if you screw up. It isn't pretty, and it ain't fair. But if we do our jobs, she's gonna be the last person that has to pay. Understand?" It was harsh, it was cruel, and damn it if it wasn't the truth. That woman there... It could've been Pyrrha, Max, or some other Huntress, whose only crime was to stand out. To be exceptional.

"Understood. Loud and clear." I received one last look before the Huntsman clapped a hand on my shoulder with a dangerous look in his eyes.

"Good to hear it. I'm sure we'll get along just fine, you and me."

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Where does that two-timing scoundrel get off!?" Sonia raged, throwing her arms into the air as we walked along the streets of Vale. The fresh air and peaceful clamor of the city was a marked improvement from the chaos of the Colosseum, at least where my hearing was concerned.

_'A damn trumpet. They'll turn **anything** into a weapon, these days...' _That Flynt kid probably would've busted one of my eardrums, if Xiao Long hadn't shut him up for me. But even so, I was more than content with watching Xiao Long and Schnee tear shit up from a cafe bar stool, rather than in that madhouse of a stadium.

"Treating you like some... some... _side attraction!_ Some pretty ornament meant to sit around, waiting for whenever he deigns to notice them!" She craned her head back with a heavy groan into the evening air.

I snorted at the display, the Huntress-in-training seemingly unaware, or uncaring of the attention her little rage was receiving from those around us. _'Always was a performer...' _It almost felt like old times. The two of us out mucking about, getting into trouble. _'Didn't realize just how much I've missed this.'_ It reminded me of that strange dream we'd shared just before she'd regained consciousness, especially now that Sonia was off her cane. Even now, I could see the vacant bookstore that Ambrose's doppelganger had stepped out of, intent on cutting off Belladonna's cat-eared head...

_'Lying in a pool of his own blood...'_

A short cough brought me back to reality, as the two of us stood at a lit street corner. "What?"

If anything, that just had her eyes widening again, looking at me as if I'd just said something unbelievably dense. "What do you mean 'what!?' Why don't you... I-I don't know, get angry!? Threaten to rip his smooth-talking, blonde head off, and use it as a fancy meat puppet!?"

"A 'fancy meat puppet...' _Really?_" That wasn't a bad line, come to think of it. _'Maybe save it for the next time Cardin or his boys step out of line...'_

Sonia's cheeks flushed at the amused look, kicking at the ground with the heel of her borrowed boot. "It's just, this is the first time I've ever heard you say you might fancy someone, but... Why _him!?_ I mean, I know the man's handsome in the right light, and that smirk of his is downright _dashing,_ but..."

"Looking at him yourself, are you?" I shot back with a sly grin that set her stuttering for a response. "It's alright if you are. Wouldn't be the first eye he's caught." It would be the first time his eye had wandered in quite a while. _'Since that night, actually...'_

"O-of course not!" she got out finally, doing her best to try and compose herself. "You've already... I-I wouldn't dare. Besides, I doubt Mother would approve."

No. The prim and proper Lady Bordeaux _certainly wouldn't_ approve of some bandit from outside the Kingdoms messing about with her precious daughter. Thinking about it, the mere concept seemed like some bad romance novel waiting to happen.

_'Though what would that make my situation with him?_'

"Never stopped you before. Personally, I think a small part of what makes him so fun is imagining how Aunt Carmen would react," I commented, feeling my ears twitch as I caught wind of some people whispering, the words "AMBR" and "Faunus" popping up in their muttered conversation. "And I don't 'fancy' him. I just... Oh, forget it. Not like it matters."

"But it _does_, Maxi!" I was taken aback by the force present in her voice, the determination as she grabbed my shoulders, her eyes meeting mine with deadly seriousness. "How could you say that!? Especially since the two of you... You know..." She backed up, tapping her index fingers together awkwardly, while my cheeks warmed at the realization of exactly what she meant.

_'Emerald eyes watching, skin like fire, the scent of apples and gunpowder filling my senses...' _I dug a fingernail into my palm to focus myself. _'The hell's wrong with me?'_

"_One time,_" I grumbled through gritted teeth, trying to pick up the pace as she struggled to keep up with me, people parting before me like a sea, probably sensing my mood. "And I told you, already! It was sort of a heat-of-the-moment thing! I'm not his keeper; Murasaki can have that shit posting. It's one less headache for me to deal with."

"But it's those spontaneous acts of passion that burn the most vibrantly!" She picked up her pace, a far off, airy quality in her voice as she said it, eyes gleaming. "When two souls, comrades no less, fall into one another's arms, it's so...!" She was cut off as I made a short gagging noise, doing my best not to laugh at her puffed-up face, her lips pursed together disapprovingly. "I'm trying to be serious here, Maxi!"

"So am I, and failing horribly!" I doubled over, falling against the side of a shop window in a fit of cackling laughter, "S-shit, you, Belladonna, and Ambrose should share notes, sometimes! You all obviously read the same shitty romance novels. 'Acts of passion that burn the most vibrantly!?'"

"Excuse you, Miss Uncultured, those books are literary works of art!"

_'Yeah. A few definitely have pictures, I'll tell you...' _I'd managed to stay away from drawing smut in my short, if illustrious career as Mistress Bordeaux, a standard I was intent on keeping, despite a certain Cat Faunus' desperate attempts to persuade me otherwise. _'I'd need visual reference for anything really detailed, anyway...' _My mind trailed back to romp on a certain rooftop, before I promptly kneecapped it, and sent it on its way back to the present with a slight shudder.

"Look, it was one time. _ONE_ time," I repeated to steady myself, holding a finger up for emphasis, which I pressed up against her mouth hard to silence her feeble objections. "It was scary, strange, nice while it lasted, and awkward as all hell afterwards. Seriously, what's your obsession with this?"

"I just want to see my cousin happy. Is that so wrong?" Sonia countered defensively as we rounded a corner and stepped into a large mini festival similar to the grounds around Beacon. The street was littered with game booths, vendors, and little performances spaced evenly along the shop fronts.

_'Yeah, definitely some scary Déjà vu here.'_

"While I might not exactly approve of his past occupation..."

"Funny. That seems to be a common thread you have going with all my teammates," I cut in, earning a sharp glare for my trouble.

She waved a hand dismissively, eyes narrowing irritably in that way they always did when I was about to get a lecture for some stunt I pulled. "Shush you! Anyway, while I may not approve, the romantic in me won't just let you squander a golden opportunity like this! I mean, he _obviously_ likes you." I clenched my teeth hard, swallowing the nasty little retort I'd been about to spout out.

"As evidenced by the Huntress he's probably got wrapped around his finger right now." I needed to hurt something; anything. "Look, can't we just talk about clothes, shopping, or any of that other stuff you usually drag me along into!? _Please?_"

"You're completely hopeless, you know that?" She put a hand to her forehead dramatically, before sliding it down her face. "But, now that you mention it, I _do_ need to start looking into acquiring some new combat gear. And we definitely need to do something about that tattered wardrobe of yours. It looks like a Beowolf tore its way through half of it!"

"If you even think frills, I'm leaving, Sonny.I swear to... _Hey!?_" I yelped in surprise as the girl dragged me into the throng for an hour, which I could only describe as horrifying, especially when she'd spotted a clothing store, and just had to try dressing me.

_'I've never seen so much pink in my life.'_

Thankfully, her energy petered out before she could sit me down in a boutique, some of the smells coming off the place almost enough to set my nose on fire and choke me out. And there was some fun in it too, especially the games, which were almost unfairly easy for two Huntresses to manage. I even got to blow off steam on some fat bastard who'd made a stink about the freak cleaning him out of prizes, to which I politely replied by putting his bigoted head right through those rigged bottle stacks of his.

_'Good times...'_

"I'm famished. Want anything?" she spoke up as we stumbled right into the middle an impromptu _Achieve Men _concert to kick things off before the first round of the one-on-one Finals began showing, rabid festival goers scrambling through the wall of flesh and sound, trying to catch a better glimpse of the group from the stack of crates and boxes they were using as a stage. Looking at her more closely in her new gear, which was a scarily similar look to what she had worn in the dream minus the armor, I noticed her shaking somewhat, though she was trying to pass it off. "Maxi?"

"N-no, I'm fine!" I said a bit too quickly, trying to cover my lapse. But my cousin didn't seem to have noticed it, merely giving me a quick hug promising to be back soon, before running off through the mess of pedestrians towards a far off stall, needing her Aura to avoid toppling over at some points, as she made her way out of the throng.

Watching her leave, I couldn't help but wonder just how my cousin expected to manage herself once the year ended, especially when she still seemed so frail. Ozpin had promised us that she would be given a fair shot to enter Beacon next year, even despite not technically graduating from our last Academy, as long as she was okay being a year older then her teammates were likely to be, and if she could handle herself against the Grimm. That last bit though... _'Just 'cause she's walking doesn't mean she's ready for what's out there,' _I thought, feeling that old guilt well up once again. _'It's my fault for that...'_

"Hell of a party, isn't it!?" a voice called out from just behind me, making me jump. I looked over my shoulder, only to back off as a deathly pale girl in worn, dark clothes, with long curtains of black hair falling down her back and in her face leaned in closer, filling my nose with a disgustingly sweet scent. Her dark eyes widened in a strange, manic excitement as she moved in even more, edging me back out towards a small lull in the crowd. "So many people milling around like wild beasts. So _raw._ So _exciting!_"

To my shock, I noticed three beady black dots spaced evenly on either side of her forehead, just barely covered by her hair. A chill ran down my spine as I realized they were each eyes, staring back at me._'A... Spider Faunus?' _I'd known they existed, but it was very rare to meet a non-mammalian-type Faunus; insects especially.

"Uh, yeah. Can I... help you with something?" She took another quick step, now very much inside my comfort zone, as her face stopped so close to mine for a wild second, I thought she was going to kiss me. "H-_hey!?_"

"Ooh, you two really _do_ look alike!" she giggled as I shoved her off me, blushing as I noticed a few onlookers watching interestingly.

_'What the hell is her problem!?'_

"Same hair, same eyes. But don't worry. You're way _more_ attractive, in my book. It's the nose, I think."

"Look, I don't know what you're on, but you have five seconds to clear off before I make you!" I threatened, fists clenching dangerously as I flashed my teeth menacingly.

"Well, that's not very nice! I was just giving a compliment." She swayed in place, bouncing on the balls of her feet in time to the music. "He said you might be a bit irritable, but this is just...!"

I snapped, my fist flying towards her smirking face, only to be pulled back as the girl snatched it, and wrapped around my back painfully, resting her head on my shoulder, cooing in my ear as I struggled vainly against her, even with my Aura active, her grip like steel. "Short fuse. Oh, I like it!"

She was close, using her momentum to make it look to any casual observer like we were dancing like all the others. It was effective, seeing as everyone's attention seemed fixed on the stage, where a speaker went flying.

"Get off me!" I was close to drawing on my Semblance, a red tinge to my vision, when she tightened her hold, a high gasp of pain overriding concentration.

"Now, now. Let's not be _too_ hasty, shall we?" she crooned when she noticed me try again, glancing around at the people dancing and cheering around us as she revealed a sharp fang like tooth, grazing it against my Aura slowly in a way that had me shivering with anger and disgust. "You might be able to take a bit of punishment, sure, but what about your friend?"

I froze, eyes going to the stall where Sonia stood impatiently in line while looking back at me askance, raising an eyebrow at the woman on my back, though, from that distance, she wouldn't be able to make much out. _'Probably thinks I'm getting back at Carson, or something...' _I cursed under my breath as she fumbled with her wallet, only to have it caught by a short man with slicked-back blue hair in baggy clothes, the Huntress bowing her head in thanks as he looked away abashed, before he glanced right towards us, shooting the Faunus a friendly wink.

"She has such a pretty neck! It'd be a shame to have to break it."

"What do you want!?" I snarled, voice low and animalistic, though the girl merely let out that annoying giggle yet again. "This revenge for that rally!?" That was the only reason I could think of for some mad Faunus to make a move like this. Payback for the trouble me and the others caused.

_'But it's been weeks. Why now?'_

"Rally?..." The girl sounded genuinely confused, before it dawned on her. "Oh, that whole mess with that scummy Torchwick human! That was you!?" She didn't sound angry at all. If anything, she was impressed. "I heard it was just a few rogue Faunus, but if that was you... Ah, sorry, sir! I'll bring her right away." Her tone evened hastily out as I heard the barest whisper issuing from what must've been a radio at her ear. "Sorry about that. He's been real anxious to meet you for a while now."

"Who's 'he!?'" I grunted as she steered me away from Sonia and into the rush.

She merely let out a little hum in response, whistling to herself just loudly for me to hear over the music, guiding me along through the chaotic mosh pit that had formed, knocking aside, or outright breaking those that tried to get in our way, leaving her fair share of broken fingers and noses in her wake. _'Would've been pretty hot, if I wasn't caught up in the middle of it,' _a small, stupid part of my mind commented as we broke free of the pit opposite the booth where Sonia and that short bastard were positioned.

"I swear, if you hurt her, I'll make you wish...! Ah, stop doing that!"

"I don't know why you're being difficult with me. Kingsley's the one who'd be hurting her. Not that he will, if you just behave yourself!" she added quickly when I reared back trying to stomp at her feet. "Looks'll only get you so far with me, hon... Just a bit further now."

I bristled, but kept my mouth shut, merely letting her guide me down a series of side streets, and then through a dark alley, past a few curious drunken eyes, before arriving at a nearly deserted park area, occupied mainly by couples, or random folks trying to escape the noise...

And in the middle, right across from where we stood, sitting on a bench while doing a little juggling trick for a little girl with a tail and her mother, sat a broad-shouldered man with auburn-colored hair that fell loosely to his shoulders, along with tattered canine ears, who was broadly smiling when he saw us approach. He made the brightly-colored trio of balls he was throwing disappear into the sleeves of the thick jacket he wore, much to the applause of the little girl and her mother. He then kindly shooed them away with bandaged hands, before lounging back in his seat to greet us.

_'No... No, it **can't** be...' _I knew that smile. I had seen it months ago in a nightmare built by monsters...

"Thank you, Charlie. Go enjoy yourself. You won't be needed," he said in a voice that was a bit raspier then I recalled it being the last time I heard it. It was worn down, but still strong. I noticed a few of the onlookers clearing out, sensing trouble.

"But, Commander...!" She, Charlie I suppose her name was, let go of my arm to protest, only to receive an elbow to the face, courtesy of yours truly, that caught her with her Aura down, snapping her head back and sending her to the ground clutching at her nose, while looking up at me, emitting what wasn't exactly pained growl. I ignored the bitch, though, all my senses fixed on the man in front of me.

"Seems she doesn't want you around, either," he commented lightly, though his scent suddenly became a lot more aggressive, and I noticed cracks spreading from where his fingers met the wood of the bench. "Now clear out, and grab Boris while you're at it. I _won't_ ask again."

He didn't need to, as the Spider Faunus, already snapping off a lazy salute with one hand, while the other staunched her bleeding nose, gave me one last smile through blood-smeared teeth as she vanished into the shadows, leaving the two of us quite alone...

"So..." he began warily, as if choosing what he was going to say. "It's been a long time, Maxi... Five years, I think?"

"D... _Daddy?_" I choked out, voice cracking in my throat as my father stood up with arms spread out, taking a step towards me. "Is... Is it _really_ you?"

"In the flesh, Pup... I know this is all rather sudden, but I...!"

His next few words were drowned out by the sound of the bench wrenching itself upwards from behind him, whipping about to catch him in the chest, and blow him back into the stone wall of a shop a few yards behind him. He slumped down, looking panicked as I strode forward, red-tinged eyes glowing hatefully as my hair whipped about wildly, with carmine-tinged Aura roiling across my skin like fire as the ground and buildings shook around me.

"_YOU **BASTARD!**_"

-END

**_A/N: So not the loving Father-Daughter reunion Conan was hoping for. Bit of a slow chapter this one but I hope it still had some entertainment value or pushed the story along. Currently doing my best to stockpile chapters after the little spree I went on last month (One I'm kind of regretting). I'm still working on this though, progress will just be…slower. As always feel free to leave a comment or give your own input and I hope to have the next little memory segment out soon for Max to clear this whole family thing up. - Mojo_**


	57. Chapter 57

**Edited as of (7/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**_A/N: Hey all just here to let you know I'm not dead, just working myself to death on my Graduation Thesis Film so I can graduate. We start filming in less than a month and has been the main focus since school started back up with understandable reason. Hopefully once I get filming done and I throw it at an editor I'll be able to get back on some semblance of a schedule because I truly do enjoy writing this, it's just been difficult to find time for it. Anyway props to RT for an amazing finale for Volume 3 already leaving me craving more._**

MEMORIES OF AMBR - M

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Maxi, don't run off!" I heard Mommy shout in exasperation from behind me as I took off running, having to hold down the bright, white sun hat I was wearing to keep it from blowing away in the summer breeze. "Maxine!"

"Mommy! Mommy, look!" I ran my little hands over the cool glass pane of the window, with the words "_Pastel's Painting Supplies" _emblazoned prominently across it, staring at the large canvas displayed depicting a young woman wreathed in fire, though it didn't seem to be hurting her at all. "Beautiful..." I breathed lightly, as my eyes followed each line, before feeling a hand clutch my shoulder gently if firmly.

"I've told you before, young lady, you can't go off wandering around. I just can't keep up with you anymore," the beautiful, dark-haired woman said sternly, wide blue eyes looking from my guilt ridden expression to the drawing, face softening. "...So this is what caught your eye?" she asked with a smile, running a dainty hand over the glass just above mine. "You're right. It is beautiful. An expression of a person's soul and creativity, given form for the world to enjoy."

I glanced up at her, the woman seeming lost in her own world, like she was looking at something else. Something far away. "Are you okay, Mommy?" I asked in a worried tone, afraid she might be getting sick again even after she'd just got better from the last time.

She jumped, looking down at me apologetically, before taking her hand from the glass and placing it on my other shoulder, steering me away from the window and down the street, this time taking my hand to keep me close to her. This district was very different from the one around my house, as the air was cleaner to my sensitive nose, while the people were well-dressed in fancier clothes then I'd seen without stains or tears, wearing lovely scents. They were friendlier, too, as a group of older women, who smelled like different flowers, even stopped to talk with us, and compliment me on how cute I looked in my dress, to which I would merely blush and hide behind Mommy's skirts while the grownups laughed. Anyone from our district would've kept walking, too nervous to say anything more than a hasty hello, and nobody smelled particularly good.

It was nice, like visiting Sonia and Aunt Carmen's big house near the border, with its colorful gardens and high walls, the entire experience feeling like a dream. _'But why does she look so sad?' _My mother kept on a good face, speaking with the friendly lady's, and answering questions, though she seemed to be holding back with them, dodging questions. And her scent was... worried; afraid. That was why I'd hid. Were these people monsters here to get me?

Suddenly, I wished Daddy could be here with us, too. But he'd said he had work to catch up on, even when I'd begged him to come along, waving us good bye from our building's front porch, before retreating back inside quickly. _'He'd smelled scared, too. Scared and angry...'_

"How about some ice cream? Does that sound good?" Mommy said after she'd bid the ladies farewell, smiling warmly down at me, putting my mind at ease, if just a bit, as I nodded. It wasn't too hard to find a place nearby that sold the treat, the brightly colored mosaics on the walls peering down at us as we found a booth. There was a grin on her face as she saw me digging into the multi layered thing of beauty in front of me, savoring every last bite. I paused when she went for her own spoon, shaking my head.

"Mommy, your medicine," I reminded her, sitting up in my seat to see the clock over her shoulder. "Daddy made me promise to remind you before you ate anything."

"So dutiful, I'd almost forgotten," she said gratefully, as a well of pride welled up in my chest. I dug through her purse, and pulled out a small plastic bottle, only to drop it from unsteady hands to the floor underneath the table.

"I'll get it!" I said quickly, ducking under the table before she could protest, fumbling with the bottle while losing my hat in the process, before managing to get my hands on it, triumphantly holding it out to her as I popped back up into my seat. "Here it is!... Mommy?... What's wrong?" I asked, smile fading as I noticed her face paling. Not only that, but everyone in the creamery seemed to have gone silent, looking at me... Or, more specifically, the canine ears twitching on my head every so often that my hat had covered up.

I could hear whispering now, the other people sitting around us muttering amongst themselves. The word "freak" popped up more than once, but I didn't know what it meant. _'Do they mean me?'_

The pretty server that had brought the sundae to us came back, but her face was... wrong, mean looking. Her eyes glared at me, looking disgusted. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but you'll have to leave. You're..." She paused, a look angrier then I'd ever seen flitting across Mommy's face as she swallowed her pills, her fingers curling into a fist.

"My _daughter_, you mean?" she said, her voice so cold the server had to take a step back, as the whispers got nastier and nastier with every second. "Well? Say what you came here to say; don't stop on my account." She wasn't asking, she was commanding, her head held high like the queen would use to address a servant in the storybooks Sonia and I would read together in her room at night. Regal.

_'She's beautiful, like the painting...'_

"You and your 'daughter...'" she stressed, spitting the word out as if it tasted bad on her tongue, her pretty face twisting into something ugly, "are disturbing the other customers. I'm afraid I'll…"

"You're not afraid, but say what I think you're going to say, and I'll make sure fear is the least of your concerns," she said, keeping her blue eyes fixed on the server's in a way that echoed through the room, and affected every soul including mine. "Maxi, we're going. I don't think the air in here is agreeing with me."

"But, I..." I hadn't finished the sundae, but the look in her eyes killed any complaint I might have had, as I made to reach for the hat still lying at my feet, the thing I'd been required to wear outside whenever we strayed too far from our home. For a reason, I now realized.

"Leave it," she stopped me, pulling me to her side as she looked around the room, emanating an aura of pure disdain, that made even the largest of these people cringe as her gaze fell upon them. "If we're going to leave, Maxine, it will be with pride. A thing I realize now I've denied you." I could feel her hand shaking on my shoulder, but to all appearances, she stood tall and mighty as we strode from the creamery without another word. "I'm so sorry." She said as we walked down the street, the friendly faces of everyone else gone, now replaced by the same looks the people had had back in the building. The same ladies from before looked shocked and mortified as we passed them coming out of a shop.

_'Why is she saying sorry? Did she do something wrong?'_

"W-was that because of me?" I asked shakily, as hot tears rolled down my face, blurring my vision. "B-because I'm a..." She was crouched down in front of me in an instant, burying my face in her chest as she wrapped her arms around me, whispering sweet words in the ears atop my head to calm me down. "I-I'm sorry..."

"You have _nothing_ to be sorry for, Maxine," she said firmly, grasping me even more tightly, before pulling back, tears of her own swimming in her eyes. "I want you to tell yourself that, no matter what anyone says to you, even if they say you're wrong, you have _nothing_ to be ashamed of... Tell me that right now."

"I-I have... n-nothing to be sorry for," I choked out, repeating the words until she was satisfied. "I have nothing to be a-ashamed of."

"Of course you don't," she said finally, scratching me behind the ears as she got to her feet, beating the dust and debris off her, dress before looking over her shoulder. I followed her eyes, seeing the Art shop we'd seen only an hour before, as a kindly old man sweeping out front saw us looking and waved, even after he noticed my ears. "Now how about I get you a present to replace your hat? That sound good?"

I wiped my eyes, looking into her own glowing, hopeful face as I nodded, giving her a small smile that only made her glow all the brighter.

* * *

"You can't ask me to accept lien from that_twisted_ old bastard!" Dad cried out again, making me flinch, and almost smudge the last bit of detailing I was putting into the piece. For over an hour now, they'd been going back and forth on this, all because of one stupid letter.

_'Wish they'd just give it a rest already,' _I seethed, scratching out an itch at my ear, before moving my hand in again, steeling myself for Mom's inevitable counter.

"I won't do it, Sophie!"

"Be reasonable, Cone. We won't be able to keep up expenses for my treatments with what we have between what we bring in, and what my sister can eke out for us. It's only a small loan..."

So _that's_ what this was about. I'd been too focused on getting the right color down to notice.

Running a household of three wasn't cheap, especially when it's made up of a woman with frequent bouts of sickness, and two Faunus, one a ten year old girl in need of food and proper schooling, according to her mother. Aunt Carmen did her best, but there was only so much Dad was willing to take from a woman and her daughter living alone.

"A small loan that becomes a debt, and an excuse to take Maxi away from us, and put her in his hands!" he shouted back as I reapplied the brush, tooth biting my lip.

_'Grandpa Bordeaux, then. Figures.' _I'd never met the man, and, if my parents had their way, I probably never would. Not that I really wanted to in the first place. He had an apparent disgust of my parent's relationship, and, likely by extension, did something so terrible, it led to his own daughters cutting all ties with the man. Not that either of them was willing to explain what exactly that 'something' was, though it involved my father somehow. I knew that much. Not very compelling reasons to reach out. _'What would he want from me, though?... **FOCUS**!' _Just a few more touches...

"He's scared of you; you made sure of that. It's why he hasn't sent anyone or done anything. He's just trying to make amends, at this point."

_'Scared of Dad?...' _Granted, my father was a big man. Intimidating, but he'd hardly hurt a fly, let alone another person. It was why the SDC decided to hire him on as security for their local refinery, a cheap loyal muscle to make a show of equality to the workers.

"And you're willing to let him!?"

'_Now to just let it dry, and... There we go.' _I stood back as the powdered Dust layer I'd applied earlier began to glimmer and shine as it reacted with the chemicals in the paint. Old man Pastel had taught me the trick, and provided the Dust, low quality for cost, and stable enough to avoid the usual violent reactions. It had taken a few tries, and a lot of hasty explanations for my irate parents, but the end result spoke for itself.

"After everything he did to me; did to you two!? What he put us through...!"

"Of course not!" she snapped back at him, my eyes widening as I turned back to the door for a second worriedly. "I'm saying we use him, at least until we can get back on our feet. Talk to your supervisor about a raise, maybe..."

A raise. Yeah, like that'll happen. They'll just fire the Faunus, and cite him for being "unsatisfied" with his current earnings, or something like that. Dad told her as much before the coughing fit started, followed by an awkward whispered conversation I couldn't really pick up, though it sounded serious. _'I'm more than willing to quit school if it means I can stop having to deal with those punks messing with me, always calling me freak. Or maybe we could go live at Aunt Carmen's... No. Dad wouldn't go for that. He's too stubborn...'_

I glanced at the canvas, a painted depiction of Mistral's Festival of Lights, complete with little paper lanterns drawn in, that actually seemed to glow in the dim light of my room from the Dust. I considered it as it was right in front of me, before an idea began to form. The old man had called me a prodigy. I'd thought he was just spouting off his own praises for teaching me, but maybe...

I was out the door and in the living room before I could stop myself, my parents turning to face me. Mom was on her side lying on the couch, while Dad leaned on the counter separating this room and the kitchen. Both looked tired.

"Pup, you should be in bed," my Faunus father groaned, scratching at his ears guiltily, obviously having lost whatever argument he and his wife had been having, just as he had almost every time before. "C'mon, I'll make you something if you're..."

"I have a way," I said quickly, cutting him off as my mother's eyebrows rose. But I ignored her, too wrapped up in the moment as a smile spread across my face. "A way we might be able to solve the money issue without..."

"You shouldn't have had to hear that," Mom groaned, getting to her feet staring angrily at her husband. "Maxine, you don't have to worry. We can..."

"I think I can help!" I spoke out again, gesturing to my room. "B-but we're gonna need Aunt Carmen's help to do it." My parents looked to each other skeptically, but got up to follow me into my room. Skepticism which soon turned to stunned awe and disbelief.

My Dad's jaw completely dropped, stepping forward to get a closer look, pinching his nose, as if to make sure what he was seeing on the canvas was real. "This is from last year... Maxi, did you...?" I nodded, pride welling up as I saw my parents smile at one another, and then at me.

In my mind, it was the most beautiful, goddamn expression in the world...

* * *

Pain. Sharp pain rattled all throughout my skull in an uneven tempo... Nausea. My stomach reeled. The coppery scent of blood pooled in the air, and a rattling groan of pain off to my side.

_'Wha... What happened... Mom... **MOM**!'_

We'd been jumped on the way back from Carmen's showcase, or mine, depending on how you wanted to look at it. Dad and I had had to go in through the back to avoid the curious looks people would've given two Faunus for being at that, even, and not being one of the help. It had gone well. It was our best showing yet. The proceeds were enough to cover us for years, and then some, even with medical expenses. And that was just one.

But Aunt Carmen had had to leave early, not feeling well, and Dad had offered to drive her and Sonia home, but I'd wanted to stay longer, sneak a peek at some of the other pieces, something to tell Pastel about next time I visited him in the hospital. He'd been so proud...

I felt my way across the hard concrete, vision still blurry. Something warm and wet was at my feet, mixed in with rubble from the walls that had come down. _'I don't understand... What happ... **AH**!' _Another sharp jab occurred just behind my eyes, as a flash of Carmine colored energy flitted across my vision, followed by a nearby crash of groaning metal hitting shattered stone.

Four men, drunks by the looks of them, had stopped us, and shouted something about my ears, drawing their own conclusions, spitting at us. They called me a freak, and my mother a... I'd wanted to knock their teeth in for what they said, but she'd gotten in front of me, and screamed me to run... A glint of light bounced off a flying bottle, the dull sound of glass meeting flesh following after, with the sound of flesh meeting stone occurring after that. Red bleeding came down from the head of a body already weak as it was... There had been frightened cursing, the bastards realizing what they'd done...

_'They hurt her... They **killed** her!' _First had come the cold chill in my heart, the loss of breath in my lungs, followed shortly by what almost felt like hot nails being driven into my skull, and a sea of fury that had wiped away all else.

I'd wanted to break them, shatter them into a thousand pieces, and watch them suffer... And something deep inside me had responded to the call. The street tore itself apart, like a giant had carved the earth itself, and sent them scrambling away as all the windows on the block shattered, while the air hardened almost visibly. One of them, not the one who threw it, I lamented, but the one who had insulted her the worst, had tripped over his own feet in an attempt to flee in fear, crying out as I stomped a heeled foot into his back, digging the point into his spine, and used this new power to break him slowly, vindictive joy coursing through my veins as I pushed the reeling man further.

It was like I was a passenger in my own mind, watching as I tormented him. And I enjoyed _every_ sick second of it, laughing as I paid this bigoted Human for daring to speak to me, to my _mother_, in such a way.

_'Mom...' _I'd caught sight of her laying there, unmoving, eyes staring off blankly, as sirens screamed in the distance. Soon, my world faded to black, as my muscles turned to jelly, and my soul faltered for but a moment.

_'Mommy...'_

* * *

"You can't leave, Conan; not like this!" Aunt Carmen screamed at the stone-faced Faunus, the pitch hurting my ears as I did my best to shield them.

_'I shouldn't be listening. Not to this.' _I'd smelt him in the manor by chance on my way to bed, smothered by alcohol, and what seemed scarily like blood. But it was him.

"Think of Maxine!"

"I _am_ thinking of her! I can't stop!" he screamed back viciously, the tone alien to the calm, measured tone he used to use, even when arguing with Mom. He should've been able to smell me. Maybe it was the perfume from Sonia's desperate attempt to cheer me up, or something wrong with his own senses, but he didn't seem to notice me crouched just outside the door, nails digging into my arms, resisting the urge to run to him. "It's not safe! For you, for Sonia, or for her."

He'd vanished after the funeral, just disappeared off the face of Remnant for a whole fucking week with no word, letter, or anything to even let me know he wasn't gone, too. Aunt Carmen had taken me in, of course, letting me stay in one of the many spare rooms in her home, and even helped our family's friends move me in for the long haul.

_'And now he's back...' _I thought angrily. My vision flashed before I realized what was about to happen, and reigned myself in before I demolished another section of the manor. Three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a section of Sonia's room were the latest accidents I could count.

The doctors had called it a "Traumatic Awakening," needing to bring in a Huntress consultant just to be certain. My Aura had forced itself to the surface in response to emotional stress, bypassing the usual steps that required years of specialized training and discipline in order to protect myself. How I'd managed to pull off what I had was somewhat harder to diagnose, the woman saying it was likely my "Semblance," as she put it, though even she seemed to have trouble believing it.

_'Whatever it is, it's a pain in the ass!'_

"How can you say that!? The girl needs you more than ever! You can help her, at least where her Aura is concerned." I perked up, throat drying out.

_'Dad knew about Aura? Why would he…?'_He'd worked security for a number of years, and sure, some might've pursued Huntsman training beforehand, but he'd had never...

"None of this is your fault!"

"If I hadn't left with you, if I'd been there...!" I heard a rustle of cloth on cloth, then the thud of contact. Carmen had been embracing him, only to be pushed back. "I promised to protect the both of you, and I_failed_ her... Now, I can't even protect my little girl..."

"We'll get justice for her. For Maxine..."

A bark-like laugh, bitter and angry, rang through the room. It was a sound I never imagined he could make, and it chilled me to the bone. "'_Justice_?' Sophia was a women married to a Faunus, with a half-breed daughter who ripped apart half a block. Hell, it took all we had just to keep Max from being dragged in when that bastard she caught..."

"She tortured him, Cone." I shivered as the words cut his rant short, each syllable biting like ice down my spine. "A twelve-year-old girl, and she broke him apart with that power of hers. Apparently, he might never walk again... That's not the last time, either. The way she's been acting, and the things she draws... It's the same as you, back when..."

"That human deserved _worse_, and you know it! Walking should be the _least_ of his concerns." I was scared, but his words touched a chord in me, making my anger rise. Why shouldn't I have finished off one of the men who'd hurt Mom; who'd taken her away? But the way he said it... "But rather than 'justice,' one of the people who killed _MY WIFE_ almost took my daughter, and locked her up with the people on his side. _THAT_ is justice according to Mistral! Well... I was _done_ playing the loyal dog, going along with it all, hoping things would get better..."

"...What have you done Conan?..."

Silence. There was a long silence, and then he spoke, voice calm and leveled as he described _exactly_ what he had done after burying his wife. "I went back to where it happened... And tracked them, _each_ of them, by scent and rumor... It wasn't too hard. I wanted to talk to them. To ask them why. To let them know what they'd done..." My nails dug deeper, suppressing a sob in my throat, so he wouldn't hear me through the thick door. "They were together, the whole lot sitting in some brewery, right in plain view of everyone... _Bragging_ about how they'd barely managed to escape 'the little demon abomination,' and her 'whore mother.' I confronted them behind the place as they left. I said my piece, told them everything they had done to me and my family... And they just _laughed_. Laughed, just like your father did, calling me a worthless freak in need of a new bitch!"

"...I-it happened... didn't it?" Why did she sound so frightened? Her footsteps told me she was backing away now, her voice accusatory.

"All of them. And I don't regret a _single_moment," he replied curtly, his tone leaving no doubt as to what he meant, as horror dawning on my face.

_'Why, though? If I'd had the chance, I'd have picked them apart!"_

"The police weren't going to do anything. Hell, one of them _was a cop_, judging by the gun. _That_ was justice."

"That was _murder_! Sophia fought for years to convince you that you weren't some monster at that man's beck and call, and you undo all of it in less than a week!" She was shouting now. If she wasn't careful, she'd wake her daughter. The raw hurt in her voice was amplified by a round of wracking coughs, followed by hurried steps. "Don't touch me!" I heard a sharp slap across his cheek. I could see it now, my senses building the tapestry of events in my mind.

"...I am what I am," he said simply, with an air of finality.

"Leave. This isn't a home to you anymore. You aren't the man my sister loved, or the boy I knew growing up."

"No. I'm the thing the Bordeaux made me to be," he affirmed, a rustling sound following as he went into his pocket, and pulled something out. "It's a note for Maxi... Can you give it to her, at least?"

"An apology?"

"More a confession... Can I have your word you'll protect her?"

"Always. She won't end up like you, if I have any say in the matter. And I won't let the Kingdom abuse her, either." She took the note, leaving the two in an awkward silence, broken as he turned to leave. "The Huntress suggested training at a small combat school where she's an instructor. Not as high profile as Sanctum, but she'll be able to learn to control her gifts and her urges. Hopefully then, she can choose her own path. I trust that's acceptable?"

Combat school... I'd learn to fight. Learn to be strong. _'That would mean facing Grimm, the monsters of nightmare... But what were Grimm, compared to what I saw in my dreams? I'd seen pictures. Those beasts couldn't compare...'_

"I appreciate it, Carmen... And for what it's worth, I'm sorry I couldn't have been a better man to both of you. A better father."

"I'm not doing it for you... Now go. If I ever see you here again..." She didn't finish her threat, as the Faunus man was already out the door, his footsteps fading from my senses, each one more painful then I could imagine.

I then ran back to my room, where I spent the next few hours until dawn drawing his face from memory. The loving face that told me stories at night, and promised to keep me safe from all the monsters the world had to offer. _'Including himself, apparently,'_I thought bitterly, my eyes heavy from lack of sleep as I finished, taking a step back to admire it, before my Semblance ripped both it and the room apart in a howl of fury.

* * *

"On your left!" I reacted instantly to Sonia's warning, spinning in a little pirouette to the side, as a chakram flew past my faze close enough for my Aura-charged eyes to make out my reflection in the blade as it moved._'A beautiful smile as always, Miss Argus... Oh, thank you, Maxine! So kind of you to notice!' _I laughed, enjoying the little game, as _Cerberus _knocked aside a student as he tried to catch me off guard with a blow that put him down into the sand, clutching his arm. "Nice one!"

"Thanks for the heads up! Six o'clock!" I called back cheerily, smiling while my cousin ducked underneath a calculated swing, stepping into her opponent's guard with her Aura flashing, running a hand down the stunned girl's face that left a sort of haze across her eyes. Screaming as she lashed out with her remaining weapon just to the left of the Huntress, at a foe only she could see, Sonia proceeded to take her apart, _Broken Spring _dismantling her defenses, and dropping her aura into the red with a few quick strokes.

_'Goddamn, that's a beautiful sound.' _I basked in the groans of our enemies, audible even over the cheering of our peers, and the stereo blasting away. _'Who cares if it's mostly for Sonia? A Faunus just kicked their asses!'_

"Excellent form, the both of you. Haven will be lucky to have you," the head instructor called out, marching onto the field with a broad smile on her scarred and weathered face. "Passing marks. Someone get Gaius some ice for that arm." Two aids moved to the boy's side, the Huntsman-in-training shrugging them off as he aimed a glare my way.

I could hear him muttering under his breath as we were congratulated on passing our final practical exam with flying colors. "Faunus bitch... Freak of nature with that... _Urgh_!" He got a face full of ground, as his boot suddenly slipped out from underneath him. "What the..!?" he spat out as the others roared with laughter, though I noticed Sonia shooting me withering stare.

_'What? His fault for bad balance.'_

"You're incorrigible, you know that?"

"Not even sure what that means, cuz, but I'll take it as a compliment nonetheless." I gave her a short bow, before letting out a choked stammer as the girl wrapped her arms around me and squealed.

* * *

"What do you mean you might not continue onto Haven?"

"I meant I might not be going onto Haven, or any other school for that matter," I said through a mouthful of steak, raising an eyebrow at the pretty, blue-eyed girl sitting across from me at the lunch table. "What?"

"It's just... Why would you want to stop?" she said, looking at me as if she thought I was crazy... Well, crazier, anyway. "You heard instructor Garnet; we're the best pair in our year by leagues, on the field at least." I'd had to be. Never saw the point in knowing the migration patterns of Beowolves, or whatever else those written exams required me to pick up. I could always smell any beastie that got close enough, anyway, and knowing how many feathers a juvenile Nevermore preened off didn't help me make the rest of them any less dead.

_'Guns and explosives, though. Those do the trick just fine. And who could forget good old fashioned steel?'_

"You want to give it all up?"

"Look, face it. We both know I'm not the 'Huntress' type, Sonny. 'The heroic savior of the people,'" I said in a haughty mock accent, picking at my green beans distastefully, moving them about my plate listlessly. "I was only ever in this for the Aura training, and look at me now. Haven't had an incident in months." Well, aside from the school dance. But the guy tried to steal a kiss. It's his own fault he went out that window in my opinion. "Besides, one of us has to stick around and keep your mom company on all those little opera outings..."

"You hate those with a _passion_. You say everyone stares, and the singing makes your ears bleed."

"Yes, but she loves those shitty things, so I'll make this small personal sacrifice for both your sakes." I bowed my head to her dramatically, trying to get her to cheer the hell up.

_'She was basically on the free ride to Haven; smile a little!'_

"I don't know... I always thought we'd stick together. That we'd keep pushing forward," she faltered, face falling even further. "You fought so hard for this. If it's the whole Faunus thing, you know they won't..."

"Look, I'll be fine. I need to catch up on my work, anyway," I laughed waving away her disappointed grimace. "Some Atlesian spinster wants a bunch of abstract works to try and throw that perfect orderly little world of hers out of order, and make her feel young again for the grandkids. Personally, I'm thinking skulls... Kids like skulls nowadays, right?"

I picked up their scent long before I saw them. I noticed everyone clearing out as Gaius, his partner, and a few others came marching towards us, sneers on their faces, and hatred in their eyes. _'Well... this won't be good.'_

"Well, well," he drawled dramatically, placing a hand on the table, penning me in as I attempted to move. "If it isn't the freak and her trusty sidekick? I was just thinking we had to have a little chat..."

* * *

"...And, simply put, I can offer you a place at my school, Miss Argus," the green suited man finished as he concluded his long explanation, setting his steaming mug down on the small table beside him as he leaned forward in the velvet lined chair across from me. "It would require you to relocate to Vale, for a period..."

"And just what do _you_ get out of this?" I snapped back angrily. Angrier than I'd intended, but hey, I was talking to an old man who'd shown up on our doorstep, basically volunteering to offer a place at his fancy combat school in Vale, even though I still hadn't technically graduated from my last academy, Sonia's "accident" delaying that last little piece of ceremony over and done with. "The last place wanted to see how my Semblance worked, with tests every day after school. 'Maxine, can you move this object with your mind?'" I drew on my Aura, just a touch so I could rattle his mug a bit, though I did accidentally wind up spilling some onto the little white doily. _'Damn it...'_

"Yeah, I can move it. Not that it's my mind that handles it, of course. The last quack I had to see said something about my Aura acting as an external force, or some shit like that, bound to my emotions."

If the man was at all put off by my attitude, he wasn't showing it, merely nodding his head in casual observation. "An impressive ability, to be sure, if properly applied."

"It put my cousin in a hospital," I replied bluntly, my ears twitching as I heard Aunt Carmen humming to herself in the kitchen, one of the rare times the woman had been able to get herself out of bed since the incident. Her health had taken a downward spiral after that.

_'And all she has is me to deal with... Poor woman.'_

"I've spent years with people jerking me around, saying how I should use my 'gift.' So I'll ask again... What do you get out of it?"

I gritted my teeth openly at the friendly smile he was keeping up. A look of someone who's seen terrible things, and endured more than any one person should have to, but still able to slap on a smile, and lie to the world regardless. "Hopefully, from what I've heard, an excellent student rife with potential, willing to improve herself, and use her unique talents to protect others."

Humorous old bastard, I'll give him that. "I like hurting people. Did what you hear tell you that?"

"You didn't mean to harm those students..."

Well they had certainly wanted to harm me. Gaius and his partner thought they could teach the uppity, Faunus bitch and her freak-loving cousin a lesson. I panicked, especially when I saw him slap Sonia, and saw my mother all over again. _'Except it was my fault this time... Not some bottles'."_If she hadn't seen what I was doing, if she hadn't tried to run to me, and just retreated like those bastards... _'She'd never run. She was always as brave as I wished I could be...'_

"No... Actually, I _did_ want to hurt them. I just didn't want to hurt Sonia, but she wound up getting caught in it regardless," I said calmly and clearly before he could make excuses for me. I didn't need the pity. "Accident or not, it was still my fault. I can own up to what I've done."

"Accepting responsibility is an admirable trait," he nodded, smile flickering somewhat, though holding steady. "You see, it is my hope that we can help you learn control, and turn what you see as a curse into a blessing for mankind. A weapon against the Grimm. Those, at least, you can harm without reservation in my eyes."

_'Did he think this was a fucking **joke**!?'_

"Three shrinks, four Huntsman-level professors, and a pair of instructors have all tried." The list wasn't exactly short, and represented years and thousands in costs to try and understand what made my Semblance so destructive. To discover a way to bind it to my will, so I wasn't shaking a house down every time I had a nightmare, or stubbed my toe. "What makes you think anything'll change if I go with you?"

"You won't be alone, for one thing. At Beacon, we expect you to work with a partner within a team of four."

_'Great. Three more victims. Guess no one told him I don't play well with others,' _I mused bitterly.

"We have resources unique to us, professors willing to help you every step of the way, and no one will force you into anything you aren't comfortable with."

A chance to tear apart a few Grimm without some doctor trying to get his smelly gloved hands on me. Sounded too well to be true. "Nice pitch. Guessing you attract a lot of starry eyed dreamers with that, huh?"

"A fair few." He cocked his head with a shrug and a smile, as he brought his hands together. "If that doesn't interest you, we also have the greatest medical staff in Vale available for students, and, by extension, their families. We make sure to take care of our own, and would be more than happy to do what we can for your cousin until she awakens."

_'**If** she awakens, he means.'_

"I'll... consider it," I said hesitantly, noticing Carmen standing at the door, her shawl wrapped around her shoulders while gazing at me with a small smile on her face. That had been the worst part. She'd never judged, never given up on me, even after what I'd done to her daughter months before. To her life.

_'I could handle screaming. Yelling. But this...'_It physically hurt to look at her, wasting away all the while still doing her best to greet me with a smile every morning.

"Excellent. I do suggest, however, that you make up your mind quickly. Our semester begins in a little over a month, and we do require some small amount of aptitude assessment beforehand. Standard, I assure you," he said quickly, noticing my hackles rising threateningly. "Mental and physical evaluation. You won't be the first student with personality quirks that we've taken under our wing, Maxine. You're not even the most severe, I'd imagine."

"Not like mine, you haven't..." I groaned, rubbing at my temples as he rose to leave, before I shot him one last glare. "And this 'partner...' They won't be too annoying, will they?"

Why did the sudden look in his eye make me feel I was gonna regret this?

**-END**

**-CODEX-**

**Traumatic Awakening- **A regrettable condition where the Aura of an individual can unlock itself under extreme mental, emotional, or physical duress without the aid of another, or through training. While useful as a form of self-defense at the moment, the usual lack of training can easily result in a deeper connection between Aura output and the individual's emotional state than normal. The results of such a person, without training, can often be a dangerous, unstable prospect, and can easily cause as much harm to themselves and others as it prevents, meaning instruction at the hands of a trained Aura User, or at an established academy ,coupled with therapeutic outlets, is deemed almost essential as soon as the subject is deemed capable.

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Garnet - Ali Hillis

Gaius - Jason Marsden

**_A/N: Okay I'm not gonna lie I'm happy this one's over cause damn if this wasn't a rough one to write just on the emotional viewpoint alone, had to watch more than a few comedies after this one. I know tragedy can help make a character, hell a lot of these OCs, AMBR especially, have something that made them who they are and guided actions for them but Maxine Argus was always a bad case that trumped them all and before I knew it I'd worked in all this into her story and I'm regretting it now in a big way. Not too many times have I felt like this much of a dick for doing this to a character and I've had Joel nearly burn his arms through to the bone and wrote in emotionally destructive nightmare monsters to torture the whole lot in some damn hole in the ground. This was worse._**


	58. Chapter 58

**Edited as of (7/22/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

A FRIEND'S REQUEST

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"Maxi, wait! Please, I can explain!" Conan Argus, the man who once claimed to be my father, held his wrapped hands up as I brought the hovering bench back like an arrow, intent on putting it through both his head ,and the wall behind him in one go.

"_Explain_!?" I shouted, feeling my nails digging against the Aura barrier surrounding my palms. A squeal of metal sounded out as the bench twisted and groaned under the strain. "Explain what!? How you could possibly think that, after five years,_ FIVE FUCKING YEARS_, that just showing up out of nowhere was okay!? That I'd be excited to see you!?"

"I understand your angry; I would be too!" He winced as the bench slammed into the space of wall directly beside him, leaving a nice hole, and probably almost blowing out an eardrum. "Damn it, this is coming out all wrong...!"

Not giving him the time to voice whatever sorry excuse he was going to give, I snarled, bringing the impromptu club around for another heavy blow, this time on his other side. "Not even man enough to come see me yourself, you instead you send your goons, White Fang bastards, to come get me!?"

"You were never in any danger! I ordered them to...!"

"To hurt Sonia if I didn't listen and do what they said!" I screamed back at him irate, my heart pounding in my ears as I watched a bead of cold sweat trickle down his forehead. "Yeah, hell of a way to say hi!" Just one push, one irritating push, and I could let the red haze take hold after years of holding back. Emotions I'd thought long dealt with rose to the surface. "_Fuck you_!"

"Would you have come any other way?" He realized shortly after, rolling to the side to avoid getting crushed or impaled by a flying bench, just what I thought of that statement. Coming up on his feet, he held his arms out to stop me. "Can you calm down, please!? This wasn't how I wanted this to go!"

"And how did you want it to go, huh!?" I barked out a violent laugh, Aura shimmering as I brought up a few of the loosened cobblestones to join my new toy, as they orbited around me in a loose oval. "Was I supposed to leap into your arms all teary-eyed!? Screaming 'Daddy, Daddy, I missed you so so much! Where have you been!?'"

He shrugged. He actually fucking shrugged, looking hopeful. Hope that I shattered with a growl of renewed fury. Stones shattered into hundreds of tiny shards under the pressure, shrapnel grinding together into dust. "Look, Maxi, I'm sorry! But you know why I did as I did! The note I left you should've explained everything you..."

"Note?... I burned that waste of ink the second Auntie Carmen left the room!" His face fell, a flicker of irritation and annoyance passing over it as it did, but I didn't care.

"Y... Y-you w-what!?"

Of course I got rid of the thing. I didn't need to hear his imagined excuses; his need for revenge. "I know what you did. I was outside the damn door when you and Carmen were arguing." A look of shock and hurt was on his face, now, not that I gave a shit. "You killed those bastards, then ran off! 'Four Souls Ravaged by Deranged Faunus.' Hell of a headline for a few weeks." Quickly followed by others, as Humans retaliated on innocents, and almost started a witch hunt in our old district. Anyone nonhuman was walking on egg shells, trying to stay under the radar.

_'Even had to call in the armed forces to quell the mobs.'_

"So you really don't understand?" he asked after a moment, his own fists curling as he eyed the projectiles floating around me warily. "Carmen never thought to ask you about it? Explain anything?"

"Explain how a hurt man avenged his wife, then ran off, leaving a young traumatized girl to fend for herself without her real parents? Nope, never." Not that I gave her much chance to. Every time the subject was even broached, I'd either run to my room, make some excuse to dodge, or shake the room a bit so she'd get the hint. Funnily enough, she'd stop asking after a while. "She was my mother. I might've understood if you just had the balls to talk to me." Her killers... Hell, I might've even agreed with what he'd done, if he'd just been straight with me. But he hadn't, so I'd had years to come to my own conclusions.

_'Like the liberating mindset of I don't give a shit.'_

"Your mother was _more_ than that... So much more..." he said slowly, perking my interest as he smiled. I hesitated. That expression was the same one he always had in my memories. Kind, loving... "She was my savior... She taught me that I could be a man, and not some dog of her father's..."

Dramatic isn't he... "You were just a servant. Aunt Carmen wouldn't talk about it, but I doubt it was so..."

"No, of course she wouldn't. Her only job was to keep that twisted old man as far away from you as possible," Conan muttered darkly, his own hands curling into fists so tight, I could almost hear his tendons straining from where I stood. "Your Grandmother Azalea was a remarkable woman... Someone who devoted her life to helping others as a Huntress, and later as a benefactor, giving jobs, even to Faunus, after the war, including my father. Kind, selfless. Noble..."

Remarkable indeed, by the way her daughters talked about her. Their words were the only thing I had of my grandmother's, seeing as she had passed years before I was born, while my parents were still young.

_'Just a name and a few fond stories...'_

"Your point?"

"My point is that, for all her amazing qualities, the woman was hopelessly naïve, and tried to see the good in everyone. Even one Tyrian Bordeaux..." It was the first time I'd ever heard the name pass through his lips, and I could understand why. Each syllable spat out like pure venom. "The man somehow had her convinced he shared her beliefs, her goals. All the while torturing those she took in, treating them like animals for his own amusement." His eyes fell to his fist, uncurling his fingers with a long breath. "He and a few other esteemed individuals had a little game between them, that supposedly honored an old Mistralan practice, one that involved shoving our people into a pit, and having them fight until there was only one left standing, or still breathing." My blood ran cold, disgust hitting me so deeply, that I momentarily lost hold of my Aura. The stones and what was left of the bench fell with a crash to the street, that I barely registered. "He made my father fight, and when he won him more than few bouts, he rewarded him by giving me a place by his eldest daughter's side as a friend and confidant. At least until Father got older, and slower... Then I got a turn." I could see the veins straining in his face, his voice cracking for a fraction of a second, before hardening to stone once again. "Spent years fighting whatever the old sods threw at me, with whatever they deigned to give me. Knives, clubs..."

"How..." I whispered, trying to run this through my mind and failing. "How could Grandma... How could Aunt Carmen, Mom..."

"Azalea honestly never knew," he answered me, scratching at one of his ears erratically, leaving little red lines across flesh. "Going out to save the world for weeks, if not months on end tends to obscure one's vision of home. And the man was a damn good actor when he wanted to be. Fooled her right until the end. Even managed to keep it hidden from Sophie and Carmen for a good while afterwards. At least until your mother did something stupidly impulsive, and fell in love with her Faunus companion." He grinned cheekily, almost wistfully as he lowered his hand to his side. "She saw the scars, and wormed the truth from me in that way she always could. Took me away, along with her sister, and made me forget everything. Made me feel like I could deny my own nature, and in the end gave me a gift more precious than I could ever imagine." I felt a rush of sudden warmth fill my chest, memories of what felt like a lifetime ago passing in moments, only to leave a cold emptiness as I remembered myself, and realized what this all meant. "Everything I ever did, everything I'm doing now with the Fang now, has been to build a better future for you and..."

"S-shut up," I whispered into the night, shivering, though not from the night air.

"Maxi, please come with me. As long as we are who we are, the Humans..." He stepped forward, arms outstretched in an attempt to draw me into a hug.

"_SHUT UP_!" I blasted him back with a scream, swaying and grabbing for my head as a sudden pain spilt down my skull like a spike. "I... Ah... I-I'm sick of hearing people try to justify their bullshit and issues by saying how it's 'all to build a better future...' I'm _so_ sick and fucking tired."

Everywhere I went, it was the same words over and over, again and again!

"...They've gotten to you. I feared as much; they warned me this might've happened," the man spat, scratching at his arms as a manic gleam pulsed in his eyes, nose twitching. His whole scent shifted into something... different. Violent.

"What do you...?"

"The schools, Carmen, the Kingdoms! All of them turning you against me...!" he muttered under his breath quickly, repeating names and phrases again and again, as if trying to convince himself, while I backed away slightly, taking a good long look at the man standing across from me.

_'What the hell is wrong with him?'_ Anger welled up in me again. Unbidden, but oh so wanted. '_Excuses, excuses, **EXCUSES**!'_

"Did a good job of that yourself!" I could feel the pavement shifting, as cracks formed across the surface, spreading outward as a ragged laugh split my throat, as images of every little thing that had gone wrong in the past few years, and the sudden changes since coming to Beacon, flashed through my mind. "I'll admit, this is the first time anyone's ever said it's all been for me, though. Either way, I'm still not impressed, you sad, sadistic, murdering excuse for a terrorist."

He stared at me for a moment, face shifting through a dozen emotions, before settling on rage, his blood red eyes flashing before me menacingly "How can you possibly...!?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself, dear!"

A new scent filled the air, consisting fire and cinnamon, in a strange mix that tickled my senses. We both turned to see an unfamiliar woman staring down at us from the rooftop of a nearby building, sporting a crimson-colored coat and hat so bright and showy, it almost hurt to see. Her raven black hair was drawn into a ponytail of beaded locks, with one curling strand hanging in front of her grinning face. A single amber eye looked between the two of us casually, hovering over the cracks surrounding me for a moment longer, before settling on my father.

"And I agree. They never do seem to shut up with that future crap, no matter what you seem to do."

The woman would've had no trouble drawing stares, but what really caught my eye were her hands. One bore a long card that seemed to burn with an Aura of crimson fire, that shimmered as it passed between her fingers, while the other...

"S-sir, I'm sorry! I couldn't...!" the blue haired man that had been talking to Sonia, whose neck she currently held under one arm, groaned, before she unceremoniously tossed him off the roof to fall to the street with a cry of alarm, and a muffled crunch as he impacted.

_'Holy **shit**...!'_

I backed off quickly with a startled yelp, while the Faunus across from me merely looked on, looking more annoyed than anything else at the sight of his subordinate eating dirt. "Just who, or what, are you supposed to be, Human?"

"The incredible Fortuna Marigold! Former Huntress, former Trapper, and officially recognized bad-ass at your service..." She stood up straight, before launching into an elaborate bow, holding her hat over her heart. The act was so Carson-esque, I almost smirked on reflex. Then I remembered the broken and bleeding young man lying a few yards away, and my nerves caught up with me. "I'm afraid to say that I have need of the little Puppy's services, so I'll have to ask you back off."

A former Huntress... needs me?_'...Wait a sec... Did she just say **Trapper**!?'_ And that name... Why did it sound so familiar?

A feral snarl, and a sudden flash of light, burned all questions from my mind, as the world exploded all at once.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_OUT OF MY WAY!_"

I heard the commotion long before I rounded the corner, followed shortly by an out of breath Sonia. The sight of an armed Joel Ambrose in full gear, minus his hooded sweatshirt and chest armor, was instantly apparent, as he attempted to force his way through the medical wing's door, and my partner's feeble attempts to hold him back without getting shocked by the sheer level of electricity he was venting, able to do little more then gesture wildly at him.

_'I'm a dozen feet away, and my hairs standin' on end, already... This is **bad**.'_

Blue arcs pulsed every so often across his Aura. "I said _MOVE_, Reika!"

"...!" The smaller girl spun her head to face me, a fearful look in her eyes as our leader shoved past her roughly. His eyes were panicked and out for blood, like a cornered animal.

_'Of course he would. Anyone else in his position would be.'_ Especially if you'd just finished watching the girl you loved possibly cripple an unarmed student's leg in front of thousands. The broadcast cut out with the image of the blonde being taken into Atlesian custody by at least a half dozen, gun-toting guards in clear focus. Any sane reasonable person would panic.

_'Problem is a rattled former Trapper's a dangerous prospect to stomach._' Least that had been the logic that had driven me from my seat while Red and the rest of RWBY was stuck watching the brawler attempt to justify herself to the soldiers and the crowd. There were tears in the cloaked girl's eyes as they dragged the blonde off . _'Why did Max have to run off **now**, of all times?'_

If I'd had her Semblance to work with, we could've just contained him until he worked this off, if worst came to worst. Unfortunately, rather then come back for the match, she had instead opted to wander off with some "party girl," as an irritated Beauty put it, leaving me here while Ambrose was on the damn warpath.

Of course, I do possibly the stupidest thing I could think of, and step in his way, metal arm outstretched in an attempt to block him. His blue eyes darted downward to mine in a way that sent a chill, like pure ice, shooting through my veins, though I did my best to hide it behind a firm stare. "Psycho... Joel, you need to simmer down, and think about what you're doi...!"

"Ambrose, get ahold of yourself!" Max's cousin moved past me abruptly, cutting me off as she stood at her full height, probably trying to look intimidating and somewhat commanding, which, while admirable, honestly made her look as ridiculous as a mewling kitten would hissing at a rabid Ursa. "Have some consideration for how this... _Ah_!?" Ambrose swept her aside to the wall almost effortlessly, paying her undignified protests little mind. "Have you lost your senses!?" The cold grimace he gave her more than shut her up after that, making her face pale.

_'Oh, if looks could kill…'_

"Move," he growled simply, obviously meaning me as I stood before him, doing my best to cover the corridor, and trying to put up a brave front, when internally I was trying not to soil myself at the sheer menace boiling just beneath the surface. "_Now_!"

It was a scary thing. Maybe it was the way he acted normally nowadays, but one didn't often stop and think about the kind of damage this guy could reek if he ever had the mind or motivation to. A man who could challenge a champion like Pyrrha Nikos, and put down a Beowolf with a touch...

"I can't do that, Boss," I said hopefully, with more determination then I was feeling at the moment, steeling myself. "I know you're worried about her, but goin' off the handle like this'll only make things worse."

I had to talk him down before we were interrupted. It was a miracle one of the medical staff monitoring this sector hadn't contacted security already. _'Probably shaken up by what happened too I expect.'_

"We're missing something... I-I don't know!" he replied, shaking his head as if trying to come to terms with it himself. "She'd already won! You know Yang; she wouldn't just attack an unarmed person, even someone like Mercury, without a good reason! You were there, tell me you saw something I didn't!" It was a plea, plain and simple. A desperate hope as he put a shaking hand to his head to steady himself. "Maybe he said something?... No, even then she wouldn't have... Could she?"

Sure, Xiao Long could be rowdy, at times, especially when her precious hair was involved. But even at her worst, I'd never seen her aim to hit someone while their Aura was down. She always managed to regain control before there was any real harm done. Both I and the man standing before me had seen and experienced that enough times to confirm for ourselves. '_But it wouldn't be the first time someone's gone too far. It happens to the best of us.'_

"I... I don't know what I saw back there." That, at least, was the truth. One minute. we're celebrating an amazing comeback, the entire stadium roaring as the blonde brawler walked around, basking in her victory. Then the next, she suddenly turns around, and unloads a shell right into Mercury's leg without any warning at all. "What I do know is that, right now, there's an entire crowd out there, and probably more than a few Kingdoms comin' to their own conclusions. We need to be _smart_about how we handle this." My eyes flickered to his side, where I noticed a small red stain soaking the thick dark blue shirt he wore, while a flicker of pain behind the façade he usually kept up showed itself. "You stubborn... Look at yourself; what are you even plannin' to do in this condition, huh!?"

It was like I couldn't understand his drive. Yang Xiao long was a person my leader and friend wanted to protect with everything he had, which went a hell of a long way towards making her as much an unofficial member of AMBR as one could get, in my book. Hell, when Red had cried out, and I'd seen the soldiers with their guns surrounding her like some feral animal, I'd spent one crazy moment with my hand on the hilt of my belt knife, and the next contemplating how I could technically order the troopers back upon realizing I technically could, given my new position in the Atlesian chain of command.

_'Thankfully, I'd let a cooler heads prevail. And it's time to do the same here.'_

"I have to get to her; hear her side," he said more to himself than anyone else in particular, moving to pass me again, but I held him back, this time reaching up to grip his shoulder directly. "Ben, I swear if you don't...!"

"Did you not just hear what said!?" I asked, tightening my grip even further. "Ironwood's people are handling this now. There's nothin' you can do. She wouldn't want..."

He put his hand on mine, gripping the metal so tightly, I could feel the tiny servos groan under the stress as he pried it off. "I appreciate what you're doing. I _really_ do..." He let me go, his other hand twitching for the dispensers hanging off his belt. "But do me a favor, and _shut up_ for once."

Sonia was tensed up, her eyes darting for the alarm at the end of the hall that, with things as tense as they were, would probably bring every guard in the place down on our heads in less than a minute, which was something I couldn't allow. I signaled Reika with my hand covertly, urging her to keep an eye on her.

_'Blondie better have a damn good explanation for this...'_

Rather than back off, I grinned, shrugging my shoulders. "Look... I'm your friend, man. Talkin' you out of stupid shit's sort of my job description. You'd have done the same for me." His eyes widened slightly, shifting to his hand that had now gripped his weapon, before flinching away as if it had physically burned him, his face paling. "I'm worried about her too, Boss. But with the way things are out there right now, Atlesian custody might just be the safest place for her." It wasn't what he wanted to hear. Of course it wasn't. But he backed down regardless, slumping against the wall, breathing heavily. He wasn't alone in that regard, my own heart hammering almost out of my chest. "We can work out how, or why this all happened later when things have settled. But gettin' yourself caught up in this now _isn't_ the answer."

"I can't... You're right... S-shit, I almost... I'm sorry." He looked to me and then Reika, who gave him a reassuring smile that seemed to break through the guilt-ridden stare he'd put on. "I-I need to find Ruby. She'll need..."

I nodded, letting him know I understood, before stepping aside as he stumbled off like a zombie, eyes staring off at nothing in particular._ 'Pretty sure you'll be needin' just as much support, Psycho...'_ I mused sadly, shaking my head as my partner moved to follow our leader.

_"You can't be serious!?"_ her hands flashed quickly.

_"Give him some space, for now, but keep your Sense on him, just in case,"_ I signed back, wary of Ambrose's hearing. She looked conflicted, but nodded slowly, watching the Trapper leave our sight as she took on that airy look in her eye that meant she was using her Semblance. _"Keep me posted by Scroll. I need to handle a few things."_

_"We can't leave him, Ben. We can't leave **any **of them."_ I winced at the force she managed to put into the nonverbal reply, feeling the judgement on her expression. _"What's so important!?"_

_"It'll help, trust me."_ She wasn't happy, but hey, it wasn't like I had the best track record for that count, anyway.

Speaking of girls probably pissed at me, Sonia was currently trying to straighten herself out, brushing at her new gear off, looking furious, humiliated, and seemingly every emotion in between. '_Could've done her some good to show a bit of tact, ordering him around like that...'_ Ambrose had been out of his head, yeah, but anyone who'd known the guy, even as long as she had, should've been able to see that and understand. _'Hell, Max admits she can't have been the most stable person all the time...'_

"_How_!?" she snarled, glancing off indignantly towards the direction the white haired Huntsman had retreated. "How could a school like Beacon, a hero like Ozpin, possibly have allowed that _animal_ to lead a team!? I have to wonder if Miss Xiao Long's outburst is entirely her fault, or if there wasn't some other influence behind..."

Reika rounded on her with an angry glimmer in her eye, but I beat her to it, clearing my throat to draw the aristocrat's attention. "I'd _really appreciate_ _it_... if you didn't finish that thought," I said dangerously, unable to keep my voice entirely steady. "I'm willin' to give a _lot_ of leeway, seein' as you're Max's cousin, but you're really pushin' it if you think I'm gonna let you insult our team's leader right in front of me."

She raised an eyebrow mouth agape. "What? Y-you saw him; he was out of line, Benjamin! He threatened you!"

"Of course he did. The guy's a man of action, and someone he cares about is in trouble, and he can't do anythin' about it."

"That's no excuse for him to...!"

"Not really, no. But wouldn't you feel and do the same for Max in his shoes?" Her face faltered, her mouth pursing petulantly, looking a lot like her cousin in that moment, which didn't help my mood.

"A leader should be resolute and steadfast in the face of adversity. I would've at least...!"

"Well, no one's askin' what _you_ would've done, _are they_!? Go spout your little fantasies to someone who cares!"

I'd had enough of her complaining, of her comparing all of us to some imaginary standard in her own head, and spouting off rhetoric as though she had any idea what we'd been through. What actual leadership meant. _'Being responsible for gettin' everyone out alive, makin' calls that easily end in the death of a friend, or worse, dealin' with everyone's bullshit...'_

Joel wasn't perfect, but he'd kept himself together as best he could against living nightmares, and his own former comrades, and got us out okay. Surprisingly enough, I trusted him, at least enough to follow him, anyway. I believed in him to have my back. This little girl playing pretend in her own little fantasy world...

I motioned for Reika to follow me, shaking my head, leaving Miss Bordeaux to stew in her own annoyance as she gaped at us... Well... _me_, indignantly. I could care less. I had more important things on my mind to worry about than stroking her bruised ego.

_'Like how to clear this up, and somehow keep Joel from attemptin' what was likely to end with him imprisoned, or in the ground...__Dammit, Max, what the hell!?'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

I'd almost attacked my team... I could've... No. No, don't think about that...

_'This is wrong... This all **wrong**!' _I berated myself, as I made my way through the main service corridor that led to the stadium, my side throbbing incessantly with every step, my mind racing. _'She wouldn't have just attacked someone like that! Not unless...'_Unless she was defending herself... But that didn't change what I'd seen on that screen. Yang Xiao Long took her opponent down coldly, perhaps permanently, without even hesitating.

'_Maybe she panicked? Thought she saw something...'_ A hope bloomed to life, only to be stomped down. '_No... No, she'd been in way worse situations before.'_ Hell, earlier today, she'd fought her way through two other students while Weiss was down, and months before had taken on a rampaging Paladin operated by a madman without flinching. If there was one thing I was certain of, it was that the blonde Huntress didn't scare easily... So why?

Something was off. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, almost like I was being played._ 'Marigold would've called it a gut feeling... Taught me to trust them 'cause, more often than not, they turn out right...'_Yang had been in the clear, and then suddenly seemed to react to something behind her. Her body language, and how she moved to take him down, was off somehow... Something I missed...

_'Hmm...?'_ I paused mid-stride as I heard the rattling of something heavy moving from up ahead through the dull thudding commotion issued from the crowd outside and above. I looked up to catch sight of a Vale medical team making its way towards me, hauling a stretcher at a near sprint._'...Mercury!'_ I realized almost instantly, as my eyes caught sight of the kickboxer, with his mint-haired partner following closely behind, her red eyes widening fearfully as she noticed me looking as stood in front of them.

"Move aside, sir!" One of the medics, a woman with ebony black hair, motioned me aside, my wound close to splitting as I leaned against the concrete, and watched them make their way towards the emergency air dock hanger back the way I'd come.

_'Did she just smile at me?'_ I could have sworn that, in that short moment as the stretcher passed me, time slowed down. Her bright amber eyes seemed to narrow mischievously at me, almost flashing, my own blue eyes followed hers as the passed in front of me. Whatever it was, it was gone in an instant as they rushed past me, seeming not to spare me a second thought. After that moment, the nagging feeling returned, as my nose crinkled when I detected the faint acrid scent of burnt metal in the air.

_'What the... **Wait**!'_

I spun around to try and catch one last glimpse of the group, my heart pounding in my ears as I caught one last glimpse of the medic's profile before she rounded the bend, before comparing her features to what I'd retained from memory.

Another one of the holdovers from what that mad woman of a Huntress had taught me, when she'd first taken me under her wing, came to front of my mind. _"People can change the color of their hair, eyes, or skin with ease..."_ she'd said, angling the bloodied face of the bearded man she held by the scruff of his neck, while using her other hand to show me a blurry video of a White Fang Arms dealer we'd been tracking for over half a month, using a finger to point out different parts of the image. _"But there're some things you can't hide or change easily. Mannerisms, structure, vocal patterns..."_

It was shaky, Liz always having been better at the art, but at that moment, I would've sworn that that had just been the same woman who Ben and I had met alongside Emerald and Mercury ages ago. Their mysterious teammate.

_'Helps that she's pretty hard to forget.'_ But why would she be dressed like that? It wasn't impossible that she could be a volunteer helping out for the tournament, if she was qualified. It wasn't a damning piece of evidence in itself... '_But to be on call, and be the only one monitoring a patient in critical condition... **Her** teammate, no less...'_

Before I even realized what was happening, my staff was in my hand with blades extended, as my feet carried me after them, all thought of pain or exhaustion forgotten as a new fire burned in my chest, filled with anger and confusion._ 'A target, a focus, a drive...' _Something _WAS_ wrong, and it had put everything Yang had ever worked towards in jeopardy. _'Hell to pay.'_

I could see them now, boarding a medical air bus on the furthest edge of the docks._'Just a little bit further!'_ My mouth opened to shout for them to stop, when something red and white flashed at the corner of my vision. Suddenly, I found myself on the ground staring up at the stars, winded and out of breath. Meanwhile, a figure, obviously a female, garbed in a red kimono similar in style to Reika's, moved to stand over me, as she held a long, single-edge, crimson sword steadily at my throat. Her face was concealed behind an intricate white mask, almost like a Grimm's.

_'White Fang!?'_

"I cannot allow you to interfere just yet. The flow of events must pass unhindered," the figure said in a dull tone, before letting out little "tsk" as my body reacted on reflex at the position, knocking the blade away with one leg, and lashing outward with the other, as I used the force to roll back into a crouch, staff held defensively out before me as sparks ran down my arms.

The woman, whoever she was, had seen the move coming. and had avoided it flawlessly, her own weapon held at her side as she turned her head to the side. Following her line of sight, I grimaced as I watched the air bus take off, leaving a few of the medics behind while speeding out into the night towards the glowing city below, out of reach.

_"NO!"_

"Events proceed elsewhere, Guardian. Events you must bear witness to."

I turned to glare at her furiously. "What the hell are you..." I paused after registering what she had just said. "Guardian?..." I murmured to myself.

A similar message from months before came to the forefront of my mind. It had been written on the back of treated Grimm flesh meant to vanish upon opening, as if it had never been there to begin with.

_"Thank you for her life, Guardian. You cannot know what it means to me to see her safe and protected. You have my gratitude, but please tell no one of this letter. Especially Yang. If fate wills it, we may yet meet face to face._"

I'd wondered on that vague message of thanks more than once, wondering who could have possibly sent it, even as I honored the desperate missive inside, keeping the contents to myself...

"...The hospital... That note. You were the one that left it?"

The figure seemed to hesitate for a moment, but nodded almost imperceptibly, taking a more relaxed pose, though she still kept her sword at the ready. My eyes were unable to leave the blade completely, watching for any sign of hostility. "I'd hoped that fate would've brought us together under different circumstances. Unfortunately, however, time is short, and the personal request of an old comrade has forced my hand."

_'Well, that sure doesn't sound ominous at all, does it?'_

"Look, I don't know what the hell you think you're playing at, but do you realize what you've just done!?" I shouted, voice laced with anger as I motioned out into the night with _Circuit_. "Those people, the one's you just protected, are up to something! Something that I think has to do with the trouble Yang's in now, or at the very least is related to it." The mention of the blonde's name had some effect, as her stance noticeably tensed from before, the grip tightening on her sword. "From that note you left me, it's clear that you must care about Yang at least somewhat...!"

"That doesn't matter now..." the red woman said slowly, moving a step forward, only to pause as the blade of my staff rose to meet her. "Yang has absolutely no bearing on the matter at hand."

"I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there," I spat out, digging my feet into the ground, vision blurring for a moment. "I promised myself and others that I would keep her safe, and that's what I intend to do. Your needs can wait, and so can your friend's. Sorry."

"...It seems you won't stand and listen to reason after all." The words were somber, almost regretful. "I'd hoped you'd be more agreeable..."

"You obviously haven't met..." I made to reply, only to find the woman had left my vision, somehow managing to disappear and reappear right beside me, as the pommel of her blade was driven deep into my wounded side while she forcing her Aura past my barrier, in a blow that set my nerves on fire.

_'H-how the hell!?'_

The woman took advantage of my stunned state, grabbing firm hold of the back of my neck, as her sword swept in a downward arc, making me flinch. I expecting to feel the cold bite of steel... Rather than aiming to finish me, however, the long weapon sliced through the air in front of us, seeming to carve a roiling, crimson fissure that pulsed darkly mere inches before my eyes in the night air.

"I've done as you requested, Kenneth..." the woman intoned, though not to me, my throat constricting at mention of my Grandfather's name coming from her. "My duty to you is almost finished, and our debt nearly settled. Rest easy, my friend."

I tried to flare my Aura to get her off me, but it was far too late. Already I could feel my body lurching forward as she shoved me face first into the strange portal, her sad sigh the last thing I heard before the world around me vanished completely.

**-END**

* * *

**-CODEX-**

**_White Fang Data Logs_**

Recruitment Records archived 5 years previously, obtained upon recruit's assignment to Project APEX under Commander Mary Magnolia (Deceased - C.O.D Extreme Trauma and Overdose)

**NAME**: Conan D. Argus

**AGE**: Early 30s (Approx.)

**KoO**: Mistral Outlier

Attached Notes- Recruited locally from one of our more recent gatherings within the Kingdom, Recruit Argus soon proved himself an effective soldier despite being older than most candidates we take in, possessing an innately unlocked Aura, and a firm grasp of CQC, though proving less effective in the realms of firearm use. Served for six months without incident, until a sudden outburst resulting from a squabble over a locket within Argus' possession ended in the death of his field commander. Later pardoned and reassigned under the command of Mary Magnolia and her "Blood Hounds." Has shown remarkable resistance to supplied stimulants thus far pending further inquiry.

* * *

**_A/N: Kicking off this new arc of the story with a bang! Hey all good to put something up again and sorry for the delays with chapters lately, I really am hoping that stuff will improve once my schedule clears up but this stuff does sort of need to take priority at the moment so my next post likely won't be until well within March unless things go way smoother than I thought they would. Tip to all people considering Film as a major and possible career in the future, learn to work with other people in life cause unlike a lot of other professions you're basically forced to depend on them (To you're own benefit/detriment.)_**


	59. Chapter 59

**Edited as of (7/23/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

OFFERS AND GOODBYES

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"What do you mean you lost him!?" I gaped at the small girl huffing and panting in front of me, after she'd just managed to force herself past the armed guards directly into the small office Ironwood was using to direct the Coliseum's security, hands flashing wildly, and interrupting my little campaign to convince the General that keeping Yang Xiao Long in custody long term was a very bad idea. "How's that even... How?"

_'When it rains, it pours, I suppose was the sayin', after all,'_ I thought with a small frown as my mind raced, brow furrowed.

"..."

"Look, I don't need to explain what I'm doin'; focus on the bigger issue here! Ambrose. Missin'. _How_!?"

"...!" She sent more signs with a particularly nasty frown, followed by a harsh finger pointing from my chest to the uniformed man watching us with a bemused frown.

_'You have got to be kidding me!'_

"Alright, alright, already! I don't need attitude right now! 'Sides, I'm not the one that managed to lose track of one..." I was already flinching, big mouth ready to take one of her signature punches, when old Woody himself cleared his throat loudly, silencing us both, or me at least. Reika's fingers were still twitching, forming little half statements, all short, sweet, and particularly nasty.

_"I'll explain later,"_ I promised with a curt gesture, trying to ignore audible sound of the Huntress digging her heel into the concrete floor.

_"You'd **better**..."_

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but what seems to be the issue here?" the General asked, eyes tracking the little motions with interest, though if he was curious about what was being said, he didn't comment on it.

_'If anythin' he just looks tired.'_

"Must be quite important."

The two of us looked to each other for a second, Reika's eyes wide and accusing, though I shook my head, the girl turning her gaze to the ground. looking murderous._'Excuse me for not wantin' to lie to the single most powerful individual in the Kingdom short of Ozpin.'_

"It's about Psycho... Joel, I mean." I shifted my feet, correcting myself as I saw the confusion cross his face. "Considerin' he was pretty pissed about your lot takin' his girlfriend in, I thought it would be a good idea to have Reika here use her Semblance to keep an eye on him. Problem is that he, well... It seems she's lost track of him." I said with a note of hesitation, the girl at my side red in the face, looking almost embarrassed.

"I... wasn't aware that was possible," he said after a few seconds, eyebrow raised as he looked down at my partner inquisitively, making her shift uncomfortably. "Miss Murasaki's ability is remarkably accurate for a sensory type, and possesses an extraordinary range. Enough to cover the coliseum and fairgrounds, as I was led understand it."

He probably knows damn well how it worked. _'Atlesian control issues...'_

I shrugged, using the motion to send a signal Reika, asking her just how much I could reveal. The girl always had been hesitant to allow the doctors, soldiers, and researchers that had picked us up after the wreck to learn the true scope of what she could do both physically, or with her Semblance. Thankfully, the girl seemed to understand this particular issue might be beyond us, or that it would at least be better to use what resources we had, especially if Joel had himself wrapped up in something stupid.

"...Enough to cover a good bit further than that, actually." If anything, I'd be surprised, if with enough time and effort, the Huntress-in-training couldn't track and single out every individual signature for miles. The range wasn't the issue.

_'The problem is the how.' _I'd been working with her Sense for a long time, and had a decent grasp on the rules, probably second only to Reika herself. She was fully capable of locating a specific Aura signature by instinct alone in a large space, be it a person, or even a specific plant or animal, if she'd been in their presence before for long enough. '_Hell, she used to make a habit of it. It was how she said hello._'

Even in a packed arena like this, months of living with Psycho should've made his Aura unmistakable to her. If she couldn't find him after as much effort as she had obviously put in, then he wasn't here, simple as that.

"He couldn't have just left the coliseum's premises, or secreted himself away within the population somehow?" Jimmy asked, motioning for some of the techs watching camera feeds on our left to get to work, combing through footage. "Weren't you just informing me that he might try something drastic if Miss Xiao Long wasn't released? That he would make trouble?'

The girl's violet eyes widened before narrowing at me, my teeth gritting despite myself. _"You did **WHAT**?"_

"I did..." I admitted, drawing more ire from my partner, if that were even possible. "But I doubt that's the case here. He didn't leave, or anythin' like that. One second she has Joel pinned down somewhere along the air bus docks, then the next he's suddenly just gone, as if he was never there to begin with." That had been the biggest point of contention, the girl's hurried explanation of events too panicked, even for me, to read clearly. Something about a strange, and unfamiliar signature cropping up for a few seconds before his disappearance... "The only thing I can think of is that either the guy somehow managed to travel beyond her range in less than a second, or..." I hesitated, glancing guiltily at Reika's downcast face.

"Or he was attacked, and his Aura was snuffed out..." Ironwood finished bleakly for me, eyes narrowing as he turned around towards a small wall of screens, motioning at the two techs manning the station. "Alert security now. Search the air docks for any sign of a struggle."

"Look, I'm certain he's alright," I said, more to reassure Reika and myself than anything else.

_'No way he's dead. A guy like Ambrose wouldn't have gone down quietly.'_ Though he was hurt, and off balance... I snuffed out those traitorous thoughts before they could grow any stronger.

"Regardless, I want a full rundown of all of Trapper-01's movements over the last four hours. Everything we have, now!" The pair snapped off a quick salute, and got to work pulling up footage. Everything from the Huntsman sitting in his sick bed, face a mask of horror as he looked towards his broadcast of Blondie's fight, to our tense scuffle in the hallway, Ironwood's frown deepening at those particular feeds. "Of all the times for this to... We need to get a handle on the situation before things get any worse. If he has gone rogue..."

I ignored him, brow furrowing as I focused inward, trying to piece possibilities together. Of course I didn't want to believe he was dead, but the only other alternative wasn't too easy to swallow either. _'What the hell 's goin' on here?'_

* * *

**_-Sonia Bordeaux-_**

_'How **dare** that incorrigible, puffed up, condescending...'_ I seethed angrily, tucking my knees further into my chest with my arms, and gritting my teeth together so hard, it actually was starting to hurt. _'What could he possibly know, sticking up for such a display!?'_

It was madness. Ambrose was obviously an unstable element, just as I'd suspected, but rather than deal with the issue, Benjamin merely let it go on. Didn't he know that anything his leader pulled, any damage he might cause, would directly fall back on the rest of AMBR? On Maxi?

_'Maxine_..._'_ The thought of her brought up a fresh well of annoyance, though I couldn't really understand why. She had just as much right to run off and have a good time as anyone else, though her own brand of fun may have been a bit much for most people. But to flat out abandon me..._ 'No, not abandon. Never abandon... Would she?'_

I felt the beginnings of another migraine pulsing painfully at the borders of my skull. '_She wouldn't. Not again... Wait, again? When had she ever..?'_

All attempts to contact my wayward cousin since I'd lost track had failed spectacularly, anyway, and searching around the area she'd vanished hadn't helped at all, and, worse, left me stuck in Vale outside a dimly lit cafe, as the last of the airships to Beacon departed for the night. Worse was, unless my Lien card starts working again, I'll have to call, begging for a ride back.

_'Positive. Stay positive. All it means is a hotel room, and in the morning...'_ I shook my head, doing my best to try and clear it, before taking out my Scroll again, and dialing, listening to the dial tone as it did it's best to connect.

_"We're sorry. The number you are trying to contact is unavailable. Please leave a message, or contact the Mistral Cross Continental..."_

With a frankly undignified snarl that would've made my cousin proud, I tossed the blasted device away from me, sending it bouncing and skidding across the pavement, only to stop at the feet of...

"Hmm?" A pale delicate hand plucked the Scroll up to examine it closely with amber colored eyes that almost seemed to smolder in the dim light of the street lights. The woman they belonged to was... "Stunning" seemed just a bit too inadequate a term to be used when describing someone like her. She had long raven-colored hair that put my own to shame, as well as possessing features and proportions that would've looked at home on one of the marble statues dotting Mistral's greatest landmarks, though seemingly familiar. "Excuse me? I believe you dropped this." She clicked forward on glass heels, carrying herself the rest of the way to my table, before standing over me to offer the now cracked machine with a disarming smile.

"Uh, I... Y-yes, thank you," I stammered back at her as I accepted it, mentally reprimanding myself for letting her get to me. That should've been the end of it, but rather then walk away, she pulled out the seat across from me and sat down, relaxing, though still managing to make the cheap iron chair appear a throne. "Um...?"

"Excuse me, but I needed to rest a bit, anyway. Walking in these is absolutely murderous on the feet," she laughed to herself, placing the glass footwear aside as she glanced around the small patch of cityscape we found ourselves in, before a small frown touched her face. "I hope that's alright?"

"Of course, but, um... Have we met?" It was on the tip of my mind, but I couldn't really grasp it.

"No. I doubt I could forget a pretty little thing such as yourself if we had." She smiled at the sudden rush of warmth tinging my cheeks, before continuing. "Have you been watching the Vytal Festival, perhaps? Before the recent... unpleasantness, I mean?" She must have been a Huntress-in-training. From one of the other academies, most lik...

It clicked all at once. _'Mercury's leader.'_

I'd seen her in the first match of the tournament, but then she'd simply vanished. Her team was represented by her other teammates, while she herself sat on the sidelines, watching as they picked the competition apart. "I... I-I'm so..."

"For a student to so brazenly strike down another while he's beaten and defenseless, before a crowd of onlookers, no less..." She shook her head slowly, almost disappointingly. "Such a thing would never happen in Mistral... Or perhaps it very well could..." She paused, cutting herself off as she turned her gaze back on me. "I'm sorry, I never did introduce myself. Cinder Fall of Haven Academy."

"Sonia Bordeaux."

"...Bordeaux? Like the artist? " The Huntresses' voice seemed nervous. A familiar reaction. At last, something I knew how to handle: a fan.

I nodded, feeling a small well of pride well up, even as I played the part of humble daughter. "Yes, she's my mother, in fact." I smiled proudly, the age old guilt gnawing at me even now.

_'She's praising Maxi. It's her work... A lie I'm forced to tell for her again and again, because she can't...'_ But she told Benjamin. On a small hill in the middle of Beacon's gardens, when she first...

I frowned, wondering how I could possibly know that.

"From your clothes, I'm guessing you must be a Huntress-in-training, as well. Are you from Beacon? I haven't seen you at Haven." She was very... direct, that was for certain.

"U-um, no, not exactly." I rubbed at a crease in my leggings, feeling another short flicker of pain and annoyance, along with something else I couldn't quite identify, yet was intimately familiar all at once. Almost as if my Aura had reared back in response to the feeling.

_'Keep control...'_

She must've noticed my sudden shift, a look of wary concern crossing her features. "What I meant to say is that I'm merely staying there for the tournament with my cousin's team, before making the trip back to Mistral." I bit the inside of my lip before adding, "Why _are_ you still here, if you don't mind me asking?... I mean, with your teammate injured, I... A-apologies. I can't believe I asked that; of course it's none of my business."

I looked down flustered and mortified._'What's wrong with me?'_

I've spent years interacting with people many would consider beautiful, both either through some artificial means, or plain natural grace. This woman, though, seemed to exude an Aura that simultaneously demanded respect and attention in equal measure, similar to when I'd first met with Professor Ozpin, if much more oppressive. A part of me wanted to please her, the other part wanted to run. It was an exhilarating feeling.

"No, it's a valid concern. It's just I've never been one to stomach hospitals for very long," she said unabashed, leaning her chin on her palms as she rested her elbows on the table. "My teammates are seeing to him now. I just needed some air. Nights like this are excellent for putting things in perspective."

That was a sentiment I could agree with wholeheartedly. Only a few weeks, and I still shivered at the thought of being held in a place like that for so long. _'But I wasn't... Max was there. And SBLE... Huh?'_

I wasn't aware of exactly when the memories had risen up from the darkest corners of my mind, occasionally mixing in or around what I knew to be real life, or at least I hoped. Our time in Mistral, Ambrose with his hand on that corpse...

_'I still haven't told Maxi... In fact, why should I? I don't need her!'_ Running off, leaving me to fend for myself, doubting my abilities, even after this was all her...

"...Are you alright?" Cinder's concerned voice broke me out of my stupor, my eyes widening as I noticed my arms shaking fiercely, fingers digging almost painfully into my knees. "Is something troubling you?"

I don't know why I did it. Whether it was the pain of this damnable headache, or the pressure of tonight's events, but I told her everything in a wild tumble of words. As much as I could without sounding like a madwoman with months of fake memories rattling in her head, anyway. The accident, my mother's silence, AMBR's hesitance, and Maxi's attitude that was somehow both overbearing yet distant, like treating me like some fragile doll... And she listened. Listened in silence as I talked for what felt like hours, until I could hardly breath, and tears stung my eyes.

"...You feel you aren't respected... That your own contributions are ignored. That your cousin no longer sees you as an equal, but as a burden. Something to be coddled. And this frightens you." Her words were slow and measured, spoken in a low voice that seemed to ring clear, even in the mess of noise around us. I couldn't help but nod, shivering in my seat as my head pulsed again, and that strange feeling in my Aura returned.

_'I hate this. I hate feeling weak!_' It was a small thought, but one that rang throughout my being.

"Why? Why do you need her approval?"

"She's my family..." I started, but a harsh tick, as her fingernail met the wood of the table, drove me to silence.

"She hurt you, took everything from you. Lied to you..."

"...Lied to me?... What are you talking about? Maxi has never told me anything less than the truth; not once!" I stood up knocking the chair away, glaring daggers at the woman, eyes flaring along with my Aura. And for the first time, I saw a flicker of what might've been fear, or at the very least caution in her eyes.

_'I **had** to spill my fears to her... What was I...'_

"Hmm... She hasn't told you about your mother, has she? In fact, I'm surprised she could've kept it from you for so long, though I suppose news from home would take a backseat to something as large and grand as the Vytal Festival."

She brought out a Scroll of her own and typed away, bringing up an article, before sliding it across the table in front of me. My heart stopped as I began to read.

"You're cousin stole away the power you had, all the potential, and squandered it trying to keep you in the dark, like the coward she truly is," she continued on, noting my reaction with a nod of her head. "The truth hurts Sonia... But it also sets us_free_."

"Who... Who are you, really?" I asked shakily, looking up at her smiling features, as the shadows, as if for the first time, to me at least, seemed to be flocking to her except for her eyes, which seemed to burn like torches in the night air.

"Someone who's tired of a world where potential like your's is tossed by the way side," she replied softly, smile only broadening as she leaned back imperiously. "You have power, Sonia. Power that can help change the world. I merely wish to set it free."

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

_'**How**!? How is this even **possible**!?... No. No, just calm down, and think rationally. Control your emotions...'_ I breathed out at a measured pace, doing my best to let whatever panic I still felt flow outward with it, settling further into the bough of the enormous, red-leaved tree I'd taken shelter in. Panic meant fear, fear meant negativity, and negativity meant death. Especially seeing as it would draw the massive Creep prowling through the forest floor below like a dinner bell, along with anything else in the area.

Easily comparable in size to the Death Stalker RWBY and JNPR had encountered in Initiation, the beast was still able to weave it's moss-covered, scaly armored form through the wide spaces between the trunks, every clawed footstep shaking the world around it, and sending sharp tremors through the trunk I leaned against.

_'This creature's old. Much older than anything the Kingdoms would knowingly allow to exist within their borders.'_

Most Grimm I'd encountered in the last few months had been of the younger variety, those living near the border freshly spawned and less dangerous. Encountering and barely escaping this monster had been a sobering wake-up call. '_At least this means my theory was correct, and this wasn't some elaborate arena, or trick meant to throw me off...'_

* * *

**(1 Hour Earlier)**

"_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH_!?"

Biting cold, sudden darkness, and a profound sense of vertigo hit my senses before gravity put me on the ground hard, face first, breathing in the tangy sent of rotting leaves.

_'What... How... Was that a **Semblance**!?'_

Awareness returned to me in a rush of motion, as well as the realization of what must've happened. Anger and desperation dragged me to my feet, as I spun on my heels to make a running leap for the still roiling tear hovering in the air, my hands outstretched. I was mere centimeters away from reaching it, before the portal faded away into nothing

I landed on my stomach hard, and upset the wound in my side even more. "_Damn it_!"

I punched the ground, panting as I worked myself up on my knees with a rustle of dead leaves. With a groan, I brought my other hand away from my side, only to grimace as I noticed the telltale red staining my glove.

_'Take stock of the situation. Manage yourself, and determine you location...'_ I told myself, closing my eyes as I accepted the feeling of the pain, and embraced it. Then, I let it fade to the corners of my mind, drawing upon my Aura to at least stop the bleeding.

Letting myself sit still for a moment more, I opened my eyes to spare a glance for the starry night sky just visible through the tree tops. _'What the hell is all this? **WHO** was that?'_

Shaking my head, I got to my feet. There was no use in sitting around, after all, and the sooner I had my bearings, the sooner I would get out of this... _'...Hang on.'_

I knew this place. I had been here before. The trees were larger than just about anything that grew in Vale, and, by experience, would have trunks as hard as iron to better withstand the harsh winters and raging beasts, autumn shifting what leaves that hadn't already fallen into a bloody canopy above and below.

_'But that's impossible... How could I possibly be...?'_

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud crunch, which was followed by a deep guttural sound echoing from behind me. The sounds sent a cold chill down my spine, as I slowly turned around. I then looked up so I could look at the massive reptilian Grimm clearing the tree line. An Alpha Creep, and a big one, too, was heaving behind me, with steam billowing out with every breath, red eyes gleaming with a sinister intelligence, as it examined every little move I made, weighing its options with a gleam of wicked intelligence.

On the edge of its right paw, I saw something broken... Something I quickly realized to be my Scroll. _'Shit...'_

On reflex, I reached for my belt, only to remember, with a cold start, that _Circuit_wasn't there. My eyes searched around frantically, until a gleam of silvery metal drew my attention. The weapon, still fully extended, was lying on the ground a few yards away, directly between me and the beast, having been expelled same as I had been, and lost in the commotion.

We stood there for a tense moment, each watching and waiting for the other to make a move, until the Grimm let loose a roar that almost deafened me then and there, and rippled through the forest. It lumbered forward, building speed with every clawed step, and shaking the ground beneath me while kicking up leaves. It was part challenge, and part call for reinforcements.

_'C'mon, ugly! **C'MON**!'_ I moved forward with a loud bellow of my own.

The monster lunged forward, opening a maw rimmed with razor sharp fangs, intent on scooping me up in one gulp. The foul stink of old flesh and decay filled my nostrils as it approached. At the last possible second, however, I managed to roll before it, grabbing my weapon along the way, before leaping high into the air, and missing a grisly fate by mere inches. I angled myself around, poised to drive a silver bladed end into a point of unarmored black skin between the joint where neck met the back, and put it down in one decisive blow.

Unfortunately, I'd underestimated the beast's awareness, it's intelligence gleaned from years of facing similar foes. A flicker of movement at the corner of my vision, and combat-honed reflex were the only things that allowed me to shift my way, and avoid a direct hit from the Creep's tail, that had lashed out from behind it. A blow that likely would've ended with me as a crimson smear across the face of one of the surrounding trees, Aura or no. As it stood even, the glancing blow sent me tumbling roughly a few dozen yards to the leaves strewn ground. I felt dazed, with my arm feeling numb.

_'A feint,'_ I realized dimly, as I used the staff as a crutch to get on my feet. The beast paced the length of the field, before letting out a bestial growl that almost sounded disturbingly like laughter to my ears, and sent a cold edge of fear through me.

_'NO!'_' I suppressed the feeling, using the pain as a focus for removing everything else from mind.

The Alpha braced itself as I held my weapon out, hand moving slowly towards my belt, prepared to chase after me if I attempted to flee. What it hadn't expected was the sudden flash of silver, followed by a searing pain in its right eye, that left it howling furiously into the night, or the sudden burn, as electricity coursed through its body. Its massive armored body reeled back from the pain, smashing trees like tinder as it rampaged half blind. In it's agony it, hardly noticed the screaming Human that attacked from it's new blindside, swinging through the treetops from a shimmering line towards the beast's throat in a flash of blue, white, and silver...

* * *

**(Present)**

_'If only I'd managed to finish the job,'_ I chided myself angrily, as I landed on the next tree branch. A sharp twinge in my side almost made me lose balance, my legs wobbling precariously, before I managed to steady myself, my hand bracing myself against the tree trunk, as exhaustion tinged at the corner of my awareness.

After a nerve wracking hour of cat and mouse, I'd finally managed to evade the behemoth, merely thankful that it's pain was drawing the other beasts in the forest towards it, leaving me relatively few obstacles except for a small pack ape-like howlers that I'd dispatched easily enough, my knives sending their small bodies tumbling from the treetops. They'd dissolved before they even hit the ground.

_'Only further proof...' _Pain pulsed from my injuries, only serving as a further reminder that this wasn't some sick dream.

I worked myself into a standing position overlooking the crumbling stone tower, overgrown with moss, vines, and other signs of neglect. A single torn banner fluttered in the breeze atop it, depicting a crescent moon inside a ring of spikes. The same symbol that my hastily donned chest piece bore on its heart.

'_A monument to a people's failure, and to the scourge that almost killed us...'_

* * *

**(4 years prieviously)**

I ran, as fast as I could, heart hammering as the bloodthirsty howls of monsters, and the terrified baying of their prey, tore through the night behind me. Stumbling over an exposed tree root with a hastily mumbled curse, I quickly, if awkwardly, rolled into the cover of some bushes at the massive tree's base, the drab brown fatigues I wore itching fiercely as the overlarge flak armor smacked into my chin hard enough for me to feel through my Aura. I closed my eyes against the pain, quickly trying to do as Grandfather and my mother had taught me, and doing my best to ignore the heavy plodding of clawed feet passing nearby. I felt the fear welling up inside of me to the point of it almost being unbearable, before letting it go with a single long exhale, breath settling back into some semblance of normalcy, as I opened my eyes, listening to the now thankfully far off sounds of fighting.

_'What the hell am I even doing here?'_ I let my head fall back against the trunk, as my hands drew one of the two standard issue Variable Assault Sabers the instructors had provided to those academy hopefuls without their own weapon, thumbing a small switch on the rectangular hilt, before breathing a small sigh of relief, as a short segmented steel blade sprang to life with a series of clicks. The weapon and its twin were cheap and laughable, compared to the custom silver-treated pair that Uncle Lucas had wielded. However, they would have to do. _'He'd be ashamed of me, hiding in a bush like a child.'_

However, that was the whole point of this test, wasn't it? Aegis was a school famed throughout the Frontier for it's ability to produce exceptional Huntsmen and Huntresses. Anyone that believed themselves able would be admitted, provided that they complete a deceptively simple initiation: survive a single night in the forests surrounding the walled city of Bastion.

Some recruits saw it as a challenge of courage, or martial prowess, where they would battle the creatures that had pushed Humanity to the brink, and prove themselves worthy to join the academy's ranks. Judging from the screams, they'd gotten their wish. Huntsmen from the city regularly swept these woods to keep the Grimm population down and relatively manageable each year, ensuring those that submitted themselves didn't run into anything too nasty, though, admittedly, that didn't mean some didn't inevitably slip through the cracks. Those that fought blindly or overconfidently would only be overwhelmed in the end, no matter how many they slew, while those that ran in fear would only draw more Grimm to them. Only a calm, disciplined soul, or a lucky one, would be able to avoid the monsters, and meet back at the wall when the sun crested the horizon, with full knowledge of what they would face if they kept down this path.

The old Huntsmen, like Kenneth Ambrose, called it a sad, if necessary bloodletting. Jake called it stupid and pointless, and a small part of me couldn't help but agree with him. It didn't matter how I felt, though. Aegis didn't need recruits that knew how to fight, or who would charge at a horde without hesitation. No, it wanted recruits that could survive and adapt. And if I wanted to be a Huntsman, then that was exactly what I needed to do.

I crawled from the brush, intent on maybe working my way up into the trees, like some of the others had, but before I could start climbing, a shrill shriek of fright rose up from close by. Maybe only a few dozen yards away, followed by a triumphant roar.

"H-help me! _Please_! Anybody!" The words were shaky, and soaked through with terror.

Another student, a girl by the sounds of it, must've stumbled along, trying to run like I had, though, unfortunately, hadn't been fortunate enough to find a hiding place to evade her hunter. _'She's probably done for. Especially making that much noise,_' I thought darkly, palm digging into the hilt of my shaking blade, as I immediately smacked my free hand against my skull for the notion.

The instructor running the exam, a grey-haired Huntress with a mess of scars across her face, had made it perfectly clear we wouldn't be receiving any aid until morning, when the gate would open for those present, and Huntsmen would be sent out to survey the area, and find any who might've survived, but were unable to make it back. It was a rarity, and utterly useless to the girl now.

_"I advise against risking your life needlessly..."_ she'd said, slapping a wooden rod against a map of the the surrounding area where the test would be taking place, making us all jump in our seats. _"While commendable, hapless heroics and grandstanding for your peers aren't a substitute for honor, and are more likely to lead to fatter Grimm than anything useful."_

Harsh, just like everything else I'd come to learn about the Huntsmen of the Frontier._'Do other Kingdoms deal with this? Probably not, with their robotic drones and defenses...'_I could hear rustling up above me. Other students had heard the desperate sobbing pleas, but none moved to assist.

A survivor would write her off as another fatality. Just another soul lost to a cruel test to determine the worth of a new generation of Mankind's defenders...

_'...My little hero...'_

I was sprinting towards the sounds before I'd even registered what I was doing, tearing through the undergrowth, and leaping out into a small glade, instantly taking in the sight of a dark haired girl, wearing the same armor I was, cowering before a towering Ursa standing on it's hind legs, looking every bit as frightening as the one Jake and I had stumbled across years ago, if not more so. So far, she was unhurt, but definitely outclassed by the Grimm.

The mere sight of it turning to face me almost froze me in place, though, somehow, I miraculously kept moving, as my mouth moved without me really registering. "I'll distract it; get back!"

She hesitated, though managed to scramble off to the side while the Ursa was focused on me, the furry monster lumbering forward a step, ready to meet my idiotic charge.

_'You're small now, Joel, but so is everyone in comparison to a Grimm, which means you'll have to be faster than them. Move smart.'_ I moved on practiced instinct when I saw it's claw swipe towards me, ducking underneath the swing, and feeling the air ripple above me from the force behind it._'One... Too shallow.'_ I delivered a clean slice to the bear's side, though I mostly caught fat and fur rather then anything vital. The beast released a furious snarl in response._'Watch out for back swing. Two... Too deep.'_I leaned back to avoid the creature's counter. I stabbed forward into its stomach, though I felt the blade get in caught in it, almost losing my grip as the Ursa jerked back with me along with it. _'Move with the blow, and...'_ I grabbed for the other blade at my belt, extending it with a cry, as I used the beast's own strength to swing me up its torso, before slicing its throat neatly in a spray of blood that dissolved soon as it hit the air. The Ursa swayed with a wet gurgle, before toppling back in a move that carried me forward with a yelp, and sent me tumbling across the ground, eating dirt as my sword came loose suddenly.

_'Just right... I did it... **I ACTUALLY DID IT!**'_ I grinned as I got to my feet, barely catching sight of the Beowolf about to catch my throat in its jaw, before a sharp crack blew its head apart. The body fell with a heavy thud in front of me. _'H-h-**Holy shit**!'_ I hadn't caught it, so wrapped up with it's friend defeat, that it almost... _'Shit.'_

I looked in the direction of the loud sound, and saw that the girl who I'd told to run was standing a few feet away, clutching a massive smoking pistol in quivering hands. In all honesty, she was shaking so hard, it was a miracle she'd hit the creature at all, especially given how fast it was moving.

"...Thanks for the...!?" The girl slumped onto her knees suddenly, dropping the pistol with a clatter as her hands went to her face, descending into wracking sobs. "Uh..."

"I c-can't... E-even... W-what was I thinking!? Damn it, what was I... Omigod, omigod, omigod!" She said into her hands over and over, shaking her head.

'_What_?' I asked myself, looking back a short ways away, and almost vomiting as I learned that the girl hadn't been alone after all.

"Be a Huntress... Be brave... Sneak out!? Stupid, stupid, stupid...!"

She was panicked, of course she was... _'Not like she doesn't have reason to,'_ I shuddered, delivering a sharp kick to the now headless Beowolf, before compressing my weapons yet again. Still, she'd need to calm down before she drew every Grimm for miles right to us. '_How the hell did Mom calm Jake and I down with the Beowolf again...?'_

I walked up to her, scooping up a glint of silvery metal flashing in the moonlight as the girl flinched with every sound I made. She was tiny thing. Certainly not as athletic as the other girl's I'd noticed undergoing Initiation, though, of course, I wasn't exactly a specimen myself. In fact, she was probably shorter then I was, though she seemed about my age.

"Hey," I said confidently and surely, clapping my hands in front of her as I got down on one knee. "Hey, look at me... We're alright." She did, after a fashion, lowering her hands to reveal a youthful face, and startlingly pink eyes rimmed in red.

_'Distract her...'_

"You have really pretty eyes." The words slipped out before I'd even registered what I was saying. Her brows rose, and a blush tinged her cheeks. Probably mirroring my own, if the sudden heat on my face was any indicator.

_'Okay, dumb idea, but it seemed to do the trick for the moment.'_

I still had to commit, though. Holding out my hand, I presented the pair of slightly cracked glasses I'd picked up out to her. "They're, uh... like the tree blossoms in the park." I finished lamely, mentally punching myself.

_'Wow, that's not creepy at all.'_

"...T-that's what my dad says," she murmured carefully, placing the par on her face as I helped her shakily to her feet, dusting herself off. "Apparently, he wanted to name me after them, but... Wait, what?" She jumped with a start, seeming to remember where she was. The girl looked at the fast dissolving Grimm with a wide eyed stare, before looking at me. "Did I...?"

"Uh huh," I said happily, trying to ignore the fact that she'd been pretty much blind making that shot. "Was that your first?" She nodded slowly, an awestruck look on her face as she quickly scooped up her gun. "Mine, too. I mean, I've seen Grimm, but up close..." I chuckled under my breath, the girl looking at me as if I'd just gone insane. "...My name's Joel."

"...N-Natalie," she choked out, smiling herself, before the howls started up again, sending my hands to my sides, though stopped when the girl grabbed one, and started pulling. "Don't." She shook her head, the pulling becoming more and more insistent. "I think I know a place. It's a ways off, but we should be safe, at least until dawn."

I hesitated, eyes shifting towards the treetops longingly, though a closer look revealed pairs of glowing red eyes looking down at me, and a slight dripping noise.

"Y-yeah... Good plan."

* * *

**(Present)**

_'Feels like all that was ages ago.'_ I ran a hand gently along the stonework of the parapet, tracing fingers over a pair of small, crudely carved initials. _'Has it really only been four years?'_ I'd been a wholly different person then, and not just appearance-wise. So much so, that I had to wonder how a younger, darker haired me would've reacted to how I was now, having taken on more then my share of Ursa and worse. _'Terrified, I expect, especially of all the scars._' I grinned, reaching for my collar, and scratching at a few of the old wounds underneath the chest piece.

As I stood there reminiscing, the sun crested the horizon, sending warm light across the whole area, illuminating what I'd already seen from a distance. A large city of towering, block-like buildings was now visible in the light, built around a high hilltop with a veritable fortress at its peak. The city's edges were bordered by a massive silver wall, shimmering with lights and turret emplacements meant to ward against all aggressors. It was a barricade that had stood the test of time against both man and monster, rising from wood, to stone, to what it now was today.

"Bastion..." I mouthed, breath catching as I got the first real glimpse of my birthplace that I had in years. The finest city of the Frontier, the "Silver City." "...I'm home."

The how or why didn't much matter in those scant few moments before reality set in, my hands digging into the stone of what had once been a forward outpost for my people centuries ago, before it was lost to the Grimm, at least according to Natalie, who'd seen mention of it in her father's study. It made a pretty picture...

Then I noticed the black banners hanging from the wall, and felt reality crashing back down like a hammer.

"No..." I breathed under my breath, suddenly feeling numb, until the pitter patter of movement behind me sent me spinning, hand going to my hip as the woman in red stood on the battlements, seemingly gazing out at the city herself with a somehow mournful air, even with the Grimm mask firmly in place.

"Three weeks ago, I received word from an old comrade asking a favor of me, calling upon a debt I thought long forgotten," she said slowly, resting her hand on the hilt of her sword, before walking to my side, seemingly ignorant, or uncaring of my actions "As I said before, I fulfilled part of that obligation, and now here you are." She raised her other hand to reveal my broken Scroll, before it was promptly tossed over the side. She'd killed the Creep that had been hunting me.

"...What did he want?" I asked, lowering a shaking hand, not really seeing the point of being on the offensive. If she'd wanted me dead, she could've done so at least a dozen times in the last ten seconds, and the fresh burning in my eyes wasn't helping.

"To have the chance to say goodbye."

-END

**A/N: Yep Joel's back home in Bastion for better or worse and we got to get our first real glimpse at the city itself. I went into small detail in LMNH but for the most part our only real glimpses of the city were in it's death throes under heavy attack by Grimm and I've given a bit of culture in this fic but I'm excited to see how this foray goes. Appearance wise think Attack on Titan wall made of steel and basically acts like a command center in itself apart from the academy, same for the VA Blade and the swords they use in the show along. It's not the first time I've drawn inspiration from that show and it probably won't be the last. As for the initiation flashback I get that it was rough, Joel's people are a pretty harsh lot mired in tradition and a "survival of the fittest" Spartan mindset, they certainly aren't perfect or kind. As for Sonia she's having a bit of a time yeah, minds getting a bit jumbled.**

**Stuffs really picking up and filming's actually going better then expected, thanks for all the support and hopefully I can get back on a semi regular schedule with this (Doubtful knowing me). Trying to make sure I have at least one chapter close to done whenever I release now.**


	60. Chapter 60

**Edited as of (7/23/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

CATCH UP

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

I was aware of two concerns immediately upon opening my eyes to the vicious glare of morning sunlight. First off, my head felt as if two Ursas had used it as their personal punching bags, then mauled the remains for the hell of it. The next, and far more pressing issue, was I had no idea where I was, eyes widening in panicked realization at the unfamiliar scents, as I shot up, only to fall back on the surprisingly soft bedding underneath me, clutching my aching skull.

"_F-fuckkkkk_!" I moaned, rolling over as I tried my best to get a read on the room at large, my ears catching the sound of running water nearby.

_'A shower?'_

It was a hotel room, for sure, though not a very classy or high end one, judging by the smell. My nose curled as I picked up the telltale scent of moldering wood and plaster. It was a basic set up, a pair of beds, a couch on the side, television on the dresser across from me, which was broken for some odd reason, as if someone had put a foot through it, and on the chair...

The water turned off, suddenly, making my nails dig into the sheets as I tensed up.

A few seconds later, the door to what must've been the bathroom opened with a billowing rush of steam, as a dark skinned figure stepped out, arms stretched out behind her, both covered in intricate red and white tattoos that almost seemed to move the longer I stared, and seemed to..._'Wait a sec... Is that Dust engraved on her skin?'_

"_Ahhhhhh_. Man," she moaned contentedly, arching her back with a loud crack, before adjusting the thin towel that barely covered her "assets," hand moving to the one around her hair. She walked right past me, making a beeline towards the gaudy colored clothes strewn across the chair. "Nothin' like a good morning shower to... Oh?" she paused almost comically in place, leg in mid air, before turning her head over her shoulder to peer back at me with one surprised amber eye, the other closed by a bisecting slash mark. "Morning, sweetie! Sleep well?"

"...Shit..."

* * *

**(A Few Hours Earlier)**

It all happened too fast to register. One second my father and this former-Trapper Marigold were glaring at each other, and the next they were flying at each other in a near deafening explosion of dust and concrete. His fist met her card with a keening scream of force. My father let lose an enraged howl of fury as he twisted in midair, only to land in a crouch, while his opponent landed in a similar position opposite him, if far more gracefully, the glowing card in her hand dissolving into motes of colored light.

"Not bad..." she grinned, another card appearing from her sleeve in an instant as she got to her feet, holding her arms out wide with a mad grin from underneath her hat. "Not bad at all. This might actually be fun for a change."

"Confident words, bitch," Dad growled back through gritted teeth, ripping the remnants of his jacket's sleeve to reveal a heavily muscular, tattooed arm sporting a shifting ridged gauntlet and armbrace, decorated with crimson-colored markings, and viscous serrated blades. "I wonder how they'll sound once I've taken that waggling tongue of y...?" His head jerked to the side, suddenly, just in time to avoid a streak of white light that shattered against the building behind him, forming a wall of jagged ice that looked like a spider web, only to be seemingly met by a dozen more. Most of them were knocked aside, or dodged, though one did manage to score a direct hit on his other arm, burning apart the fabric as it made its way across his sickly colored Aura, revealing the gauntlet's twin on his other arm.

"Now, now, that isn't very nice at all!" Marigold chided playfully, not done by a long stretch, as she closed the distance in the time it had taken him to block her cards, dashing forward like a crimson blur. From there, she launched into a flurry of quick strikes and grabs that crashed against my father's Aura like hammer blows, her movements perfectly measured, and painfully familiar, as she darted in and out of the White Fang's counters with fluid grace.

_'She fights almost just like Ambrose...'_ I realized as I watched the woman duck under a mailed fist, only to grab it, and use the leverage to pull him into a rising elbow to the face that left twin trails of blood streaming.

The way she moved, the way she threw those cards of hers... _'Wait... Fortuna Marigold! She's the one Ambrose and Carson's dad were talking about. The one who... **Shit**!'_

I stared at the woman partially responsible for the monster that was Joel Ambrose. "If you're gonna make a mean threat like that, you should probably make sure you have the balls to back it up. Don't ya think, tough guy?" She moved for a finishing blow that drove the air from my lungs with a thrill of fear, Dust pouring from inside her sleeves, red fire on one hand, and crackling frost in the other.

_'Why?... Why should I care?'_

His response caught her off guard. The large man retreated backwards to avoid her attack, pulling a hand away from his neck, and tossing what looked to be some sort of injector in the process. Suddenly, his tattoos glowed a brilliant crimson, as he drove the other hand into the street beneath him like it was water. "_Enough of this_!" he roared, before pulling in an arc, his aura tearing the thick piece of pavement apart into a hail of crackling spiked shards, that shattered around her in a flurry of shrapnel, forcing her to leap aside, though not without damage, the smile gone from her face in an instant. "Just_die_ already, you little rat!"

All of this occurred in the span of not even five minutes, and I was standing there frozen in place like an idiot, with my mouth hanging open trying to follow it all. My rage was almost forgotten, as I watched on in horror as my father's, or the thing that had once been my father, veins bulged from his arms and neck.

His red eyes dilated, and he twitched madly as he drove Fortuna onto the defensive, like a man possessed, moving in a way that would've seemed almost feral to any normal bystander. But to any trained combatant, it screamed of experience, practiced skill, and the endless thirsting desire to tear his enemy apart with his bare hands.

_'What do I do? What the fuck do I do?'_Festival distractions or not, this chaos was bound to bring a crowd any minute, or at least the police, as well as innocent bystanders, whose only crime would be that they were too stupid to avoid a battle between monsters.

I couldn't help but flinch as the Trapper kicked her opponent across the jaw, stepping back with a pain stricken grimace as he swiped a bladed elbow across her calf, even as he fell away, leaving a glowing red wound that crackled and burned across her Aura.

"Alright... Maybe this is not so fun, anymore." The Huntress stomped her leg, suppressing the invasive energy with a flash of her own amber-colored power, glaring at the Faunus who was spitting a wad of blood across the ground. My nose twitching painfully as the wad hissed on contact, with an acrid tang. "Anyone ever tell you drugs are bad?"

A sudden chill wracked the air, followed by a strange rush of heat, as twin lines of fire and ice coalesced around her, giving birth to a pair of spheres that drifted around her, that were both beautiful and terrifying to behold. _'That's that bitch Briar's...!?' _I knew exactly what was coming ,and felt my breath catch itself.

But, rather than show fear in the face of the hell storm about to be unleashed, all Conan D. Argus did was clench his fists and plant his feet, while scarlet cracks formed on the ground beneath him, his face a twisted mask of rage, agony, and bliss all in one, as his ears were flat against his skull. "Come on! _COME ON_!"

The Trapper raised an Aura-clad hand, the spheres wilting into petal like wisps that caught the wind, and swept forward in a cycling wave of elemental chaos.

"_STOP_!" I moved without thinking, mouth moving of its own volition as I put myself between the Dust Magus and my father, arms wide. My Semblance pushed against the tide in an enormous burst of force, that split the wave in half so the sides passed along both sides of us, crashing behind us, and sending the caster herself back a few steps in shocked surprise, her Aura fading.

"Don't... Please... don't," I heaved, voice cracking as I forced the words from my chest, hating the begging, piteous, whining tone they had as they passed through my lips.

Hesitation bloomed in her eye for but a moment, her hand lowering a fraction of an inch...

It was all the opening he needed... The loud crack of a gunshot echoed behind me, as a crimson colored projectile raced past my cheek, close enough to kiss the edges of my Aura, and jutted into the woman's shoulder with a wet thud. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing a smoking barrel located underneath the old Faunus' outstretched fist from a wrist mounted weapon in his gauntlets, a toothy grin on his face as his foe fell to her knees, gasping.

"Good looking out, Pup," he said warmly, words too kind for a face like the one he wore. Making to move past me, I grabbed him, digging my fingertips into his shoulder holding him in place. "Not now, Maxi. Daddy has to take care of something..."

"_Why_!?" I asked him, my voice shaking in equal parts rage and confusion, trying to compare the man who'd raised me, the man who used to tell me wonderful stories, check under the bed for Grimm, who always had a laugh ready and waiting for his little girl, with the cruel wretch before me. "This can't just be Mom! What the hell happened to you to make you... _THIS_!?" He spun inside my grasp, putting his hands on my shoulders tightly, looking down at me with what he probably thought was an endearing smile, but it came out more as a twitching grimace, as whatever formula running in his veins ran their course.

"I told you, didn't I? _THEY_ did this!" His fingers started to chafe against my Aura, sending up sparks that he hardly seemed aware of. "People like that woman there, the men that attacked your mother, _HIM_..." He spat the word viciously, his eyes crimson slits, and, for a moment, he looked ready to rip my head off. "They are to blame for all this! For ruining our lives! For trying to steal away our happiness! But it can be okay, Maxi. I can make it all right ag...!?"

I'd had enough. With a cry of effort, I drew upon all the power I could muster, and blasted him away from me, making him land on the destroyed gravel hard. When he regained himself, he stared up at me, having the gall to look hurt.

_'Crush him! **End** him!' _It felt for a moment as if it would've been so easy. To just smash him like an ant under my heel. Then it all flooded away in a moment, my knees hitting the ground as my head split open.

"Maxi!"

"Stay back! Get away from me!" I spat back, as my father, the thing that had been my father, leapt to his feet. "_Stay away_!"

"Maxine, I..." he fumbled over his words, scratching at his head so roughly, blood began to seep from underneath his hair. "I can't... _Why_? Why won't you...?"

"Not sure that's gonna work out, Sweetie..." I heard from behind me, as Marigold was back on her feet, cradling her arm in a torn piece of her coat, while the other held another card that burned mere inches from my face, her lone eye staring down at me compassionately, even as she stood tensed, adjusting her hat with her good arm. "I know you mean well, but _this_... This is beyond words, I think. Only one thing to do with a mad dog..."

"_STOP TALKING_!" the madman screamed, Aura flaring again more brightly then before, as his tattoo's patterns burned themselves into my retinas. "Always talking, turning everyone against me! Everyone! _Even my own child_! **_NO MORE_**!" His hand went to his belt again, pulling a small metallic vial from a side pocket, and holding it closely to his nose. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you...!"

My ears perked up at the sound of heavy footsteps, as a man sporting a long, dark blue trench coat, a tattered white scarf, and some sort of overlarge fan hooked across his back leapt from atop a nearby building, the same the woman beside me had used. He landed way softer than he should've been able to, directly in front of the old dog before he could move more than a step towards us. "Go to sleep now, buddy." Dad let out a barely audible gasp of surprise and recognition, before the figure, another Faunus I realized, noting the dog-like ears sprouting from his dark hair, delivered a blow to his stomach so hard, I was certain I could hear his bones creaking from here, and sent him slumping to the ground, shaking with barely restrained fury. "There we go..."

"F-Fidelis!... Y-you fucking...!" He didn't get to finish, as this Fidelis person knocked him out with a swift kick to the side of the head that put him on the ground for real, blood dribbling from his mouth.

"Just in time. Few seconds later, and we might've had a real problem here.," the newest arrival said in a low distorted voice, bending down to scoop up the vial, and hold it up in front of his face to examine more closely. "Still a shame, though. Would've been a blast to see how they've improved the mix, not to mention running into an opponent like this... Ah well. The sacrifices I make for friends," he shrugged, pocketing the vial, before turning towards us directly, revealing a stark white face mask similar to one those higher ranking White Fang wore, if without all the usual markings and ornamentation. I also noticed the barely stirring figure he held under his arm, which I realized was the same girl that had brought me here. Her clothes were charred in a dozen places, and her face was a mess of bruising.

_'Her work, no doubt.' _I thought, noting the Dust Mage's smirk.

The first thing I noticed about the man was his scent, which was like pine, or freshly cut lumber, overshadowed by the coppery tang of blood that seemed to seep off him like a bad cologne. Whoever he was, he was dangerous. Every instinct in me, human and otherwise, was screaming at me to get as far away from him as possible. A feral growl rose up in my throat in an attempt to stop the shaking in my arms, or, better yet, to work myself up to my feet. Marigold had her eye on him too, though rather than fear or worry at the new danger, she seemed genuinely curious, especially given the unconscious Spider Faunus.

"Well, well! Seems you're attracting your fair share of characters', Sweetie. Blood Hounds, and now the 'Dead Wind,' himself. And it's not even my birthday." the Huntress muttered softly under her breath, though the man still seemed to catch it, letting out a bark-like laugh that sounded absolutely demonic through the mask.

"Heard of me, have you? Not surprising, given 'Lady Luck's' reputation. Unfortunately, I'm here for this lot." He kicked at my fallen father at his feet, and motioned to the spider girl under his arm, before glancing off to the side, where the one the Trapper had dropped still lay prone in his little man-sized crater in the concrete. "Oi, Boris! You still alive!?"

For a short moment, I thought he was crazy, yelling at the corpse of what must've been a comrade of his... At least until said "corpse" stirred, shocking the both of us as a red shelled arm pushed his small form up with a grunt of effort, and shook loose chipped masonry stuck on his blue hair. "There we go; knew you were too hard headed to die from a dip like that."

"Great... As if I didn't have enough of a headache," the crab grumbled, popping down on his ass to rub at his bleeding skull with a thick finger, cricking his neck. "The hell're you doing here, Fide?"

"Adam called me up! Seemed to be worried you guys might 'do something rash,' as he put it. Wanted me to play babysitter." He peered around at the street, or what was left of it, with most of the pavement gouged or chewed apart, and half the shop fronts looking like they'd just wound up on the wrong side of a bombing. "Good thing, too! You know how much trouble I had to stir up on the way here to keep the cops off your backs? Couple of small riots, a flipped stolen cruiser or three. Hell, even _I'm_exhausted." He mimed wiping sweat off his masked face, the crab groaning to himself. "Now, you gonna help me with your boss, here, or...?"

"Bit surprised to hear you're leaving so soon..." Fortuna strode forward, pulling her hand away from her shoulder to drop a bloody bullet to the ground, rolling her shoulder after doing so. "Fidelis, 'the Dead Wind...' Known also by the alias 'Butch Kozner,' and works alongside the White Fang as an arms merchant. True surname unknown, place of birth unknown... Hell, the only thing that's really 'known' about you is a marked lust for combat! That and the mask, of course." Her hand fell to her side, twitching as what could only have been powdered Dust swirled out from beneath her sleeve in a tight vortex. "My student told me so much about you and your little fight on Mt. Hiei. It's a pleasure to finally meet 'face' to face." It didn't look that way to me from where I was sitting, the smile on her face anything but happy, and likely would've sent Beowolves running with their tails in between their legs.

"Mt. Hiei?..." Fidelis cocked his head to the side in confusion, before it suddenly came to him, his ears perking up almost comically. "Wait a sec, you mean Ambrose was...! Aaaaaah. Heh, no wonder the kid was able hold his own so well!"

"I try my best."

"Well, you did a damn good job with him. I've dealt my fair share of Trappers since then, but none of them had that same fire, you know? Came _this close_ to actually finishing me off." He held up his thumb and index finger from his right wrapped hand a few millimeters apart, a touch of pride in his voice, as if talking about his kid getting an award, and not reminiscing on someone's attempt to kill him. "How's the old boy doin' these da...!?"

She was on him faster than I could even follow, glowing amber-clad hand flashing upwards towards his throat for a killing stroke. He was faster, however, if only just by a hair, leaning back out of the way so her hand barely managed to scrape his mask, while his free hand pushed its palm outward, sending a sudden blast of air that caught her in the chest, and sent her skidding back towards me, heels dragging across the ground, and sending up clouds of debris.

Her face let out a bemused huff of annoyance. "Damn it. Figures it wouldn't have been that easy." I gaped at her, hands trying to steady my shaking knees.

"Look, I meant what I said before, alright!?" He raised a hand in a calming gesture, motioning his head towards the hounds. "As much as it physically pains me to say this, Milady, I was forced to swear I wouldn't make a scene... Well, too much of one, anyway."

As he scratched his neck, I could almost see the grin he was wearing underneath the plain white face. His whole air was almost apologetic, and, upon a closer look, it seemed like he almost twitching with suppressed energy. His whole Aura was like a raging storm, barely held back. And if let loose... I felt a shiver run down my spine, the hairs on my neck standing up.

"Don't suppose I could ask you to put off our fight for now? Especially since I'd rather face a legend like you at your best; killing you now would be a crime just in itself." He motioned to her injuries, where more than a few had opened up during her quick attack, sending deep stains that showed even against her crimson garments.

"Careful, now! People might stop thinking you're just a crazed maniac with that attitude," she said jovially, looking to the Crab Faunus currently grumbling his way towards the other Faunus with a slight limp in his step. "No need to apologize, either. Bounty's worth a pretty sum, though I'm pretty sure my boy's already laid claim to your head already." The woman shot back with a mournful sigh, lowering both arms as she started checking her shoulder, the wound still letting off a few red sparks. "One I'm sure he intends to collect whenever he manages to pull his head out from his ass."

"Afraid only one man has claim to my life. Still, I won't stop our new Huntsman from making the attempt. Been savin' a spot on my mantle for that weapon of his." His ears perked up at the sound of sirens wailing in the distance, my own senses telling me they were hot on their way towards us. "Gotta hand it to the VPD, they certainly know how to pick their targets. Can't say much for their response time, though." He scratched at one of the ears adorning his head, before pulling a small device from the inside of his coat, my heart skipping a beat when I noticed the big red button attached to it.

"Wai...!" I tried to cry out to stop him, but had barely managed to jump to my feet and take hold of my Aura, before his thumb pressed the pad. The sound of multiple explosions went off in the distance afterwards, sending the sirens into a frenzy, as the officers must've tried to split up. "Y-you _bastard_!"

"What? I checked to make sure all the spots were vacant, kid!... At least they were yesterday," he said in a surprised tone, as if realizing once again that I was here. "Anyway, that should buy you at least a good few minutes for a getaway. It's been a pleasure." He nodded to Fortuna, who scowled back at him, opening her mouth to retort, but instead moved to shield me as a windstorm picked up out of nowhere, throwing up smoke and debris. When it subsided, he was gone, along with Dad and the rest of them.

I could tell by the scent as the wind cleared... Just before a foul smelling rag the woman had pulled from her pocket smothered my senses, and turned what strength I had into mush.

"Sorry, Sweetie..." I heard the Huntress whisper as she lowered me to the ground, my vision fading quickly. "Really wish this could've been easier..."

* * *

**(Present)**

"You _kidnapped_ me..." I growled angrily, feeling a vein ticking over my head as the woman propped her bare feet on a little end table, flipping through the channels on the T.V. lazily. "You...!"

"'Kidnapped' is such an ugly word," she cut me off, continuing her search for a good channel, swearing under her breath as the signal cut out. "Cheap piece of... Anyway, I prefer the term 'appropriated.' With every intention to return, I might add." She threw the device at the screen, smirking as the signal righted itself. "There we go... Don't see why you're so angry, girl. Would you rather I left you there for the police to find. Heh, good luck explaining the damage."

She was insane. I was stuck in a strange room with a crazed, self-admitted Trapper, without my Scroll or _Cerberus _at my side, with _HIM_ back in town. I thought about maybe using my Semblance, blow her away and make a dash for the door... Another splitting pain wracked my skull, putting a stop to that idea.

_'Don't even think I'd be able to lift that remote like this...'_

Still, I'm alive at least. That was one piece of good news, and that thing calling itself my father was nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, that still begged the question...

"What do you want?" I growled under my breath, scratching at my ears while I swung my legs over the side of the bed.

_'This was the woman who trained Ambrose?'_Admittedly, it wasn't as if I had any idea what the woman would be like. Ambrose talked about her reverently, like she was some unstoppable angel, or with a note of fear that would've made any Grimm proud. The woman propped herself up in what she probably assumed was casual clothing, if that was what she wanted to call it. It didn't exactly inspire the same image as the underhanded Dust Magus last night had._'No idea what to expect here.'_

Certainly not the childish pout she gave me, that's for sure. "Right to the point, I guess. Someone's definitely spent too much time around Joel..."

"Answer the damn question!" I stressed again, doing my best to seem intimidating, though with the way her eye narrowed, I doubted it was too effective. "You obviously have something in mind for me... Or do you usually tuck in the poor bastards you kill?"

"Not usually, though it happens more than you might think." She winked at me, a shiver of panic going down my spine, before her cackling laughter put it somewhat at ease... Somewhat... "You need to lighten up, Sweetie; you're hair's going to end up like your leader's if you keep this up."

"Is it my dad?" I asked, ears twitching in annoyance, my eyes certainly slits. "Is that why? You want me as bait?"

"No. As much as seeing your father dead would give me no small amount of comfort... Sorry," she added, seeing my expression, though continuing as I shook my head and glared at her. "He wasn't my target. Though, it was a fair amount of bad luck on both our parts he chose the same night to reach out as I did, and brought his fair share of big players with him to boot. If he hadn't forced my hand, I would've tried meeting with you in a more... appropriate setting. Would've talked it out like women."

"So it's an offer?"

"One you can't exactly _refuse_, but yes. I suppose you could choose to word it like an offer. You see, Vale has recently become home to a few high-value targets. People that need to be dealt with for the good of others."

"Like the Red Hand?" The words were venom on my tongue, my ears flattening against my skull. "You're a former Trapper; shouldn't they be easy for you to find? And why haven't you spoken to Joel about this? Thought he was one of yours?"

"Key word being 'former.' Thing is, I need someone who can help track them down. And from what I hear, you're the one to talk to." She motioned towards the T.V., my face paling as I saw Xiao Long in the middle of Amity Coliseum being led away in cuffs by a squad of Atlesians, scenes of her flooring the Mercury jackass with a shot to the leg being played off to the side.

"As for Joel, I believe he might be a bit distracted at the moment." She got to her feet, moving towards a briefcase propped up against the wall nearest the bed. I didn't bother watching her opening it with a hiss, my attention fixed on the description being broadcast along the bottom and by the anchors.

_'She attacked him?'_

"What the hell?" I whispered more to myself then the woman next to me, as I tried to process this. Xiao Long might be hotheaded, and more than a little aggressive at times, but she had her line in the sand. Breaking a kid's leg in front of millions, including her sister and friends...

_'Ambrose must be on the warpath.'_

"You might want to catch up, kid." I turned just in time to catch the small bundle she tossed my way, that I unwrapped shortly, and took in the contents.

_'What the hell?'_ There was a piece of stained cloth, slightly burnt at the edges that still somehow held the faint metallic tang of blood, a small diamond ring, and, more shockingly, a full mask similar to the one I'd seen Ambrose wearing in Sonia's dream, if with a few more dark stains across the face.

"We've got a _long_ day ahead of us. Any questions?"

* * *

**_-Charlotte Cerise-_**

"Don't think I've ever seen him this angry before," I muttered, flinching back as one of the medical staff hit the glass of the observation room with an audible crack that echoed through my aching skull, and left a dark red stain along its face as he slumped to the floor and out of sight. "Taking him out of the fight was one thing, but not even sticking around to finish the job? _Really_?" I turned to face the Dingo Faunus standing beside me, that damned mask of his staring blankly down at the raging Blood Hound fighting against his restraints, in a rage and withdrawal-fueled rampage. "That was just cruel."

"What was I supposed to do? Adam was practically on my back til I was pretty much out the door about keeping a low profile this close to the main event. I was following orders."

"You and I both know you have a pretty selective hearing when it comes to any order. Even the ones from Taurus," I said in blunt disbelief, the dingo not saying anything, but suddenly became very interested in a slight tear in her jacket. "It was her, wasn't it?" He didn't need to ask to know who I was referring to.

"...Fine! Neo _might've_ had me pinky swear that I'd follow through with it." I glared at him in astonishment, and the guy had the gall to shrug it off. "No way I'm breaking something that sacred. Besides, it's not like I'll never get the chance to fight the woman again. Especially with how things are gonna be tonight."

I raised a thin eyebrow, almost tempted to laugh, until I saw he was completely serious. _'How a man with a personality like his could still hold to any shred of honor or code was beyond me.'_ A sadistic sociopath with a weakness for the heart. Enough to make a girl swoon... Well almost.

"I still can't believe you're actually seeing her," I sighed, shaking my head with a disbelieving smirk. "You, with a _Human_, of all people. Don't get me wrong, I respect the little bodyguard's work ethic; I really do. But how do you even manage anything with them being so... delicate."

A shame he wore that silly thing all the time. It would've been funny to see a blush creeping across whatever the murderer called a face. Unfortunately, if I did manage to get a reaction, Fide wasn't too keen on sharing, merely chuckling to himself as he finally turned his head to look down at my coy smile. "I can think of a lot of words to describe that girl, but 'delicate _definitely_isn't one of them." He had another laugh as my expression soured, his "face" moving back to the view below. "You might want to work on your pitch, too. I heard what happened to the last 'meal' you sunk your fangs into. What was his name again? Babe-something, right?"

_'Bables.' _I shivered at the very thought of that cute little recruit that I'd picked up a few months back. He'd been fun for a time, at least, but was ultimately too sweet and gentle to last very long, or keep my interest. I still couldn't remember exactly what happened. A bit of playful antics gone wrong, and suddenly this little piggy was missing his head. Personally, I blamed the withdrawals. Supplies of the Brew had been short, due to some mishap, and some of the stronger willed Hound's had had to make do without their weekly dose.

_'He was so energetic, too. Always eager to please.'_

"You always were a strange one. You and Taurus. You both were recruited to the Hounds with so much promise, so much potential, and then you just walk away, like it was nothing," I mused, noticing his shoulders stiffen somewhat, his stance shifting just a little bit more on edge. "I get why Adam dropped out, with that little kitty having him wrapped around her finger the way she did. But _you_... Why _did_you leave?"

Sure, we weren't the kindest unit in the White Fang. Certainly not the one with the largest life expectancy. But for people like Fidelis and I, it should've been a paradise. The chance to let off steam against the strongest of Humans with bare minimum restrictions, a chance to experience the high that only holding the life of your foe in your hands could grant, the sheer power of it all, despite the pain. Even now, I had to suppress a shudder as the Butcher's burning need called at the back of my skull, digging the nail of my middle finger into my palm with a contented sigh that didn't go unnoticed.

"I respect the choices you guys make. And I know more than enough about the sacrifices, as well. Thing is, I agreed to volunteer for the Hounds because a part of me thought I could be truly at home. Only problem, though, is I don't want to become_that_." He motioned down to the mad dog still howling for his blood, and only finding the medical staff's. "If I'm gonna fight, I'm going to do it with my own power; my own will. Not saying I oppose to a little extra if the need is great enough, but not at the cost of losing who I am in the end." He shook his head as Falkner's feathered head rushed into the room, dodging a flailing fist as she jabbed a needle into his neck. For a mad second, I thought she was actually using the Brew on him, but realized it as a tranquilizer a moment after, as the old man's head slumped back after a few more wild thrashes. "If I'm going to enjoy a fight, it won't be at the whims of some drug."

_'Easy for him to say. We can't all be juggernauts like him...' _I seethed venomously, resisting the very likely suicidal urge to strike out at him as the burn intensified, the corners of my eyes tinging red as the Butcher called sweetly.

"The Commander's under a lot of pressure right now. His daughter, the plan. It's taking a lot out of him."

"Bullshit, Charlie. Take it from someone who admired the guy as a goal, he's a _hell of a lot worse_ than he was even just a few months back," he spat back, watching the medics trickle back carefully towards the unconscious figure, Falkner trying her best to diffuse the situation. "The guy's already double the usual dosage, from what I heard, and he was going for another before I arrived. If I hadn't..."

He cut himself off when he noticed my expression souring, letting out a heavy sigh, before checking his Scroll as it buzzed. "That'll be Adam wondering where I've run off to again. Was supposed to give him a report on this mess the second I got back."

"You should get going, then. No sense making him wait," I growled, biting at the inside of my cheek with enough force to draw blood, trying to distract myself. "Say hi to your girlfriend for me. Can't wait to meet her." There were a quite few ways he could've taken that, though, as always, he seemed ready to laugh it off.

"I'm sure you two would get along great. Might get to see her tonight, if the Queen Bitch's plan goes off without a hitch." He made his way to the door with a visible spring in his step, practically radiating excitement. "Damn it's good to be back!"

-END

-CODEX-

**_"Butcher's Brew":_** A nickname most initiated use to describe the potent mix of chemicals and Dust developed through Project APEX, and used almost exclusively by the White Fang special forces unit more commonly referred to as the "Blood Hounds." Highly addictive, and excessively effective as the brain grows to depend on it, the drug is able to enhance the user's innate Aura output by orders of magnitude, allowing for a sudden increase of strength and endurance in combat situations, alongside a noticeable boost in the subject's adrenaline. While initially successful, the name stems from the drug's side effect of providing pleasure as a sort of "reward" for anger or violence, while deadening other emotional response like sadness or empathy. Long term users will slowly, but surely, lose aspects of self, and descend into paranoia, if not outright emotional instability, where the thrill battle is the only thing left to them.

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Fidelis - Patrick Seitz

**_A/N: The Butcher's Brew is based heavily off the Butcher's Nails from the Warhammer 40k series used by the World Eaters, favorite army next to the Guard at least in fluff._**

**_It's good to be back people with a fully filmed thesis project to boot. Not completely done but my part should be for the most part so now life's all about applications and looking for internships at this point. In all seriousness, though it is a load off my shoulders and hopefully it means I can work on this story more frequently than I have been._**

**_Finally got around to the Conan vs. Fortuna fight which I hope wasn't too bad, stuff got a little crazy towards the end there. Not to mention special thanks to The Baz for letting me give his OC Fidelis a physical role in the story and may be a recurring side character for later chapters because he's just so much fun. This actually does present an opportunity some people have been messaging me about regarding offering OCs for this story. Frankly, I do not have a problem with it and in fact have some other OCs from The Baz and others planned to make an appearance later on. If I think a character works and can enhance a part of the fic then I have no qualms about putting them in if people send me details like personality, powers, etc. Can't promise I can use every character sent in, if they don't work for what I have planned then I can't exactly go out of my way to force them in and I apologize (Does not mean I hate the character). I can say I will do my best so if you have ideas for Trappers, hunters, or anything like that I'd be glad to hear them._**


	61. Chapter 61

**Edited as of (10/18/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

_**A/N: Hey all, I've been going over the last few chapters and am incorporating a set language for characters, namely Hunters, living in the Frontier to use for communication (Referred to as the Old Tongue). Some may recognize it as Al Bhed from the Final Fantasy X and X-2 games belonging to Square Enix (All credit to them I own none of this. I will have translations of what is said as a part of the ending notes but generally it will not be used to convey any important details and will be more a world building aspect.**_

THE SILVER CITY

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Goodbye?..." I said again with a humorless laugh, as I stared at the fluttering, midnight black banners standing out starkly against the silver high walls. "You brought me here so he could say _goodbye!?_"

"That was the last request he gave me," the masked swordswoman said somberly, keeping her stance behind me. I could hear her shifting her heeled feet somewhat on the stone, keeping her hand on her sword, ready to draw it should the need arise. "He expected he might not..."

"Oh, so you _do_ know what those mean then?" I spun to face her, pointing a finger at the offending banners, a touch of anger impossible to keep from my voice. "It's a signal to any Huntsman stationed outside the wall, signifying the death of the current Headmaster of Aegis."

Not exactly true. The colors had flown in the aftermath of the White Fang incident that had claimed my parent's lives. It was my Grandfather's decision to honor those many Huntsman and Huntresses claimed in the attack.

_'Somehow I doubt that's the case here.'_

"A little _late_ then, aren't you!?"

She said nothing for a few moments, merely content to watch as sparks rippled uneasily along my arms, sending up spurts of dust and debris as they made contact with the battlement. "...I'm sorry for your loss, but my duty still stands. I swore to him that I would see you to the gates, at least."

I wasn't sure if it was the impassive way she said it, or the way she made a show of taking her hand off the hilt of her weapon that pissed me off more.

* * *

Kenneth Ambrose was dead. The Lord of Aegis Academy, a hero that had guided the city through some of its darkest days, the man that had reestablished and negotiated true contact with the Kingdoms after so long...

_'Grandpa...'_

I almost faltered at the thought, reaching out to catch myself before I toppled over the edge of a branch. A hand grasped mine tightly before I could, keeping me steady, as the woman, Raven she called herself, pulled me to my feet roughly, with far more strength then her stature suggested.

"Keep your wits about you. Grimm stalk the ground below," she said in what she probably thought was instructive, but came out more as an angry growl thanks to the mask.

_'Not much of a talker with it, then,' _I wondered, remembering a similar issue with the mask I had worn as a Trapper. You had to learn and adjust to it overtime.

"I might not be able to save you should you fall again."

"I'll keep that in mind." I pulled my shoulder away rougher then was necessary, taking a deep breath as I readied another jump. She had a point, reactive Aura might've made movement easier then most, but if I kept losing focus at this height, it was more likely I'd make it to the ground faster than the wall, especially as the sun hadn't yet breached the canopy of leaves above.

_"Focus, Joel. The beasts will exploit every lapse, every weakness. **FOCUS**!"_

"How was he?" I called back at her. She had lead the way at first, but I'd soon overtaken her. Even two years of training at Aegis was more than enough to see that I knew and, more importantly, could navigate, the forests and landscape surrounding the city better than my own backyard, now that I had my bearings. "My grandfather, the last time you spoke with him... How was he?"

"...Strong, but in pain..." she replied, pulling up alongside me quickly and silently as a shadow. "It was a long term disease of the heart, as I understand it, one that even his Aura couldn't counter. That he still lived, let alone walked, was a..." She trailed off, cocking her head in my direction as my face fell. "You weren't aware?"

No, I hadn't. In fact, knowing the old man, I'd be surprised if anyone had been in the know. Strength was everything, in body and will, aspects that "The Demon" Kenneth Ambrose had strived to exemplify with every breath for every soldier, Huntsman, and child in his care. Everything I'd wanted to be growing up, pride welling up in my chest with every comparison...

_'What was the last thing I'd said to him?' _I couldn't even remember. The last time I'd seen him had been at my trial, alongside Jake and Ozpin. And that had been... hard. His face had been expressionless, though I could still remember the shame and disappointment burning in his eyes.

"He cared a great deal for you; I could see it plainly when we talked. He wanted the chance to reconcile, though he feared you would not come on your own."

"Stupid, stubborn, old..." I grimaced almost slipping up again, though managing to catch myself, gritting my teeth as I faced resolutely forward towards the daylight ahead.

_'I would've come in a heartbeat if he'd asked, collar be damned.'_

"It's just up ahead." We landed at the edge of the forest overlooking a short stretch of cleared land, marred by potholes and craters. Remnants of Grimm meeting the city's defenses. _'Here's hoping we're small enough to make it across in one piece...'_

Across that field stood a shimmering silver bulwark dozens of meters tall, bristling with the finest weapons the people of Bastion could obtain, and staffed by its best and brightest. _'Rowan's Bastion...'_ The sheer scope of it still took my breath away, even now.

Our target was the small garage-sized reinforced door at the base, that acted as one of several similar exits used by Huntsmen and other personnel entering the wilds. Easier to use, and less conspicuous then the flashy main gate that hadn't been opened since the Faunus War, when the wall had been completed.

The walk across said no man's land was tense enough, the masked woman not exactly helping matters. _'Come to think of it, this is going to be a bit awkward.' _I thought, until I realized I could no longer hear her moving. I turned around, catching sight of her eyeing me. The effect, coupled with the Grimm mask, made me shift uncomfortably, suddenly very aware of my torn clothes and disheveled appearance.

"You favor him in more than just appearance," she said after a slight pause, reaching up to undo the clasps on her mask, before placing it under her arm as she looked back at me smiling, her crimson eyes flashing as she bowed her head respectfully. "Kenneth was a dear friend and mentor. I'm glad to see that his legacy will live on, Guardian."

I barely registered her words, focusing more on her all too familiar face. A face so similar to Yang's, they could've almost been twins. It all clicked into place instantly, the note she'd left, the intent behind it. I hadn't paid much attention to the picture of Team STRQ when Qrow had shown it off, more intent on the reaction it had gotten from my girlfriend, but there was no doubt this had to be...

A shrill siren sounded from the wall, making me spin around, reaching for _Circuit_. _'Oh c'mon, don't... **Shit!**' _I realized my mistake, turning back only to find the space the Huntress had occupied empty, as if she'd never been.

_'Fucking hate that trick...' _I seethed, clapping a hand on my head, quickly making for the small panel next to the door, before the jackass running the defense systems used me for target practice. It was a simple set up, if fresh. Probably only a month old or so, with a red call button to signal the section attendant, who would either let me in, or leave me out in the cold. _'Could maybe scale the wall, if I can remember where the pressure sensors are...'_

I shook my head, readying myself, before putting a finger to the button. "Huntsman returning. Mind sending down a lift?" I waited a few heartbeats with no response, before the speaker crackled to life.

_"We have no scheduled patrol shifts ending today. State your intentions."_ It was a young voice, still cracking, though he made an admirable attempt at hiding it.

_'Great, I get a trainee.' _I leaned my head against the door with an inward groan, before working my jaw out.

"_Vnacrmo pmuutat. E lusa caagehk cramdan vnus dra muhk hekrd_..." I recited the words in a slow and steady tone, doing my best to remain serious, and failing just a little. "_Cu dryd E sekrd veht cyvado fedreh draca fymmc, yht kyeh ghufmatka vnus druca dryd lysa pavuna sa._" The Old Tongue, the ancient language of the Frontierborn still passed down in its Hunters, flowed from my lips easily despite it having been years since I'd last formed them. This in particular was a declaration I hadn't made since carrying Natalie from the forest's edge at the end of the exam, the last to arrive back after the initiation.

"_Rammu, Rihdcsyh... A student? Little late, aren't you?"_ the attendant spoke up incredulously, with no small amount of disbelief and mirth. _"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but if you claim to know our traditions and speak the words, then I'm sure you're aware..."_

"Look, I know gate watch isn't the most exciting assignment for a first year, so I'm gonna help you out, and give you something to do," I said, gritting my teeth as I felt the full weight of the night's events get to me for a few moments, as I made sure the kid on the end of the line got the picture. "To the right of the screen you're watching right now is a small orange button, which connects to the Section Captain's office. You're going to press that button, and make sure you get said captain on the line, no excuses, and explain how _Joel Ambrose_ is sitting on his ass outside your door, after a night in the wilds, and you won't let him in!"

I flared my Aura, sending a wash of loud static over the air. Not enough to damage the equipment, but certain to have the poor boy jumping in his seat and hopefully in gear. _'And now we wait...'_I put my back against the wall and slid down, resolved to catch a quick nap in the meantime, as my name went up the chain.

"Raven, huh?... Hope I made a good impression," I wondered wryly, eyes closing, my last thought being how Yang was going to kill me for not snapping off a picture while I had the chance.

* * *

A mechanical whirring jolted me awake within the hour. It was remarkably fast for something like this, where Huntsmen could sometimes be left out for half a day, or more, as things were double and triple checked. _'Can't say Bastion doesn't take its external threats seriously, _I mused as I got to my feet, checking my side. The wound had healed well enough, more a vivid mark than anything else. And with enough focus, even that would be gone, with only a small scar to serve as a reminder to join the others. _'Really adding up, aren't they?'_ I ran a finger along the outline, scraping off a bit of dried blood.

I stood up, hands held out at my sides as my weapons were sheathed and out of reach, though I made sure they could be within hand quickly, if the need arose. With a keening grind that stung my ears, the door rattled open, letting loose a wash of florescent lighting, as a full squad of half a dozen men, in full, deep green, carapace armor plates and tanned fatigues, spread out around me with rifles held at the ready. Two younger looking ones without helmets sported the dark grey fatigues and body armor of Aegis students, a VA blade in hand in a defensive stance, their eyes examining me confidently with a look I shot a glare right back.

"Really, is all this necessary?"

"You tell me, Ambrose. I still remember the last time I had men assigned to watch you," a voice spoke up from the lift, as a man with salt and pepper hair and a short beard, wearing a long, dark green trench coat, liberally sprinkled with silver officer's ribbons and commendations across the chest and shoulders, walked forward. "Didn't end so well for them, did it?"

"...Ch... Chief Garrett!?" I couldn't help but gape in genuine surprise as I saw the man who had technically arrested me in the first place crack a sly grin despite himself at the recognition. "What the hell are you doing out of Atlas, and in that getup!?" I cocked my head at the uniform, one usually reserved for Section Captains, those in command of the Wall's defenses. Sure enough, even that small motion had the squad sweating.

"Just 'Ash' is fine, and I could ask the same of you, though calling those rags a 'getup' is pushing it a bit far, I think," the former police chief shot back, raising more than a few eyebrows from his words, a few even lowering their weapons in confusion. "You're supposed to be in Vale."

"And I was. It's a long story."

"One I'd prefer to hear indoors, if you don't mind." He looked off towards the forest edge, following a flicker of movement. "Those cannons are a pain to hear already. I'd prefer not to have a front row seat."

* * *

**_-Raven Branwen-_**

I leaned back against the tree trunk with a heady sigh, as the boy followed the uniformed man into the lift, his entourage following behind him with their weapons trained on him, as if there was a Grimm in their midst, and not an exhausted young man.

_'He's just as you described him to be...' _I smiled, placing a hand on the hilt of my sword, before a deep frown replaced it, namely at the thought of how much he resembled Lucas at that age. _'So much potential, yet teetering at the precipice...'_

I could still see the young man standing across from me, grinning slyly, all confidence and haste as we dueled. Kenneth stood in judgement, barking out praise and criticism in equal measure, as we wove our way in time to the rest of my team's cheers and catcalls, swords flashing in showers of sparks. Fond times long since left in the Dust. We'd both moved on...

Resemblance aside, however, Joel Ambrose was certainly skilled, at least, not to mention easily as stubborn as his uncle and grandfather both. The irony of it all was almost laughable. _'Of all the people Yang could've chosen...'_

I crushed the offending sentiment with a will of iron, pushing aside memories of the little golden-haired child laughing and smiling in my arms, while her father laughed in the background. _'The past. Another life that wasn't meant to be mine...'_

I'd made my choice to pursue this destiny, and accept the sacrifices necessary to ensure its fulfillment. _'Besides, Summer had been a better mother in that short time then I ever could have been.' _I placed a hand to my covered face, shaking out my head. I should never have interfered on that train. Seeing her again had only served to weaken my resolve, and made me look towards the past. Kenneth's request had been one such inconvenient distraction, though one I somehow couldn't resist. My old teacher had always known just how to get under my guard, even now.

_'I completed your first request...' _My brow furrowed as a distant cannon blast signaled the death of another monster, flocks of birds retreating over the great wall. _'And yet you would still ask more of me?'_

I thought back to our last meeting in the elder man's study, standing there amidst trophies of past glories and triumphs, that, to the man before me, had only served to stress what had been lost along the way.

* * *

**(Three Weeks Ago)**

"You call me, after all this time, for _this?_" I growled, unable to hold back the flicker of annoyance that crossed my features, as I stared at the snowy-haired giant of a man sitting behind the intricately carved silver desk, currently watching me with a small smile on his lips as he swirled the amber-colored drink in his glass. "To bring your wayward grandson home for a visit?"

"And, yet, you still answered the call... though I'll admit you've become much harder to get a hold of in the years since you last stood here. Remember?" he said softly in a deep, kind whisper, stoking his goatee as he glanced over a broad shoulder towards the window that dominated the space behind him, showing the tiny sprawl of civilization, and the wall that encircled and shielded it from harm. "And here I always thought your brother would be the rebellious one... Well... more so than you, at least."

This was... worrying. Kenneth Ambrose, the "Demon" who'd slain hundreds, if not thousands of Grimm in his tenure as a Huntsman, and had led one of the greatest forces Mankind possessed outside the Kingdom's borders, by sheer strength of will, was not one to reminisce. Not in all the years I'd known him since first coming here briefly with the rest of STRQ during our tenure at Beacon as part of an extended study.

"...How long?" I asked, the man not needing much more to get at what I was implying. "Master..." This was dangerous. I should never have come here, exposing myself to this weakness of the past...

"...A few weeks, maybe... The doctor can't be sure of anything at this point. Apparently, it's a miracle I'm still standing at this rate," he explained resignedly, smile faltering noticeably as he stared out at the city below. "Even my Aura can't do much more then stall the inevitable." His composure faltered for a moment, just a second, but in that time I saw all of the age and pain weighing down on a man doing his best to keep a strong face in a society that favored the appearance of power above all else. "I want to see him one last time... I've already failed his father and brother. But with him, there's still the chance to..."

"And you needed me?" I interrupted, trying my best to remain aloof above the twinge of sorrow I felt. "You could've just as easily sent an airship. I'm sure the Kingdoms would have allowed it."

"Not in time, and even then, there's the risk he might refuse. Our last meeting was... hardly ideal." He took a long draft, placing the glass down with a light clatter while his blue eyes glistened. "I want the chance for him to say his peace."

"Stop lying, Master. You've never been very good at it." I shook my head, turning to inspect the long, single edged silver blade hanging across the wall in its extended form, where pictures of friends and family surrounding it. Some I knew, and most had fallen to Grimm or time. "Even you wouldn't send for me just for this. What else would you have me do?..."

The old man looked as if he were going to deny it, though thought better of it, face darkening as he leaned back in his chair. "I thought to wait until we could've at least talked. I have a fair bit I would like to share with you, as well... Should've known, you'd figure it out... Right to the point, as always."

"What else, Kenneth?"

He'd told me everything, explained his true purpose, and the reasoning behind it. His need for the boy to be here not just to say goodbye and make amends, but for a greater purpose, one that even had me gripping the hilt of my sword in shock, and, if anything, only seemed to age the man more, the lines across his face becoming more prominent with each breath.

"You would use him like this? To provide an opening; alure?" I gaped at my former mentor in open disgust and incredulity. "You would shame yourself like this, at the end of it all? Ask me to risk my life, and his, in some childish attempt to have me clean up your mess? What happened to your vaunted 'honor,' your dignity, Ambrose? Years ago, you would have fallen on your sword rather than make such a request."

I tensed as the man brought his hands down on the desk with a crash of flesh on metal, his chair falling behind him as he stood to his full impressive height, staring down at me with a mixture of rage and... regret? "Honor?... Dignity?... Those are the things that kept me silent and sedate, as my son and his wife were taken from me. That kept me from interfering, as a man I thought of as my own blood fell into despair, and turned himself into a monster. The things that let me sit idly by, while that same monster corrupted one of my own grandsons, and neglect drove the other from his home, when they should've been protected and cared for."

"You had a duty to uphold. A people to keep together."

"No... I've lost enough in service to '_Duty,_' Raven... The best I can do now is try to make up for my mistakes, and make up for all of the lives they've ruined as a result..." He gazed down at his hands, narrowing his eyes as he noticed them shaking just slightly, a sign of a coming lapse. "...Sadly, I've waited too long, and now I must request your aid in this. You are the one person I can trust who might succeed... or at least won't get themselves killed on my behalf."

"Then why involve the boy? He won't be able to help; in fact, he may hinder the effort altogether."

"Joel needs to be here to draw him in. To ensure his presence, and witness the aftermath should you fail. It will be up to him to decide what to do then, in that case, but I won't have this city's history and fate decided by a board of bureaucrats, secessionist fanatics, and the cowards on the Kingdoms' council..." His face then fell, as a pleading look unbecoming of the man graced his features." Please, Raven... I know what I'm asking isn't easy. If the time comes, and you find yourself unable... I don't expect you to give yourself for an old man's selfish request..."

"I wouldn't, regardless. My own work is too important," I told him succinctly, waiting for the old warrior to nod his head in solemn acceptance of my conditions. "I will do as you ask, but know that any history or debt there is between us is settled with this." I drew my sword in a single fluid motion tearing a roiling gash in the air in front of me. "When this business is over, we will not speak again."

"Of that, I have no doubt... Was it worth it, Raven?" Kenneth asked as I took a step to enter it, his voice losing its commanding air, faltering into one of unsure reluctance. "The sacrifices?... Everything you gave up in pursuit of this overall goal of yours?... I don't need you to explain the purpose of it all, or what you think it will accomplish... but was it truly worth losing your home? The man you loved?... Your daughter?..."

Of course he wouldn't understand... "...You once told me years ago that a Huntsman's only true allegiance should be to themselves, and the pursuit of the greater good of all life. That tying yourself to petty distractions would only serve as a weakness. I do what I must..." I turned back to the portal, hearing his final words just before I stepped into the maelstrom.

"Truly?... No wonder things have come this far... Nothing less than I deserve." I pointedly ignored the man, retreating quickly as I left the old warrior alone in his study to brood over his glass. "Go in peace, child... I can only hope that you find the bright light at the end of this lonely journey..."

* * *

**(Present)**

I shook my head, letting my doubt fade as I prepared myself for what had to come next. The unexpected timing of Kenneth's death hadn't changed anything. It merely accelerated what was already set in motion.

At this point, I could only hope I had the strength to do what was necessary, if only as one final way of honoring... No. Such word wouldn't do. Not for this.

Regardless of my own personal feelings on the matter, hopefully I would be able to stop a great evil here today... But if I should fail, I could only hope the boy would survive the fallout that ensued.

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"You realize none of the top brass, or the Kingdom officials that this pisses off, is going to believe you, right?" the captain said as we finally exited the rickety lift, sending his men forward in formation as we started walking in step, the march coming easily to me, even after so long. "I've heard of crazy abilities you Huntsmen can dish out, but this woman..."

"I've seen crazier," I replied, peering around at the familiar sights, as memories started flooding back. "Anyway, it's the truth."

I fidgeted. I always hated traveling within the architectural marvel that gave Bastion its name, the decades-old structure honeycombed with tight passages and corridors that ran for miles, awash with a florescent sheen from the humming lights above. My more recent experiences with the Reavers on AMBR's "first" official mission drifted painfully to mind. The worst by far, however, was the dull thumping of one of the Anti-Grimm emplacements kicking off, heard every so often as one of the beasts tested the waters to fatal results, the shockwave shaking the whole structure, setting me constantly on edge.

"So..." I spoke up after the latest blast, glancing down at the slightly shorter man next to me curiously. "I have to wonder, what made you decide to come all the way out here? Thought you had it pretty good in Atlas?" It was strange to see the police chief again, our first meeting ending the way it had with me all but demanding cooperation, even as I stood over his men. Thankfully, I'd had the chance to speak with him repeatedly over the course of my trial, and had formed pleasant relationship with the man, if not a friendly, or at least cordial one.

_'Guess some time apart only improved matters. He didn't shoot me, at least.'_

"And Section Captain, too. Pretty lofty title for an outsider. No offense."

"None taken. Have a hard time believing it myself, sometimes." The older man looked around, making a few chatting guards jump to attention with a glare. "Was never really an army man, myself. Always felt I was a better organizer than a fighter, like my boy, though a talent for investigation and a knack with people helped with choosing a career." His face fell slightly, as a nervous tick entered his voice,. "It was your grandfather that gave me this posting, actually. Called me for a meeting in Bastion a week after your trial that my superiors practically forced me to accept for the political clout."

"Really?" I replied, doing my best to put on a tough face as I noted more than a few murmurs and wayward glances from the curious squad members listening in on the conversation. "Can only imagine how that went."

"Rather well, considering the topic. Met with him in person in his office, and talked over the case, though he was more interested in the deal we managed to iron out regarding your terms for surrender." A sad smile crossed his face, dark eyes lighting up fondly. "Thought he was going to snap my neck for a moment, but instead, he turns around, and offers me a posting here in Bastion out of nowhere."

"And your wife was alright with that? Moving all the way out here?" Atlas might not exactly possess a nice climate like Vale, but Bastion was no party either. And then there was the culture. Outsiders were more often then not tolerated here, especially from those who were more Isolationist. And that was the best even trained Huntsmen from other regions could hope for: being tolerated.

"Garnet was overjoyed, actually; new job with less hours, less risk, and substantially better pay, with benefits included. She practically begged me to accept. I made sure Slade had everything handled before I left, and here I am." The captain barked a quick order to a passing Huntsman student, sending him running on some errand the man had drummed up, leaving his superior officer with an amused smile. "Respect was hard to come by at first, but I think I've gotten a read on how you Frontiersmen think now. Just have to have a firm hand, and give as good as you get."

"Ah... So Slade's in charge... How is he, by the way?" I scratched the back of my head awkwardly with a nervous chuckle, remembering my last encounter with the detective. "His ribs healed up alright?"

"Just fine. Last I heard, he and his wife had just brought home a little girl. Cute little thing, with her mother's ears and her father's scowl," he laughed, showing me a picture on the Scroll he pulled from the depths of his coat.

It was strange, talking like this. Hard to believe the man had nearly pissed himself the first time we met, and now we were chatting about the "good" old days. There were even a few compliments about my performance in the tournament, as we made our way through the massive maze of tunnels, dips, and lifts.

Of course, it all had to end at some point... "...You haven't asked about it? Caught us all by surprise..."

"Thought as much... I have an idea of what happened, but not when."

"...A maid found him unconscious in his study, almost a week ago, now... Medics arrived on the scene, and did what they could. But by then..." He trailed off as I processed the information.

A week, then. Tradition held that the city would "mourn" the passing of the Headmaster, a role who, by large, commanded the respect and authority second only, technically, to the appointed Mayor and Master of the Guard, for seven days. At that point, a funeral service would be held in the halls of Aegis, where his successor would be declared, decided by the Huntsmen themselves from a list of candidates the deceased thought appropriate for the task.

"It was decided by the higher ups that you and your brother would be informed after the events of the Vytal Festival, as not to disrupt..."

"That _wasn't_ their call!" I snapped back, instantly regretting the guilt showing on his face. "S-sorry... It wasn't your fault. More 'honor and duty' bullshit, I'm guessing. Nothing you could've done..."

He nodded gratefully, and then pulled aside a guard, relaying a few muttered commands, before sending him running. "You know... We'd certainly be late for most of the long winded, ceremonial bits, but if you wanted to visit in... to pay your respects, I doubt anyone would object. I could have it cleared as if you'd just flown in on my orders."

"You won't get in trouble for that? The new body they put in the office might not take too kindly to that." The Captain made a non-committal noise with a slight shrug. "...Thank you."

"First a shower and new clothes. I suppose if you're going to try and be the death of my career, again, you might as well look presentable."

* * *

"Forgot how much these things itch," I grimaced, tugging at the silver embroidered collar of the dark grey dress uniform I now wore, as Ash lead me along the top section of the wall with his retinue, past a massive anti-air setup, and towards an airship bay. "There really wasn't anything that fit better than this?"

I appreciated that I was out of my grime-covered, blood-soaked clothes, though the getup the Captain had scrounged up billowed slightly around the chest and arms, feeling uncomfortably loose. _'Least I got to keep my gear,' _I thought, thankful for the familiar weight of _Circuit _and my knives hanging off my belt.

"Best we could do on such short notice. As for the fitting part, well... No offense, but most people your height tend to have a bit more bulk." I sighed at the amused response, picking up the pace, and keenly aware of the eyes following us as we passed.

To help deal with it, I decided to focus on what had changed from what I remembered, namely the strange looking drop ship spaced away from the other Bullheads. It was sleeker, with most of the weight proportioned towards the engines, its wings folded upwards in its docked mode. There was also two fins on both sides, both before its sleek cockpit. Less VTOL, more jet.

"The Storm Hawk catch your eye?" Ash noted my interest, motioning to the bird grandly. "Marvel, isn't she? This was your 'ride in,' if anyone asks. New test project Kenneth green lit a few months back, capable of outclassing even the Atlesians in terms of performance and speed."

"Impressive." Those were bold words, coming from a former Atlesian himself. That lot took their air superiority very seriously. "Still, there's a lot of land and sea between us and Vale. Not sure your cover's that believable."

If anything, the words only bolstered the man's glee, the middle-aged man actually wagging a finger in my face with a gleam in his eye. "Not so far-fetched, actually. If the projections are right, the Hawk should be capable of reaching Vale within a handful of hours at full speed, carrying up to a dozen souls."

"_Bastion_ built this?" I was sufficiently gaping now. No one could forge silver into a weapon like we could, our arms prized across Remnant for their innate effectiveness against the creatures of Grimm, among other things. _'Still, to come up with something like this...'_

"Apparently, it's based off a design your brother left behind. It's an incredible feat of engineering, if untested."

"...You should probably know he only leaves the impossible, or unstable projects behind. The one's even _he_ has trouble solving," I pointed out as he led us instead towards a more commercial model in the midst of pre-flight checks. "Just a tidbit for the first real test flight." I paused with one foot on the craft, staring out at the fast awakening city sprawled out beneath us. The layered housing districts, from the brightly lit ramshackle depths and tall apartment complexes, that made up the outer layer, a sprawling maze of alleys and highways meant to turn about and funnel Grimm, while assisting the grappling lines, and Aura-imbued steps of both Huntsmen and regular guardsmen in the event of a breach, to the broad manses and estates further towards the center, well guarded and practically oozing opulence, the gardens, then the taller corporate sector of glass and steel, where skyscrapers covered the skies from the ground below...

"What happened there?" I asked, indicating one of the taller buildings close in size to the CCT Tower at Aegis, with a large chunk seemingly torn out of the side, encompassing a handful of floors.

"Terrorist action, apparently. We're still investigating, but with current events, some things just fall by the wayside. It's not Fang though, if that's what your wondering. Now, are you coming or not?"

I stayed there for a moment longer, glaring at the damage, before shaking my head, and stepping inside the craft.

The flight was quick, at least, with a scenic view of the city splayed beneath, as we made our way towards the heart of the city. Our destination was the fortress, with the tall, rectangular tower, dug into and around the mountain.

While perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing as Beacon, being more militaristic than fanciful, Aegis certainly matched it in the overwhelming atmosphere it exuded. Built generations ago as a fortress, and the ruling seat by the coalition of nomadic tribes that would later spread to become Bastion and its sister cities, the school itself sat above the silver mines that gave the city its nickname. It was equipped with everything one might expect from a Huntsman Academy: gyms, training fields, and a few extra luxuries thrown in for the wealthier class. A holdover from Bastion's more feudal history.

The pilot brought us down on one of the upper tier landing platforms just outside the school's main body, littered with shipping and supply crates.

Ash must've called ahead while I was getting ready, judging by the pair of older students about my age, maybe a little older, posted out to "greet" us. _'Might be meeting a few old classmates,'_ I realized with a start, as they strode forward. Not that it would be much of a problem; I was hardly close with many of the other students. A culture of competition made anything more than a respectful rivalry difficult to maintain.

The closest removed her helmet to shake loose shaggy fiery reddish gold locks, that hung past her shoulders. It was a lot longer then I remembered the regulation length being, oddly enough, framing a pair of sharp, storm grey eyes that sized me up with a challenging air, though there was almost something familiar in the look. Something...

"Well, well, isn't this a shock?" the student laughed to herself over her little attempt at a joke, seeming a little put off when we didn't laugh with her, her smile faltering somewhat. I suppose I should've expected the jab at my Semblance. The story of it's discovery had made for quite the juicy piece of gossip when I left. Still, for someone to remember a detail like that... "Sorry for the lackluster greeting party. We weren't exactly expecting..."

"Strange. I was under the impression we'd radioed ahead." Garrett stepped out from behind me, staring the girl with annoyance, even, though the effect diminished somewhat by the fact the girl stood confidently a few inches taller, with that grin still in place. "I have the necessary clearance here, if you require it, though I expected more..." He looked around the dock, obviously expecting to see more bodies present then just these two.

"My apologies, sir," the still helmeted student, a good few inches taller than I was, with considerably more bulk, cut in between them, his head bowed towards the captain as he simultaneously pulled the girl's head down with him with only a minor struggle. "The others wanted to sneak into the ceremony before it cleared out. Dangerous and unprofessional, yes, but they deeply respected the Headmaster, and wished to say their goodbyes. So, my friend and I offered to stay behind, and keep watch. I humbly request you do not punish them too harshly, and we apologize for the inconvenience it has caused." His voice was low and apologetic, and aimed particularly towards his companion.

"Y-yes... What he said," she replied with a fair attempt at meekness.

"Well, then, as much as I respect your desire to help your friends and your honesty, I'm afraid there will still need to be consequences. I expect the whole lot of you reporting for extra patrols on the wall first thing tomorrow morning. I'll have names, so don't think you can weasel out of it." One of the Huntsmen accompanying him coughed into his fist, the man glaring at the girl disapprovingly. "Ah, yes, thank you._And_ we will also be addressing the lack of discipline in this group in greater detail. Understood?"

**_"Yes, sir!"_** the pair saluted as we passed by, Ash motioning for me to follow him to the entryway leading further in. I spared a glance back at the pair, the girl waving us off with her tongue stuck out, though she winked when she noticed me staring, mouthing something I couldn't quite catch.

"...You don't suppose I was too soft on them, do you?" Garret asked after making sure they were out of even Aura-enhanced earshot as we neared the entryway, an uncomfortable look on his face. "A whole year in this city, and I still have trouble understanding how some of you lot think. Most of you are as reserved and respectful as a beat cop on his first day on the job, but then I have to deal with a few like that one, and it throws me off."

"Didn't I threaten you and your entire department when we first met?" He shot me a look that shut that particular line of thought up quickly enough. "We're encouraged, growing up, to follow orders, and keep our emotions in check, for the most part. It helps ward off the Grimm. Some families choose not to preach it too heavily, though." My parents hadn't, much to Grandpa Kenneth's displeasure, though Mom had insisted. "I thought you did just fine, sir." Our soldiers were loyal to the last. Our Huntsman, though, could be a bit... difficult.

"Don't you start now, Ambrose." I grinned back at him, though I was having trouble feeling it, knowing exactly what lay ahead within these walls, and distinctly wishing I wasn't walking into the Chimera's den.

-END

-CODEX-

**Frontier City of Bastion (History and Culture)** – _Originally a chain of small settlements built around the vicinity of Aegis Fortress, Bastion is famed not only for its position deep within Grimm-held territory, but for the massive deposits of silver and Dust it possesses. According to historical logs, the Frontier was once rife with conflict, as nomadic tribes warred amongst themselves, the Grimm, and the very landscape itself, in the form of sudden harsh storms and treacherous terrain. At an unspecified point, these disparate tribes united under one individual, Rowan, who declared herself their queen, and led both the construction of the mighty fortress, and the war that made that opportunity possible, beating back monster and man alike. Her bloodline ruled the fledgling city until its discovery by the Kingdoms of Vale and Atlas, and its subsequent reclassification as a "Frontier City." Many of the community's highest-ranking members still boast of possessing even a modicum of Rowan's blood, as if it were some status symbol._

_Culturally, the city still possesses many of the feudal and warlike aspects seen throughout its people's history, as well as a few personality markers, such as dogged obedience to hierarchy, and the disapproval of negative emotional outbursts in public common in settlements, where an argument could draw monsters to their doorstep, and a single order can make or break a city's defense. Honor is apparent in many of their cultural interactions, and envoys should be well versed in the fact that insulting the wrong person, no matter how indirectly, can have dire consequences. Leadership is held nowadays between the Master of the Guard, who commands the city's military forces, the Mayor elected by the people, and the current Headmaster of Aegis, who leads the Huntsmen of the school, and, in many ways, holds more power than either of the other two._

_It should also be noted that they also hold a marked disapproval/distrust of the unmanned computer operated drones common in Atlas society and other Kingdoms due to some ingrained prejudice, outright refusing to use them as little more than training fodder, or simple tasks when forced._

_\- A short summary of Bastion cultural observations taken from Atlesian Diplomatic Archives_

**Rowan's Bastion – **_The true designation given to the marvel that stands as Bastion's final line of defense. Initially made of stone and what supplies the citizens could muster safely, the bulwark has, over time, been remodeled, as technology and resources became more abundant, especially with the Kingdom's assistance, and now stands as a fortress within itself, reinforced by steel and Dust-treated silver alloys. Split into eight sections, each led by a captain who reports to the Master of the Guard, the wall acts as barracks and command structure for their forces, and is equipped with airship pools, and heavy artillery. A testament to its people, the wall has only ever been breached once in an incident known as "The Night of Falling Silver," where Grimm swarmed to the walls in unprecedented numbers, seemingly at random. An Alpha Goliath demolished more than half a section, sending debris falling amidst the populace. The battle lasted for two weeks, as emergency crews worked to fix the section, orchestrated by young Huntsman Kenneth Ambrose, who led the city's beleaguered defense, and was later renamed "The Demon" for his efforts against the Grimm._

**The Old Tongue -** _Given their relative isolation, it should be noted as unsurprising that the Frontier would have its own developed cultures and languages distinct from the Kingdoms themselves, characterized by a remarkably similar syntax to common speech, yet possessing a marked variance in grammar and pronunciation that confounded translators until better relations were established. This particular variant, however, has faded into more of a traditional role since rediscovery by the Kingdoms, practiced mainly by Huntsmen as a means of quick communication, and the ranking society of the larger Frontier cities as a means of establishing or showing status, meanwhile seeing rarer use amongst the common civilian populace. To be sure, however, use by an outsider will rarely earn a warm welcome, unless said individual is a proven Huntsman._

* * *

**(-Primer-)**

**Rammu - **Hello

**Rihdcsyh**** \- **Huntsman

**Vnacrmo pmuutat. E lusa caagehk cramdan vnus dra muhk hekrd... - **Freshly blooded. I come seeking shelter from the long night...

**Cu dryd E sekrd veht cyvado fedreh draca fymmc, yht kyeh ghufmatka vnus druca dryd lysa pavuna sa. - **So that I might find safety within these walls, and gain knowledge from those that came before me.

**_A/N: You know when I started this fic I didn't expect to return to Bastion as a setting, the last time it was in the midst of getting wiped out in LMNH so culture and history wasn't much of a huge concern back then. I will say I'm enjoying bringing it back, OC content has its own unique challenges to it and I hope it's at least fun for you all. Bringing Police Chief Ash Garrett back from the ether was a last minute call as well so I wouldn't have to brute force a new character in and made for a decent throwback. Not the most exciting I know, more world building filler then action though hopefully that's remedied as this arc moves forward._**

**_For the Storm Hawk ship shown in this chapter, it's pretty much a grey, smaller version of the UNSC Prowler from Halo 5: Guardians. _**_**Also, imagine Bastion to be a city similar to that of Insomnia from Final Fantasy XV.**_

**_In other news I've started doing rewrites for some of my earlier chapters with the help of Da-Awesom-One (adding in more details or parts to sections, making things flow better, adjusting awkward dialogue etc…) so yeah big props to them for assisting and giving their input to the story and providing ideas and perspectives I never thought to implement. I'd also like to announce I'll likely be working on the Badlands arc a little bit in the near future, improving certain aspects in an admittedly insane part of this story, maybe some new characters and scenes to push things along and make more sense._**

**_Also would like some input on the characters so far just for my own notes after 60+ chapters. I want to try and keep characters from being too perfect either personality wise or in combat unless stated and notes now could help me improve future or even past content. Always good to know the flaws other people see in them you know? Besides that little request always feel free to leave a review or questions and I'll do my best to answer, they make writing the story better and I like the input of ideas I might not have realized on my own._**


	62. Chapter 62

**Edited as of (10/18/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Stop fidgeting; you're making nervous," I muttered under my breath, as we made our way through the winding stone corridors past ancient suits of armor, weapons, and old tapestries depicting past victories, and some of Bastion's greatest moments, in almost exacting detail.

Their eyes almost seemed to be following me, judging silently. Once, I walked these halls proudly. Now, though... My side burned, the wound still not fully healed, and threatening to open up again despite the quick patch job in the wall's infirmary.

"I don't get it," the older man commented dryly with an air of amusement, especially after he caught me staring at one of the paintings we passed, showing a young man leading a team of Huntsmen towards a broken wall spewing evil, as silver rained from the night sky. "I've seen you face down the United Council of the Four Kingdoms without even batting an eye. But a funeral?..."

He didn't get it. Maybe in Atlas, funerals and ceremonies were a dull and somber affair. But here... Here, they were pits, where the snakes and vipers came out to play. Any opportunity to fight came when blood was in the water. And with the old man's position open and up for grabs, there would be more than enough meat left to fight over.

He was cut off as we neared a wide set of oak wood double doors, engraved with all sorts of fancy new filigree I wasn't really concerned with, too focused on the trill of voices inside to notice.

_'Shit...' _I'd hoped with the ceremony over that the room might've cleared out somewhat, but from the sounds of it, they were having a damn party in there. I had to stop myself from smoothing out the small wrinkles in my borrowed clothes, steeling myself with a deep breath. _'Doesn't matter. They'll know what I did, and why I'm he... Wait a minute... No, they can't have...!?'_

Ash led the way flanked by his guard, opening the door to the large, brightly lit ballroom, filled with scattered small tables, and packed with attendees from fancifully dressed elites, to the more conservative Huntsmen and Huntresses in their dress uniforms. Lining the walls stood some of the academy's students in their uniforms, looking distinctly out of place, while servers wove their way through the throng of bodies, trays of food and drink in hand...

All of whom turned to see who had just entered, but I hardly gave a damn. My mind was too focused on the sheer outrage that they were holding the damn service in the _same room_ where, just over three years before, dozens had died, including the man's own son. I could still see where they replaced some of the silvery tiling and masonry from the blast. And over there...

"Ambrose?..." Ash's careful voice snapped me back to reality as I noticed my hand shaking, sparks coursing over flesh, and causing a stir from the guards. "Are you alright?"

That got them talking. Already, I could hear the whispers starting, a few towards the back trying to muffle them behind covered lips.

"Did the man just say Ambrose?..."

"_Ehtaat__, _yes. Hardly a true resemblance, though. Is that really the Demon's heir?..."

"I heard he was supposed to be stuck in Vale. How did he manage...?..."

"He fought in the Vytal Festival Tournament matches yesterday. A decent showing, but a loss is still a..."

I blocked them all out with only a bit of difficulty, easing my Aura back under control, much to the Section Captain's relief, and that of his guards, who relaxed the grips on their rifles. _'I'm going to find the one who set this ceremony up, and **so help me,** I'll...' _I tightened my fist, before letting it fall open with a heavy sigh.

Whatever sick joke this was, there was little I could do to stop it now, and I had to accept that. My eyes fell on the closed, silver-plated casket sitting on a raised dais, a picture placed up on top of an image I couldn't quite make out, and a long, single-edged sword propped up it in its sheathed, it's top half folded backwards, beside it, next to its fallen master. It was one I'd seen dozens of times in my grandfather's hand, or on his person. Very similar, in fact, to the one Raven had worn, now that I thought of it, though simpler in a way.

Two guards were positioned at the foot of the stone steps, full Huntsmen in their gear, with weapons held at the ready. I thought I might've recognized one of them, or he certainly recognized me, his eyes angry slits above the cloth he wore over his mouth. _'Probably one of the one's who didn't conveniently forget me running off...'_

"I'm... going to see about those students. Just... I don't know... mingle? But don't make trouble, and..." He clamped his mouth shut upon seeing my face, turning on his heel, and striding off towards the nearest soldier in uniform. "I'll, uh... leave you to it, then," I heard him murmur under his breath, before moving out of earshot, leaving me on my own, distinctly wishing I could break something right about now. From the look of those guards, I wouldn't be getting anywhere near the body until later, meaning...

_'Damn it, where's Jake when you need him?'_ At least if my brother had been here, he might have deflected some of them away, and provided an opportunity. _'He should be here, too...' _The two had never been very close, what with the boy's attitude towards Huntsmen in general. But still...

It took the other guests a while to work up the nerve, but they found me all the same, even as I moved to one of the furthest corner tables, and kept my head down, finding an excuse to come over and make conversation, all simpering smiles and half-hearted condolences.

Most of it was easy enough to deal with, small talk over my opinion on the tournament and the other Huntsmen competing. How things were different at Beacon than Aegis. Even what sounded frighteningly like a drunken marriage proposal from some young business magnate, looking to score big on my name. Those I could've handled. It was the silent ones that got to me, drawing comparisons, sizing me up.

One of the wealthier students, evident by the fact he wasn't in standard uniform like the rest of those present lining the walls, even made a bit of a scene trying to challenge me to an honor duel, over some imagined slight I apparently caused some brother of his I couldn't remember years earlier. Could've maybe handled it better, but hey, I was grieving, and the only problem was the small bloodstain spreading across the blue tablecloth where I'd smashed his face against the hardwood. It had the desired effect, at least, as now they were on their guard, and leaving me alone with my thoughts for now.

_'I hate politics...' _I thought with a heavy sigh, looking towards the casket as I massaged my aching side. It was mid-morning already, and I still hadn't even managed to pay my respects. No... Politics I could stand. This posturing, though... _'That's it. To hell with ceremony! I'm...!'_

"E-excuse me, sir..." I jumped as a shy wavering voice from directly behind me spoke up, eliciting a small squeak. "A-apologies! B-but would you like s-something to eat?" I glanced over my shoulder, long enough to catch sight of the plain colored dress and apron all the female servers were wearing, along with a flash of shockingly blue hair pulled back into a bun, before turning back around, holding up a hand to wave her off as I had the others. "You look famished..."

"I-I'm fine, thank you."

"Please. I _insist..._" My eyebrows shot up as a new voice replaced the stutter. A cold, confident, and frighteningly all too familiar one.

_'No way...'_

I spun around, hand darting for my waist, only to grimace as a firm hand held it in place, with a finger digging into a nerve painfully. The woman it belonged to shifted her body closer to mask the move from any who might be watching, a playful smile on her face that didn't quite reach her brilliant green eyes.

"Aw, don't be like that, Joel." The woman winked coyly, holding the half empty tray out towards me casual as you please. "I was only offering; it's good stuff.."

"L-_Liz!?_"

* * *

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"I'm worried about her." Blake shook her head as we disembarked from the airship platform, along with a few other students looking to enjoy the festival and forget last night, many of them giving the RWBY members wide berths and angry stares, though they weathered the disdain well, all things considered. Weiss lead us towards the closest café we could see. "Yang's strong, but this... This is..." She glanced around at the surrounding students, many turning their heads away when they noticed her looking.

Weiss put a hand on her shoulder, a sad smile gracing her features. "We're all worried about her, but she'll get through this. We just have to be there for her."

It was remarkable to see just how far the heiress had come in just the past few months. Outwardly, she still held many of the same haughty qualities. But slowly and surely, those feelings were being set aside for what Ruby affectionately called her "real partner," the differences to her friends being like night and day.

_'Even her Aura's changing somewhat.' _I was surprised to discover this with my Semblance, probing just above the surface, just as Professor Goodwitch had instructed, before opening my eyes again.

My habit of "Sensing" stranger's Auras in depth to learn more about them came in useful more than once out in the Badlands, but upon informing the senior Huntress about, it I was informed that, while cursory at best, some might see the examination as a breach of privacy. _'Friends are off limits, at least.' _As a general rule, I tried not to delve to deeply with anyone now, without good reason anyway.

"You're right..." the cat girl replied, though still with that sorrowful look in her eyes. "I just can't help but think I screwed up back in the room. I let her down."

"You gave your reasons, and in the end, you told her that you trusted her. You do, don't you?"

"I do... I mean... I _want_ to." Weiss' expression faltered somewhat, though I guess she'd concluded same as I that this was the best we could hope for at this point. We entered the warm, bustling building, seating ourselves at the counter. Weiss ordered a coffee for me after a quick rundown of my preferences, sending the barista scrambling to follow her every demand.

_'Interrogation might be a better word.'_

"Ah... Perfect," Weiss hummed, sipping at her steaming mug happily, letting the tension leave her face. "Amazing what a bit of proper direction can produce." The barista bowed deeply, sweat dripping down his brow as he grumbled under his breath, glancing at the half dozen or so previous attempts.

Blake merely laughed into her tea cup, while I sipped at my own concoction carefully, finding the drink rather delicious, though a part of me still missed the half ground, over cold mess I used to scrounge off of Mr. Gamboge back in the Badlands, the skinny bandit always managing to wake up at the crack of dawn to brew up a quick batch.

_'I wonder how he's doing now?' _Last I'd seen of him, he was working feverishly on a last minute cup before the gang moved out for the day, Ben and I leaving to track that damn train.

"What do you think happened to Joel?" Blake asked, setting her cup down in front of her while she looked to the two of us. "Things wouldn't be perfect, but he'd at least help her through this. He'd be able to relate with what she's going through, at least."

"That oaf's likely blowing off steam somewhere as confused as the rest of us," Weiss huffed, drawing both of our gazes as she brought her mug down again. "I give it a day. He'll vent, and then come running back to her as loyal as he ever was."

I giggled despite myself, drawing the heiress' ire as Blake joined in as well.

"Wh-what are you two snickering on about!?" Her face reddened, glancing between the two of us nervously. "Did I say something strange?"

"For you anyway. For a moment there, you almost sounded like you were complimenting the man," Blake clarified, resting her chin in her palm as her teammate turned her nose up. "It's different from the way you usually talk about him..."

I nodded, bringing out my Scroll, and typing out a quick message, before turning it to her. _"You do argue a lot."_

"While I may not approve of _everything_ that big oaf has been involved with... I won't lie and say he doesn't have some redeeming qualities... I-in the right light, of course," she added when she noticed the laughing continue. "I doubt he'd ever willingly do anything to hurt Yang, anyway."

"Wishing Neptune was so devoted?" Blake tossed out, forcing me to put my face in my cup to hid my grin.

"Oh, and what about that showboating monkey you were ogling just yesterday, hmm?" Now it was Blake's turn to blush and make excuses, the two descending into a barrage of friendly barbs and insinuations, Weiss throwing in a few low blows herself. "And then those 'novels of yours. _Please_ tell me you've taken steps to hide them from Ruby, at least."

"O-of course, I... Not that I need to anyway," the ninja recovered, only to fall under siege again as I asked her, with a grin Ben would've been proud of, how the commissions she'd given Maxine were coming along. The Faunus girl's face looked ready to burst at this point. "And what about you, then?" she tried to counter, failing spectacularly as I merely shrugged off the question.

Attraction and romance were weird concepts, concepts I learned by example growing up, just as I had pretty much everything else, with a bunch of criminals. Some of the men could speak for hours on past or current relationships. Even Ma threw in a few of her wilder encounters, that still brought a blush to my cheeks even now, while others could hardly remember the name of their last fling. Ben was little help, bouncing from one "lucky lady" to the next, doing his best to avoid the ones that tried to cling onto him, and sending the one's that did leave with a smile and a wink.

Personally, for the most part, it sounded like a waste, at least some of the flowery bits, anyway. Though, despite that, my eyes still found their way down to the as yet unnamed violet and silver bracer that adorned my arm, my weapon's new compressed form. The thought of Joel's brother making time to piece the small weapon back together, and modify it despite his ironclad exterior, brought a warm feeling across my cheeks.

_''Iron Blossom...' Something to that effect, maybe.'_

Soon, all our worries slowly began to fade into the background, the worries of last night almost completely forgotten as we sat there. It was so nice, I'd almost missed the small telltale nagging at the back of my mind, as a familiar presence made itself known nearby, my head turning to what was unmistakably Maxine's Aura blazing nearby, strangely changed from last I felt it, looking almost like it was trying to reach out to those around it, accompanied by...

My mug clattered to the hardwood counter, startling my companions as I stiffened in my seat, sweat trickling down my brow. _'How is that...!? How would she...!? __**Why!?**__'_

Maxine's Aura, similar to Yang's fiery presence or Weiss' regal glow, showed like a beacon to my Semblance's awareness, compounded by the fact I was so familiar with its intricacies. Others, such as Blake or Ben, were more subdued, harder to track by nature of their personality.

The presence that accompanied Max, however, was... overwhelming was the only word I could really use to describe it. Like the feeling you'd get from watching a storm or tornado raging close by. It's level, perhaps, was not as plentiful as my own, but easily more potent and wild.

I knew this presence, too. Had felt it years before during the one occasion I'd ever seen William "Hangman" Carson sweat bullets, and that had been a time worth remembering. Fires raging, groans of pain...

_'What could Maxine be doing with someone like __**HER!?**__'_

Nothing good, if her reputation was anything to go by...

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"I don't understand." I glanced down at the mask sitting in the plastic bag I held in my hands carefully away from me, the blazing red handprint glaring back up coldly. I hated just being near it. The damn thing didn't just smell of blood. No, it _reeked_ of it. So much so, the coppery scent almost had me gagging as I tried to keep pace with the woman ahead of me, drawing stares from every angle as she passed.

Fortuna Marigold... wasn't what I expected at all, truth be told. Self-admitted former Trapper, bounty huntress, a woman who I could easily see wiping out this entire block, if last night was any indication. _'Is she a gawking tourist, or a hyperactive child?..._' I wondered, feeling tired just from watching the woman bounce from stall to stall, laughing with passersby, or barely resisting the urge to drop money on some carnival game.

It was impossible to get any sort of read on her at all.

"What's there to understand? You track down the target, I kill them," she shot back over her shoulder, before finally stopping to admire herself in a shop window, adjusting her broad brimmed hat with a smirk as she spun on her heel. "Sounds simple enough to me. Now come on and pick it up. Don't want to be late to catch the good seats."

"For what? Why are you hunting these people? You haven't told me dick!" I called back when I saw her push on ahead, picking up my pace to keep up with her insane stride.

_'No wonder Ambrose's hair went white. The hell's wrong with this woman?'_

"You say you're tracking down dangerous targets, people I want off the streets, but you don't tell me a thing about them, or what they've done to deserve it!"

"There's a blood-covered Trapper mask in there, right?" she called back, seemingly uncaring of whoever might hear her. "That's almost like an admission of wrongdoing right there."

"Why the hell do want me to track down a... You know..." I looked around, trying, at least, to keep _MY_ voice down, and not attract the attention of every officer in uniform within a ten-mile radius. "Trapper?... Wouldn't you be all buddy-buddy with them?"

"Wow. You and your daddy really weren't picking up on the whole 'former' thing, were you?" I bristled at that, letting out an involuntary growl, and gritted my teeth so hard, I was afraid I might chip a tooth. "Also, I don't think that particular target would care much either way, and neither would I. Best case, we'd still end up having to cripple the bastard somehow, if we wanted to talk."

I tried to wrap my head around the strange wording, glancing down at the mask again distastefully. "Why bother with talking at all? I thought you said you wanted them all dead?"

"Wanted, and actually pulling it off are two _very different_ things. You'll see if we run into him. Bit of a challenge."

"_See!?_ _Right there!_ How the hell am I supposed to track someone, if I don't...!?"

I stopped as she spun around abruptly, sticking a finger in my face, gesturing from my nose to the bag. "Would an explanation help make finding them easier?"

"W-well, no, not really," I shot back shakily, pushing her hand out of my face. "But still, it would give me something to go...!"

She shrugged, leaning back as she flashed me a toothy smile, before wrapping a long arm around my shoulder, choking off my explanation with a laugh. "Excellent, then you don't need one. Now, I'm famished."

I gaped at her jaw slacked for a few seconds, before letting out a loud yelp as she dragged me bodily along with her down the street, kicking and thrashing the whole way, though finding myself unable to get away, the other woman's grip like an iron bar. "H-hey!? You can't be... Are you _serious_!?"

"Can't work on an empty stomach, can we? Breakfast is important, after all," Marigold hummed happily as she picked up her stride, peering around at the assembled shop fronts, nose twitching in some parody of what she'd had me doing an hour earlier, practically shoving my face in the damn bag. "Ooh, I'm feeling... Hmm. Vacuoan; something spicy. How about you?"

Drawing on my Aura, I focused my Semblance despite the slight twinge of pain it shot through my skull, a dull ache singing just behind my eyes. "L-let me...!?" I stiffened as I felt her arm tightened. Not by much, but more than enough to turn my head up to see her expression. "Uh... Vacuoan sounds delicious," I smiled, mouth twitching into a shaky grin as I released the tentative hold on my Aura almost mournfully.

"Good girl." She clapped me on the back, grin returning to her lips as she let out a contented sigh. "You know, I forgot how entertaining it was having a sidekick to drag around. I missed it. First lunch, then we break into the Colosseum!"

_'Sidekick... Yay.' _I internally simmered sarcastically, brow furrowing as I tried to wonder on who the poor fools that had apparently ticked off the monster beside me. _'This is gonna be trouble, I just know... Wait... __**Break into the Colosseum!?**__'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"Guess people are just busting in one after the other, then?" Blondie spoke up bitterly from her perch on the windowsill. She sat up as I closed the door behind me, head and arms propped on her knees. "And here I was thinking the General was trying to limit visitors."

"Eh, you know me, Beautiful. When have I ever given a damn about the rules? 'Sides, I'm pretty sure old Iron-Ass owes me one," I chuckled, though the sound died in my throat when I saw she wasn't biting, still intent on staring at the grounds below. "Look, Blondie, I..."

"Joel."

"Huh?"

"He doesn't believe me, does he?" she cut me off, her voice cracking just enough to be noticeable through the anger. "That's why he isn't here, right?"

It was easy to see where this was going. And now I get to be the one taking the fallout. _'Damn it, Psycho!'_

Talking to beautiful women, I could do in spades. Sign me right up. Talking to emotionally questionable Huntresses' easily capable of turning my handsome mug into squishy red mush about their boy troubles? Not so much. "Not so sure about..."

"_Where is he, then!?_" She turned her head to look back at me, eyes red and puffy from recent tears.

_'The hell did Qrow tell her?'_

I took an involuntary step back at the flash of familiar crimson in her eyes, a move she noticed with a twitch of her eyebrow, before looking back around. "He wouldn't just leave, would he? No one's seen him since last night!"

"Doesn't mean he up and left. I know my leader, and he's nothin' if not direct with how he feels about somethin'. You most of all." Flying bricks are subtler than the guy, at times. Less durable, too. "As for whether or not he believes in you, well... Last time I saw him, he seemed ready to take on the entire Atlesian Military when he saw them takin' you away. Probably would've done it, if I hadn't talked him down."

"...Maybe they had something to do with it, then?" she wondered more to herself then me, the fire leaving her voice, if only just a little, replaced instead by a touch of worry. "He _would_ do something stupid, and get himself in trouble."

Actually, there was a thought. I wouldn't exactly put it past Ironwood to pull a fast one under Ozpin's nose, especially if he considered Ambrose a security risk. _'Wouldn't be the first time he's done it...' _His little trick with the Council to seize power over security for the Festival, moving a damn fleet in over our heads. _'Only problem is how he could've fooled Reika...'_

According to her, Psycho had been there one moment, and then the next he vanished. The most I could get out of her was that he was on the docks near the airship they hauled Mercury off in, which was semi-damning in itself judging by the sort of state he was in. Then, some weird haze, almost like he was fighting, then... nothing. He just vanishes along with the strange signature.

_'No way am I tellin' Woody that little bit of info. Not before I have more to go on, anyway.'_

Dangerous and underhanded, yes, but frankly, despite all this Maiden and Warden business, I trusted James Ironwood about as far as I could throw him with my good arm tied behind my back.

"Look, whatever's going on with him, I'm sure he's fine. You know how he is." I spread my arms wide, doing my best to be chipper and supportive through the dour mood that seemed to be settling more and more with each second. "Life can beat him down all it wants, but he just gets right back up again. You two have that in common."

"Why?" The Huntress put her face into her knees, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. "Why is everything falling apart, all of a sudden? The tournament, Blake and Joel... I feel like I'm going crazy."

I moved closer, giving her a few awkward pats on the back, and doing my best to stop the waterworks, as I just sat there and let her vent. "It's gonna be alright. You'll see..."

* * *

_'This problem isn't going to go away with just a few pretty words, though...' _I found myself pacing the corridors of Beacon listlessly after the blonde finally kicked me out, going over scenario after scenario in my head furiously. _'She's at the breakin' point. Just one more push and...'_ I wasn't really sure, to be honest, though I certainly knew I didn't want to see it.

For all I knew, she might just have had a point with that "crazy" talk. I'd gone over the footage a dozen times from multiple angles, including Reika's _Sense, _and all of them only confirmed that the girl in front of me blew some asshole's leg wide open while his Aura was down.

The attitude was all wrong, though. I could maybe see Maxine pull something like this on a bad day, though some part of me knew even she preferred the opponent be able to at least limp away afterwards, without potentially crippling them for life. Not to mention compared to my teammate's sadistic streak, Blondie was a cupcake. My own personal feelings aside, from an evidence perspective, it was practically an open and shut case, with the best-case scenario being that the whole thing was an unfortunate, adrenaline-fueled reaction to some supposed move she thought she saw. An accident. Happens to even the best of combatants, though a shame it had to happen live, where everyone and their grandmother could see it go down. Blondie was damned lucky all she just had to deal with was disqualification and a damaged reputation, and not something more serious.

_'Long story short, bad luck and raw nerves were a nasty, but all too common recipe for disaster... Then why can't I get it out of my head?' _I wondered, already knowing the reasons. One part was a desperate drive to prove Ambrose right, for his sake as much as Blondie's, and my own gut feeling that something had to be missing here. Something critical.

This girl had taken on a Trapper single-handedly, fist fought a giant robot piloted by a criminally deranged maniac, and worked her way into the most prestigious Huntsman combat school's on the face of Remnant. She didn't shock or scare easily.

_'Though I suppose nothin' can really prepare someone for what their own mind can drum up,' _I thought with a barely suppressed shiver down my spine. Those monsters AMBR buried had made that lesson abundantly clear. Who knows what she might've interpreted from the cocky bastard while he was getting up? How she might've seen him.

Without Mercury himself, still in transit to Mistral, unable to provide details that might've been missed, I was loathe to admit I was stuck. _'There has to be somethin' there... Somethin' I'm not seein'...'_

Joel had expressed his belief in the young Huntress. The least I could do was keep things together while he did... whatever it was he was doing.

_'Get back soon, you white-haired bastard...' _I rubbed at my aching skull, eyelids drooping, making it difficult to focus on where I was going. _'Otherwise you might not have much to come back to...'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"What the _hell_ are you doing here!?" I spat back at Liz, biting off a curse as she applied more pressure on the nerve she held, with a short "tsk" of annoyance.

"Me? Currently annoying the hell out of that pair over there."

She cocked her head off to the side, where two young women dressed in the rich style of the elite simmered at a nearby corner, muttering angrily between themselves, and shooting the Trapper dirty looks which she ignored with a small smile, making them even angrier.

"Probably wondering how some servant managed to catch the eye of our surprise guest of honor." The smile shifting into an annoyed scowl. "On that note, what the hell are _YOU_ doing here!?" She let go of my arm thankfully, before jabbing a nailed finger into my chest painfully. "You're supposed to be in Vale. Do you even know how dangerous this...!?"

I shoved the hand away with a low growl, looking over my shoulder at those dozens of eyes watching us, before grabbing her shoulders. Liz letting out a surprised squeak of indignation, as I steered her towards the outer fringes of the room behind one of the ornate pillars supporting it, almost upsetting the platter she held in the effort, before pinning the young woman against the stone surface once we were out of sight.

Her eyes flashed angrily, though her mouth twisted into a nasty grin. "Well, not as rough a greeting as last time we met, but..."

"You need to leave. _NOW._" I cut her off, trying to keep my voice steady as she stared back at me defiantly, biting her bottom lip with the effort of biting back a retort. "I don't know how you managed to sneak your way in here, and I don't care what Violette wants. I want you, and anyone else you brought along with you, _gone._"

Were all of the staff compromised? How had this been allowed to happen again? Security should've been through the roof, especially with an event like this being held within Aegis' walls. The reception we'd received from those two students came to mind.

_'What the hell is going on here?'_

Rather than laugh, shoot back some taunt, or any of the dozens of ways Elizabeth Briar could've reacted in that instance, I hadn't foreseen the look of shock and unabashed incredulity present on her face. "Holy shit... You... You _really_ don't know, do you?"

"What the hell are you talking about!?" I narrowed my eyes at her, doing my best to keep my voice level. "Know what!?"

"...No. No, of course you wouldn't," she murmured, more to herself then to me. "Not even you would be stupid enough to come back here if you had, or make such a big show of it." She shrugged my hands off, adjusting the fringe of her dress with a huff. "Honestly, what else was I expecting? Always charging in with no sense of subtlety..."

"H-hey! It not like I meant to...!" I spat back defensively, taking stepping back, face reddening despite myself. "Look, that's not the issue here..."

The infiltrator massaged her temples with an annoyed groan, brushing my attempted excuses aside. "Of all the times you could've... I don't know how you got here, but you need to get out _NOW;_ you'll ruin everything!"

Well this was turning out to be quite the morning. My grandfather's funeral and my ex, all at once...

"_I_ have to leave!?"

"I'm trying to give you a warning, asshole!"

"Heh, that's rich coming from the person who sent me over a cliff the last time we met up." I caught her arm as she tried to dart away, dodging a hasty kick that probably would've popped my kneecap, if not for the dress and heels she wore tripping her up a bit. "How did the Hand know I would be here!?"

There was no way they could have known... Unless Raven was working with them? No, that didn't seem likely.

The only explanation that made any sense at the moment, to me anyway, was that this was all some plan to get at me. _'Though why would she announce herself before finishing me off?' _Liz could be vindictive, but she was a professional overall. She wouldn't give up the element of surprise just to... _'Wait, what **is** the plan here?' _It didn't help that she was staring at me as if I'd just told her I wanted a Beowolf named Sprinkles as a pet.

"Oh yeah! The Red Hand had _nothing better _to do than going after one little Trapper that went astray," she retorted sarcastically, twisting her way gracefully from my halfhearted grip, eyes narrowing as they tried to avoid mine.

"I don't... Wait, 'had?' What do you...?"

"Might shock you to hear this, Ambrose, but no, this _isn't_ about you. Or the Red Hand. Well... not really, anyway..." I opened my mouth to argue, but her head twitched to the side, eyes focusing with sudden clarity. "Shit, I'm too late!"

"Huh...?" All of a sudden, I was pressed up against the pillar, aggravating my side. Liz twisted my arm behind my back, whispering for me to shut up.

That's when I heard it. The sudden silence that had come over the room as the sound of heavy footsteps on stone echoed through the halls outside the room. With a creak that echoed through the room, the doors opened to admit a handful of figures who entered silently, heads held high.

In front was a man with deeply tanned skin, and curly, straw colored hair streaked with grey, and shaved close to his scalp, along with an impressive moustache, who, judging by the uniform that closely resembled a more decorated version of the one Ash had worn, a large curved sword strapped across the back, and the bowing looks of respect from the Huntsmen present, marked him out as the current Master of the Guard. I didn't recognize him as I angled myself to see past the pillar, craning my head to see over the crowd, though that was no surprise. The last had been marked out for retirement even before I'd left, stepping down after the events following the night of the attack.

This man was followed by a thin woman in a business suit, chestnut colored hair curt short around her ears and drawn up into a tight bun, heels clacking on the stone. _'The new mayor,' _I guessed from the demeanor, and a brief memory of seeing someone similar on a campaign poster. They would be here to conclude the ceremony and oversee the selection of a new Headmaster.

The last three to enter the room behind them, however...

"Joel, what are you... G-get back here, you...!" Liz winced as sparks ran down my arm, forcing her back while I strode out from behind the pillar, marching my way towards the crowd currently shifting to form a straight path to the dais. A wall I now had to force myself through, my eyes fixed on the brown-haired, pale man with cold grey eyes, staring resolutely at the casket ahead, flanked on both sides by a pair of dark-armored individuals sporting masks.

Lucas Violette in the flesh, escorted by two Trappers, was here in the halls of Aegis.

"What is this criminal doing here!?" a voice rang out, asking the very question that burned in my mind as Ash stepped out from the crowd, blocking their path. The guards were not really sure what to do. "Commander Aero, what's the meaning of this!?"

"Stand down and remove yourself, Garrett..." the blonde man, Aero, said challengingly, eyebrows rising as Ash resisted him, and kept his eyes fixed on the man behind him, leaving his feet in place. "Section Captain, I gave you an order!"

"Sir, with all due respect, that man is a terrorist wanted in the Kingdoms for crimes against life, responsible for...!"

"I'm well aware of the charges brought against Huntsman Violette," the man, Aero, cut him off sharply. "Kingdom law has no sway here, Captain, and in accordance with the traditions of our city, this man has the right to pay his respects to his fallen mentor in peace without incident."

"T-that's madness! I must insist...!?"

Whatever words Ash was going to use were silenced, as two of his own guards grabbed his arms, pulling him out of the way of the procession, which marched on calmly, whispers rippling through the crowd as I did my best to push past the mess of bodies, uncaring of the grunts of discomfort or anger. I was vaguely aware of Briar whispering hectic warnings from behind me as she struggled to keep up, forcing me to practically fight off her attempts to stop me.

"Kenneth and others may have thought your ignorance of our ways quaint at times, Garrett, but know that I am not among them," I heard the commander state as he passed the struggling man, glancing at him as if he were scum on the bottom of his shoe, motioning to his men. "_Nasuja Res!_" The guards nodded, beginning the process of dragging the struggling man out of the way.

"Apologies for the inconvenience, Huntsman," the mayor said as an aside to Lucas, the man shrugging it off with cold grace, not even bothering to spare the man that had challenged him a passing glance. "A slight oversight in the guest list. I hope this doesn't reflect unfavorably on..."

"It was expected, Mayor Tanner." His voice was stone, and silenced her in an instant, his expression unwavering as his head moved to examine the crowd. "Now, I was informed that my..."

"**_LUCAS VIOLETTE!_**" I roared, finally forcing my way to the front of the crowd directly behind them, getting my first good look at my uncle as he glanced back at me over his shoulder, surprise tinging his sharp features for a moment, before he'd schooled himself back into calm.

"So the reports weren't exaggerating..." he muttered loudly enough for my senses to pick up, a tone almost like amusement present in his voice. "Still surprising me, from the grave, Master?"

He'd forgone the dark armor and greatcoat I'd grown used to seeing him in for so many years, instead wearing a simple grey suit and vest over a collared shirt, with whatever awards and medals he'd earned during his tenure as a Huntsman proudly displayed over his heart, looking much the same as he had when he'd first left all those years ago, only with more grey tinging his temples, and a bit more looseness in his clothes.

If anything, that realization only made me angrier, my clothes smoking slightly as static burned into the fabric, especially along the arms...

Before I could do more than clear the crowd, however, one of his bodyguards stepped back to bar my way. He was certainly the more eccentric of the two, having forgone the standard style of gear for pitch black robes that hid most of his form, similarly colored pants, and combat boots, with assorted bits of gear hung around him. Most noticeably, I saw what I recognized was a silver, beaked plague doctor's mask, that, combined with his hood, obscured his features almost entirely. Aside from that, most of his actual bulk came from the large gaudy coffin he had slung across his back at the ready. All in all, there was no mistaking who this was...

**"Traitor..."** the Trapper said in a low voice, distorted by the mask. His head tilted towards Briar, who had stumbled to the front right behind me, though thankfully she was in full "terrified servant not worth your time" mode with her Semblance, and he turned back to me with a disgusted grunt, ignoring her like an ant beneath his boot. **"It's been some time..."** He adjusted his grip on the coffin, a slight rattling echoing from within, as the contents shifted.

"Get the _hell_ out of my way, Plaga..._" _I said slowly, hand sparking as it twitched towards the weapon hanging off my belt. " I have business with my uncle." The crowd was beginning to skirt back, as few nervous shouts sounded out, and hands were going for weapons at their hips or backs.

A murky, greenish Aura began to show around the Trapper, as the coffin hit the ground with a heavy thud of metal on stone. Bile rose up towards the back of my throat as the pressure of his Aura hit me like a wave, and I noticed many similar reactions in the crowd closest to us. My wound itched painfully, though I tried to ignore it.** "I don't think so, _boy._"** He stressed the last word out, his body shifting subtly in a way that set every instinct I had screaming to get away.

Plaga, or "The Black Death" as the more fearful of the White Fang, and even our own troops had taken to calling him, was a First Generation Huntsman of the Red Hand, whose Aura was so foul, it could make one nauseous just being near him.

A damn fine Trapper, judging by his work ethic. A pinnacle of everything that word should mean. _'In other words, a monster...'_

I'd never had much extended contact with the man, though I had known his student Ao well enough, having worked with her on occasion. I had seen him in action once, though, and that was more than enough to know that if we fought, especially injured as I was, he would almost certainly win handily. _'An 'almost certainly' is still a chance, no matter how small,' _Marigold might've said.

"_Stand down, Plaga!_" Lucas' voice split the air before either of us could act, the man standing casually, even while Aero just stood next to him with a hand clutching the hilt of his weapon, while the other Trapper's hands drifted towards the chakrams hanging off her sides. "_All of you!..._ I'd like to greet my nephew properly."

His tone was leveled, barely even a shout. However, those assembled followed it without question, though I did notice Plaga's eyes following me as I pushed past him roughly, the patch of fabric on my shoulder and elbow that grazed him noticeably discolored from the rest. The murmuring started up again, as Ash called out a warning that I pointedly ignored, taking breath after calming breath to settle my nerves.

Liz's eyes were likely burning holes in my back as I made my way towards the man now leading the procession, the ghost of a genuine smile touching his face. The first I'd seen him make in years.

"You look well, Joel. I'm glad to see Beacon allowed you to...!"

My fist lashed out hard and fast, like a striking Taijitsu, crashing against his jaw with a flash of teal, as Aura met Aura in a blow that sent him stumbling back, and silenced the room completely, as those assembled tried to register what just happened. Even the man himself seemed stunned at the outburst.

Peaceful, complete silence ensued as the sparks on my shaking fist died... Then the tumult began, with the angered cries of onlookers, and the rustling hiss of steel.

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Tristain Aero - Keith Szarabajka

Audrey Tanner - Vanessa Marshall

Plaga - Fred Tatasciore

* * *

**(-Primer-)**

**Ehtaat **\- Indeed

**Nasuja res - **Remove him

**_A/N: Well that certainly escalated quickly, Trappers in Bastion, Fortuna running around Vale with Max, and a mess of plot still to come. It's only going to get crazier from here, this day's long from over. This one was a bit of a pain to write but fun all the same._**

**_Ben hit it right on the nose with that whole "mind playing tricks on you" bit but yeah clever he might be, but even I'm calling him figuring out it was a Semblance involved and Emerald's to boot with nothing to really go on beyond somewhat similar experience months before a little far fetched even by fanfic logic. Speaking of Ben I'll probably spend some time working on his little memory chapter pretty soon as well as working on the Badlands arc a bit._**

**_Plaga belongs to The Baz and his fic The White Mask, what can I say, people come up with fun Trappers. Also saw this fic is now in the No Yuri No Yaoi community, no issue with that though just as a heads up I can't say this is entirely gonna be true at all times even for the main cast, characters like Natalie and Leah have a thing going and there will very likely be others, If a relationship works out naturally in a story then it works no matter the pairing, that's been my philosophy._**

**_As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll do my best to have the next one out soon, feel free to leave a review or a comment on the story so far and I hope you all have an awesome day._**


	63. Chapter 63

**Edited as of (10/18/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**_A/N: Hey everyone, this one's a long chapter, long enough I had to split it into two and add it to the next, and is for the most part focused entirely in Bastion. It is mostly talking however so I thought I might as well get it released early so we can get back to the action sooner, no use making you guys wait. It's necessary plot development but it's not the most exciting chapter at least in my eyes. Some of you probably have guessed at what's going to happen...hope it's enjoyable at least and I'll be sure to get back to Vale soon with the inevitable chaos Max &amp; Marigold get up to._**

**(...) - In the Old Tongue**

A NEW REGIME

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

Plaga was the first to react, a guard-less katana appearing in his hand from out of nowhere as he practically appeared behind me mid-slash. I was already reared back for another punch, but saw that the other Trapper was already one step behind him. Both were ready to part my head from my shoulders.

Probably would've, too, if Lucas hadn't raised his hand, freezing them both in place, with the edge of the robed Trapper's weapon mere millimeters from my throat, just grazing the edges of my Aura.

My uncle's other hand went to his jaw, massaging the point where my fist had connected softly. "A fine blow." He worked on his mouth for a few more seconds, before standing up straight, smile wiped from his face as if it had never been. "And not a hint of hesitation... I was afraid your time in Vale had made you weak."

"Sir, allow us to restrain...!" Aero spoke up, motioning for more guards to grab me. Lucas aborted the motion with a glare that could've split rock. After making sure that they were suitably cowed, his gaze shifted towards the Plague Doctor and his companion, who still hadn't lowered their weapons.

"It's quite alright, Commander, Plaga. Merely a family reunion long overdue." He straightened his jacket, hand shifting to his hair to fix his appearance into some semblance of order, the bruise already vanishing under the influence of his Aura. "I expected some tension for this meeting."

Aero looked sullen. Meanwhile, neither Trapper said a word, though Plaga shifted his blade a bit farther, at least enough so I didn't have to hold my breath to avoid its edge.

_'**TENSION!?**' _That was a hell of word for it! Sending agents after me, almost getting Yang killed! Just the thought set my fingers twitching for my knives, as every atrocity and life ruined by the orders of the man standing before me replayed in my head.

"You have _no right_ to be here," I spoke plainly through gritted teeth, ignoring the blade literally and figuratively at my throat, as I gestured towards Kenneth's coffin, blue eyes boring into the pale grey that just stared back impassively. "_No right at all!_"

"Your grandfather was my guide, my mentor, and my friend," the man replied sternly, as if he were speaking to a child again. It was the same tone he used on Robyn and I whenever we stepped out of line. "He was like a father to me. He showed me what it truly meant to be a Huntsman. Many in this room would say I have even more right to stand here now than you do."

"Always taking the high ground..." I growled, massaging my knuckles gingerly even if the move set Plaga on edge again. "Call whatever you're doing 'noble' or 'honorable,' but don't delude yourself into thinking you're a Huntsman, or that he would've approved of any of this." I clamped my mouth shut, ignoring the stares as I moved to take the place beside him.

His bodyguards stiffened once again at the move, though finally lowered their weapons when Lucas merely nodded and motioned for me to follow. The two Trappers looked to each other, before resuming their position behind us. This time, however, their hands were close to their weapons, ready to draw again in an instant. Aero and the mayor, Tanner her name was, followed along after a fashion, the man looking ready to behead me on the spot, while the thin woman just kept eyeing me nervously, as if I'd start sparking again any second now.

_'Judging by how I'm feeling right now, that might just be a valid concern,'_ I internally muttered, the crowd milling behind us to fill in the gaps as we moved forward. The whole lot jostled together, and I soon lost track of Liz in the mess, though I didn't dare look back to see.

_'If she's here... What's she hiding from them for?' _She had even used her Semblance to fool Plaga into writing her off. The effort to conceal herself was certainly there, but why feel any need to hide? _'Something's wrong.'_

**("Who do you think called me here?")**Lucas asked me, flawlessly shifting between common speech and the Old Tongue in an instant, almost making me trip in place as my breath caught in my chest while I tried to catch up. **("He may not have involved himself personally, but even he saw my way in the end. Master provided sanctuary for us outside of the Kingdoms. In secret, of course, but it gave us the chance to rebuild what we lost in the wake of your defection, and build upon it with something even greater.")**

Bastion, or at least the majority of her public and military forces, had never been very concerned with Kingdom politics and moves until Grandfather made a point of pushing for rejoining them officially. Many outright disliked them, calling them bloated and weak. Some even thought of the Council as nothing more than dictators looking to drain our own resources, while providing little in return. Few, especially Isolationists, would care about the Red Hand and it's activities. In fact, I'm sure many secretly praised him for his work, given the general attitude towards the White Fang in the wake of the bombing nearly four years ago. The Mayor and the Guard Commander walking alongside him now only complicated things. The culmination of months of effort, most likely, which would have only been possible if...

**("Grandfather wouldn't have allowed it. Even if the whole city was on your side, he would have...")** I shook my head fervently as I replied in kind, doubt coursing through my mind.

He'd have stopped this. The man couldn't possibly have allowed what Lucas was suggesting. If that were true, then the silence at my trial, and the uncaring attitude afterwards... Was I just another shame on his 'honor?'

What the hell was I even doing here, then?

**("He tried to dissuade me more than once, of course. At our last meeting, he even tried to stop me by force, saying it was his responsibility, and wagered his honor on the outcome... He failed each time.")** Lucas explained, not once breaking eye contact with the coffin, a fervor tinging his words. **("I earned my place among my people yet again, and when I offered him the chance to help me attain true justice for our family, he turned me away.")**

**("You're a _murderer,_")** I spat back at him vehemently, sensing the irony in my own words with every syllable. As if I had any right to judge him on morality. **("That isn't 'justice.' Not to me, and certainly not to him.")**

**("There was a time when you understood the purpose of our actions. A time when you weren't afraid to do what was necessary,")** he said as we neared the steps of the dais, the pair of Huntsman finally standing aside to let us pass, as we took a step forward in unison. He was keeping his voice just low enough to hide it from the crowd, his lips barely moving.

**("_Necessary?_ So it's 'necessary' to sanction attacks in _broad daylight_within a _public area?_ To rampage without any regard to civilians or police, Faunus or otherwise?")** I listed off, keeping my voice down as well, feeling just a bit vindicated at the annoyed tick that played through the facade at the corner of his mouth. "You're no better than the White Fang. You never were." That made sure his comrades could understand what I was saying, my fingers curling at my sides, sparks dancing between the digits.

I could almost feel the hateful glares from the other two that had stayed back, but the memory of Yang lying there on the ground, not breathing, still burned, even after all these months. It was all happening again for a moment. The smoke, the pain, both physical and mental, Ruby crying over her sister's body... I went through one of the calming exercises that, ironically, this very man had taught me, or else it was very likely I would've struck him again then and there without a second thought, Trapper bodyguards or not.

"We've had to change and evolve alongside our enemy, in order to recover momentum after your little stunt. Even still, Capaneus was hardly justified in..."

_'Always ready with a damn excuse...' _I seethed, cresting the steps of the stone dais before he could finish. I stopped when I reached the topmost step to look down at the sealed casket, which was a blessing, as I wasn't sure how I would've reacted to seeing the old man just lying there. The mental image alone was bad enough.

The sword, _HIS_ sword, was sitting right next to me. _Silver Moonlight. _A Dust-forged, silver longsword, that had personally conducted the death cries of countless Grimm over decades of battles, hunts, and struggles. It always folded in on itself, with the top part of the blade folding backwards, whenever he had it sheathed. Chances were it would probably end up in his tomb, if not given some other place of honor, though I couldn't help but think its owner would've considered it a waste of a good weapon to let it sit around like a decoration.

_'Speaking of which, I wonder what they'll do with his piano?' _It was a weird thought, one that just popped to mind before I could help myself. _'That's the thing they should be burying him with. Knowing the mindset here, they probably didn't even consider it.'_Grandfather had loved that old relic; the thought of having it sit around collecting dust, or worse, sold off to some amateur collector, probably would have had him in tears. I almost let out a sorrowful chuckle, before chastising myself for the inappropriate notion.

The whole thing was... strange, now that I finally got around to thinking about it, too busy dealing with sycophants and the sheer impossibility of today's events. One moment, I'm chasing down a lead atop a flying Colosseum, the next Yang's mother, who I was still getting used to the realization that I had actually met, throws me two feet through a rift in the air, only to land on an entirely different landmass.

In the face of it all, Kenneth Ambrose, one of the last family members I'd considered to be close, was still dead. The stark reality of that fact now stared me right in the face. I noticed my hand shaking by my side, and quickly stilled it, willing the burning feeling at the corner of my eyes to cease, and just barely succeeding.

The coffin itself was a gaudy thing. All silver filigree and darkened steel paneling. The designer even went so far as to engrave the crescent moon of Aegis on the face of it.

"He'd have hated it..." Lucas had reached the top silently while I was distracted, running a calloused hand over the emblem with a frown. "Master was never one for ornamentation or ceremony... He always enjoyed the simpler things."

"Like shoving an instrument in your hand every chance he got?" I grinned despite myself, remembering how years ago every present from the man had been some new musical tool he'd try to teach me in his spare time, and how he'd finally just given it up with a laugh in the end, making some crack about how a screeching Nevermore was preferable to anything I tried to play. "He'd always have some music anecdote ready for me whenever I came to him with questions or problems... Didn't matter if it was about managing Aura control, how to take a blow from a Grimm better, or advice on how to pick up girls..." I cringed internally, just remembering how that unwanted topic had come up. "He'd always find some way to bring it back around... I'm pretty sure the man should've been a musician, rather than a Huntsman."

"Indeed. Your father and I used to wonder if he had a book hidden somewhere, or if he managed to actually come up with all of them himself..." His fingers curled into a fist, and I noticed him look towards the little black frame propped up on his end. My heart took another dull hit when I realized the contents of the picture.

It was the whole family, grouped together in front of what I recognized as my Grandparent's manor. It was one of the smaller estates left over from Bastion's pre-Kingdom days, though it had still stood like a castle in my childhood eyes. Grandpa stood in the middle, with a grin on his then-bearded face, and a broad arm wrapped around the shoulder of a much shorter woman. She had a deeply lined face, and black hair streaked liberally with grey, which was done up in a tight bun.

_'Grandma Gwen...' _I stared, vaguely remembering the few flashes of smiling laughter that was all I had of the woman, as she had died mere weeks after this particular photo.

Unlike her husband, she had never trained as a Huntress. Apparently, she had never even unlocked her Aura, or anything of the sort. However, if the stories I had been told by both my parents and Grandfather were true, she'd hardly needed it. She managed to somehow earn the heart of the city's champion, and deal with all of the issues associated with it with an ironclad will that could move mountains. A truly exceptional woman. _'Any woman who could put up with stubbornness like that would have to be.'_

On their left were my parents, smiling together happily. A young Jacob, maybe a year old at the time, gurgled happily in my mother's arms. Opposite of them were Lucas himself and Aunt Rachael, the man caught in the act of blushing furiously as his wife stole a kiss on his cheek while his guard was down. Moreover, there in the front...

"I miss those days... More than you could possibly imagine..." my uncle said with a voice tinged by emotions that I hadn't heard in years, as he reached out a hand, just barely grazing the image of his daughter and I standing in the front of the adults at their feet. The grinning ten-year-old girl hugged my small frame to her side. "Guinevere, Thomas, and Patrice... Rachael... Robyn..." His voice cracked at her name, though to any onlookers the man still stood resolutely, stiff as any statue. "I would give _anything _to have just one more day with them all... An hour, or even a minute. I would break through any obstacle, any challenge if it meant I could see them again... I would tear the world apart just for the chance..."

"...You know they wouldn't have wanted that," I said firmly, tearing my gaze away from the image. "They wouldn't have wanted any of it, Uncle..."

I hated this man. While I was well aware of my own responsibility in joining the Red Hand, this man was also just as responsible for taking advantage of my anger at the time. Not only that, he had a lot of blood in his own hands, both directly and indirectly. Yet, as we stood there, reminiscing about family and times long gone, I remembered that he was one other thing: family.

I never spoke much with him during my time in the Red Hand, mostly due to reasons of avoiding favoritism, and lingering feelings of hatred for the man. But as I stood there thinking about this for the first time, I wondered if things would have been different had I spoken to him earlier, perhaps even before he'd left Bastion in the first place, after the the protest bombings. A childish hope perhaps; a what if.

Maybe I would've been swayed even deeper into the Red Hand's rhetoric, truly becoming what he'd intended for me to be. But what about after that incident, where all I had thought about was running away from it all, leaving Liz and him behind? What if I had instead made it back to the Hand after watching that Faunus girl die, and divulged my realization, and properly discussed it with him? Would he have ignored me, berated me, or would he have actually listened?

_'Would he have left with me?'_

"You know... You don't have to do this. Come back with me to Vale. Leave the Hand behind. Please, it's not too late to end this," I pleaded silently.

Of course, it was far too late for many White Fang and Faunus across Remnant that had suffered at his hand over the years, and I held no illusions that the Red Hand would simply die with him... But at least maybe...

"Hmph. And what would you have me do? Surrender myself to those fools in the Council, and be put on a leash like you?... Or at least like you were," he scoffed, briefly looking over at my neck where my tracking collar used to be.

"I wasn't suggesting that... But, maybe there's a way you can gain their favor."

I stopped myself, internally debating the likely pointless argument I was going to make. But if I could convince him to stop, thereby preventing a good number of deaths in the future, and maybe saving him in the process... Wouldn't it be worth it?

"Look. Before I came here, I was looking into something fishy back at the Colosseum. Something was off about one of the fights-"

"You mean the one match with the girl you're so fond of?... The one who broke that other boy's leg in front of all who were watching?" he interjected, shaking his head.

"So... You _were_ watching the fights..."

"Everyone does. And on that matter, how exactly did you get from Amity Colosseum to here in such a short time? Even Atlas' fastest Bullhead would've gotten here later than you, if it had left Vale around last night..."

I merely sighed in response, shaking my head as I did so. "I don't think you'd believe me if I told you."

"Hmph... Regardless, you're letting your emotions get the better of you with this, Joel... You always did have that problem as a child."

"Yeah... Still having trouble with that... But that doesn't mean I'm wrong," I continued. "I was walking past the guy who got injured as they were about to fly him out. There was some things that were off, but I caught a sent of burnt metal-"

"That's what I'm talking about. You're letting your emotions, your personal feelings, get in the way of your judgement. I had hoped you had gotten rid of that habit in your time with us. Then again, considering your defection..."

"Uncle, you're not listening to me!" I hissed. "Something's going on in Vale! If we find out what it is, and stop it together, I'm sure the Council will be lenient. I'll even ask Ozpin to-"

"_Enough_, Joel." He stopped me with an even tone, which was the same tone he used when he was getting ready to kill an opponent. I had heard him use it one time he led an operation that I was in, back when I was Red Hand. The carnage that day...

His voiced then changed to a tone I had not heard for a very long time: the one he used when he was proud of me. He even gave me a small smile. "...You have no idea how touched I am to hear those words coming from you. Despite everything I know you must feel about me, you would still offer me such a choice... I appreciate it. Truly."

As soon as the smile came, however, it quickly fell into a frown. "But I made my choice long ago. To turn away from it now would be an insult to those who have suffered from the very enemies that I fight against... It would bring dishonor to the memory of our family, Joel."

"And what you're doing isn't bringing dishonor to them!?" I snapped. Despite my frustration, I managed to keep my voice down enough so that only he could hear. "Uncle, everything you've don -, what _we've_done - has done absolutely nothing to honor them. It's only done the opposite, and tarnished their memory!"

Deep down, I already knew he was going to decline. Still... The part of me that still loved him as family had hoped otherwise...

"I'm honoring them in the only way I know how. And if they can't accept that... well..." Violette sighed as he brought his hand back to his side, fingers curling into fists, almost like the man was steeling himself. "It's not the place of the dead to judge the living. I'll face their scorn in the next world, if there is such a thing. While I still breathe, however, I will not stop trying to ensure that their deaths meant something, and that tragedies like ours never happen again..." he said the words resolutely, standing a little straighter. "But change is bloody... and some just can't accept that. That was the first mistake I made."

"Mistake?"

He nodded, glancing over his shoulder at the Trappers at the base of the dais. Both stared out at the crowd for any sign of an assassin, or a hint of danger.

"I relied on my own hatred, and that of others, to solve this problem, and went through lengths to nurture it in others. And all I did was create the same monsters I sought to destroy. You were right about that much. I tried to give a face to evil, and only succeeded in weighing ourselves to a meaningless crusade."

"...The White Fang," I guessed. Another nod from him signaled that I was on the right track. "Does that mean that... you've given up on hunting them? You stopped the entire... _How_?"

"I didn't say we stopped," he corrected. "We've merely broadened our efforts. The White Fang is merely one shadow in the darkness. One enemy that must be defeated for those with souls to truly take back its place in this world. But the battle starts in our own cities. Your father was right; we can never hope to truly beat back the Grimm if the cancer within continues to amass power. The Council is content to let crime run rampant, while other Huntsmen seemingly ignore it."

"What are you talking..." I questioned, before fully registering the meaning of his words. "What are you saying? Y-you'd turn the Red Hand into...!"

"A cause for enforcing order, yes. We will crush the rats that seek to poison all living beings. Those that would take advantage of us, by herding thousands together with lies, politics, and intimidation, while the bravest and strongest of us die to the blighted Grimm. Our actions will aid both Human and Faunus in the long run."

I stared at him in open horror now, even taking a step back as I ignored the whispers of the people as they tried to listen to our conversation. We were merely supposed to give our final respects, though it seemed people had realized that this was something more.

"My father wanted _cooperation_ between the Huntsmen and the public; he didn't want a_dictatorship._ You'd dissolve the Kingdoms and the Council? Do you realize the number of lives that'll be lost when they fight back!? And they _will_ fight back; you know that!"

"The weak will fall, the evil will perish, and the strong will inherit that which remains. It's Bastion's way, and the method with which we will move forward into the future."

He then he turned to face me fully, his pale grey eyes looking directly at me. "So, just as you offered me a choice, allow me to offer you one in turn. I will give you this one chance... Use your talents to fight for a worthy cause again." He cocked his head, my eyes landing on the photo yet again without truly meaning to. The smiling faces stared back at me silently Mom, Dad, Robyn. Everyone... "Please... For those we've lost."

_"My little hero... You're not gonna give up if things get hard, are you?" _I could still remember Robyn saying those words all those years ago, when I'd first decided I wanted to help people with my life. To protect them. Lucas' way might lead to a stronger, united world, but only at the cost of those unable to support themselves; specifically those without Aura... People like my brother. And with the Trappers to enforce 'order,' it was a dystopia waiting to happen. It was the way of Bastion. The strong lorded over the weak. It was a system that I'd hated, and left behind.

"...No. Not now, not _ever_," I whispered, shaking my head firmly, before turning to face him fully, looking back at his eyes with a determined spark. "I appreciate the offer, Uncle... but I can't accept the sort of world you want. If you attempt this... I _will_ do my best to stop you."

He was silent for a long moment, his face unreadable. Then he sighed deeply, the lines on his face more pronounced, as he bowed his head to me. It was a symbolic gesture of honor, one that was meant to convey respect to an equal.

Or, in this case, a worthy adversary...

"You will _try_... As for me, I need to build my army anew."

He looked back to the coffin with an air of finality, before raising a fist into the air. My knowledge of what he was about to do was enough to make my blood run cold.

_'No._ _**NO**!'_

"_PEOPLE OF BASTION!_ _HUNTSMEN AND HUNTRESSES!..._"

* * *

**_-Elizabeth Briar-_**

_"Well? What are they doing up there, having a damn tea party?" _Strike 2 shouted in my ear so loudly, I almost broke cover when I winced, though I managed to pass the motion off as if I were wiping my eyes. One of the kinder men in the audience next to me actually had the heart to pass me a handkerchief. I thanked him with a short bow of the head, silently wishing in that moment that I could just smash the damned comm-bead into a million tiny pieces._"C'mon, Lizzy, I need details!"_

"That's 'Strike 1,' to you. As for them, they're just... talking. I can't make out what they're saying. Can barely understand anything else, but Jo... _Ambrose..._ looks pissed," I whispered low, mentally slapping myself for the slip, as I gazed up at the two men as they stood next to each other. There was sadness there as well, a view I'd only caught glimpses of in our more private moments on the worst nights. Regret, too...

It was scary how alike the two looked to one another in that moment. Aside from the obvious differences in hair, attire, and an inch or two of height, Lucas was, in many ways, an older version of Joel himself. Same nose, similar face...

_'He told me he took more after his mother, but this is ridiculous.' _It was in the bearing as well. With how they held themselves, the younger man almost looked like a mirror version of his uncle, if slightly less confident. _'More human...' _my mind added softly, traitorously.

Damn it. Of all the times for him to show up uninvited...

"You could've given me a heads-up that he was coming, y'know! He landed at your dock!" I hissed into the microphone, brushing a loose hair over my ear to mask going for the bead. "What? A 'Hey Strike 1, heads up! Literally the number one person who could fuck up this whole damn plan just stepped off an airship, when he's supposed to be in Vale!' didn't cross your minds!?"

_"In our defense, we tried. You weren't responding,"_ Strike 3 spoke up defensively, low voice crackling like static over the comm,. _"Too busy... What was she doing, Sis?"_

_"Enjoying the dour atmosphere, and sharing a drink with one of those lordly types. My, my. How **risqué!** The servant and the suitor. Oh, you spies do have all the fun. Meanwhile, us grunts get stuck with sentry duty," _his partner's voice said coyly with a curt cackle of a laugh, the broad smile evident just from her voice.

It had just been one drink from an overly affectionate student. Rich, from the look of him. And from what I knew about this place, he probably thought he could get a bit of fun for after the funeral. Of course, he would be going home without the use of his fingers, and no memory of the last forty-eight hours, but I hadn't seen the harm in at least one drink to take the edge off and blend in.

_"But hey, least you're getting out there again, right? Finally over... Oh wait, that's right!"_

Thankfully, I had a hold on my Semblance in that moment, projecting sadness and all the other little feelings the rest of the herd felt, or else I'd probably have people scrambling to get some distance. As it stood, the man who had given me the handkerchief was staring at me nervously, eyebrow raised in question.

_'Flash him a cute smile, and make things better... A few tears, maybe.' _It did the trick, and put him at ease, giving me the opportunity to slip away and move closer and closer to my goal.

"At least I can do my job right. Now, if you two are done gossiping, we still have a problem to deal with," my voice cut in between them, silencing both, though with a few low grumbles from the other woman about my lack of humor.

_'I can take a joke. They just have to be funny in the first place.'_

Shaking my head to try and clear my sudden spitting headache, I managed to work my way to the head of the throng, fingers moving out to subtly snatch a thin black veil hanging off a woman's hat. I vanished into the crowd before she'd even registered what had happened. While one hand searched for more materials, the other worked at undoing the silly white apron that all of the servants had been stuck with, letting it pool to the floor behind me as I moved, and never stayed in one place long enough for people to notice.

Not that they were focused on me, anyway._'For a city of Huntsmen, this is **way** too easy.'_

Ten seconds and a few hastily acquired accessories later, I breached the front of the jostling crowd, looking no different from any of the other well-off party goers. I adjusted my new hat with a small smirk, completing the look with a nice scarf and a few bits of jewelry around my neck, topped off with a veil to hide my features from my target.

Not my best work, spontaneous as it was, but it would fool the guards and Trappers for a short while, at least. Plaga was likely already suspicious enough as it was, though that just seemed to be the masked freak's default setting, rather than any misstep on my part. My hand drifted towards my wrist, where my bracer lay concealed, prepping a Thorn but keeping it compressed and out of sight.

_"Ooh. Scary, big, bad Ambrose is **maaaad**. Plan's still the same, right? Just wait for the moment when his guard's down, and.."_ Her voice faltered, suspicion entering her tone._"Wait a minute, don't tell me you're getting cold feet, now that your boy toy's involved? He's supposed to be the fucking 'Immortal,' right? Hah, I'm sure he'll be..."_

Whatever word that bitch was going to use was drowned out by the sound of a heavy thump of flesh on metal, as that bastard Lucas brought a heavy fist down on the face of the coffin, mouth already in motion.

"_PEOPLE OF BASTION_!_ HUNTSMAN AND HUNTRESSES!_ _HEAR ME NOW!_" The man put a foot down on a lower step, turning outward to the crowd, while Joel stood watching, wearing horrified expression on his face. "_KENNETH AMBROSE WAS A GREAT MAN!_ _A WARRIOR WORTHY OF THE HIGHEST HONORS!..._ A loss we will all feel deeply..."

Apparently holding a booming speech over the body of the deceased wasn't a normal everyday custom here in Bastion. At least that's what I gleaned from the angry mutters and shouts now rippling through the crowd.

_"Strike 1!? **Briar!** What's going on in there!?"_

"_BUT HE WASN'T INFALLIBLE!_ _OUR WAY WAS STRENGTH_, _AND INDEPENDENCE...__BASTION ONCE STOOD AS A **BEACON** TO HUMANITY;_ _TO **ALL** OF MANKIND!_ _PROOF THAT MEN AND WOMEN COULD LIVE-__NO..._ _**THRIVE **IN THE WILD LANDS ONCE THOUGHT LOST TO THE GRIMM!_"

He took another step, his eyes raking the crowd, singling out those who seemed to be the most put off. Those that opposed him, most likely.

He spoke again, this time not even needing to raise his voice. The crowd was so quiet, one could have heard a pin drop. The man spread his arms, motioning to the gaudy finery most of them wore, while looking with disdain at that fancy coffin. "But look at us now... Rowan brought us together, and turned us from frightened wanderers into warriors, able to stand on our own! But Kenneth tossed all of it aside when he turned us into a vassal of the Kingdoms. A '_Frontier City..._'" He spat the words out like some vile poison. "Just some dot on a map, so that the Councilors can tell their people they're winning the war against the Creatures of Grimm. They use our sweat and blood as an easy source for cheap resources and skilled arms!"

It was nothing I hadn't heard before. More anti-Kingdom rhetoric about how we're all better off doing our own thing. "Isolationist" talk, they called it. You learned to tune it out after a while, seeing how they were a dime a dozen back home in Atlas. There was never any shortage of people complaining about how things were done, and the people in charge. Funny how they never seemed to complain when those same officials they criticized kept the Grimm away from them, and left them safe at night.

The scary thing, however, was that the man's words actually seemed to be taking hold, here, at least amongst the Huntsman in the room. Shouts of agreement rang throughout the room, while some hands clutched their swords warily. It seems there was a mix of what these Bastion people called the "Coalitionists" and those Isolationists, with the latter being the larger number, if slightly. Even the big, official-looking one in the uniform that had been a part of Lucas' entourage was nodding his head in agreement with the man's words. It was as if the entire room was a charged powder keg that this bastard was going to set off, and not everyone was so enthusiastic about it. The older man that had entered with Joel, Garrett, stood there in the arms of two enraptured guards, his face white as ash, a common theme among the less Huntsman-inclined population, who'd likely made their fortunes off of dealings with the Kingdoms.

I vaguely registered voices crying out in my ear, but I ignored them for the moment, too focused on the man's words just as everyone else was. "Damn it."

"Kenneth understood honor and duty, and did his best to create a relationship that would benefit our people... But what was the Kingdoms' response when a problem_they_ created came to _our_ city!? The White Fang came here, moved weapons and Dust through our streets, and the Kingdoms asked that we stop it. And we did so." Joel stiffened behind him suddenly, looking at the man as if seeing him for the first time. "And in return for dealing with their problem, which even _they_ have _failed_ at,_OUR_ friends and family were slaughtered in _this VERY_ room!... A attack that took many lives, including that my sister, and a man I called a brother... What was their response, Mayor!? Guard Commander!?"

"A note offering the Council's sincerest condolences, and a few medals for fallen Huntsmen," the blonde uniformed man spoke up derisively, words laden with barely veiled disgust. "They promised they would do their best to 'provide reparations, and bring those responsible to justice.'"

The pale-eyed warrior nodded slowly, frown deepening further, if that were somehow even possible. "Justice..." he said slowly, raising a hand to his chest, before looking to the students lining the wall. "I realize that many of you would not recognize me personally, but may know me by my reputation. My name is Lucas Violette, a Huntsman of Aegis trained under the tutelage of your former Headmaster, and recognized Blademaster of Bastion."

Well, whatever that meant, it sure stirred the hornet's nest up. Mutters of disbelief filled the hall, until one of the teachers had the mind to silence them with a barking order, one that was stayed by the speaker himself.

"Know that I am also the new acting voice and leader of the Humanity's Hands Front, or the 'Red Hand,' as the Kingdoms know us. An organization built by those who have suffered our same pain. Those that seek to fight for vengeance against the White Fang!... But no more."

Plaga and his companion saluted, clapping hands to their chests. An inspiring show, I supposed.

_'Ha! 'No more...' Fancy way to describe killing everyone who wouldn't agree with your little crusade!'_ I bristled, careful as the female Trapper's eyes rested on me for a fraction of a second longer than normal, before she communicated something to Plaga by subtle hand gestures that I could read plain as day. _'Crap. I'm made.'_

Joel had seen it, too. I could read it on his face, as he had picked me out from the crowd already. _'He always could. A strange talent of his...' _The Thorn formed in my hand, hidden behind my arm, though digging into my palm painfully. The Huntsman knew exactly what was coming, eyes darting from me to his uncle.

_'Don't be an idiot...'_

"The Council vilified me, and those who follow my example, for doing what they could and would not, and actually managing to clean up their mess."

"You'd have us become criminals!? Fighting the will of the Kingdoms!? That's _insane!_"

Well, at least _someone_ finally had the sense to speak up about it.

"_Criminals?..._ Is it 'criminal' to strike out against the animals and bottom feeders that pick away at those who can't defend themselves? The White Fang even disregard their own people! No. What I propose isn't an alliance, like Kenneth wished, where we are left the scraps, nor can we go back to the isolated freedoms supported by Rowan..."

He lowered his arms, standing up to his full height above them all. "Bastion once stood as an example to others of honor and strength. Join with my subordinates. Teach them our ways, and learn from them in return! Help me build a future where Human and Faunus will no longer be assaulted from within and without, forced into stagnation, while Huntsmen sacrifice their lives! _WHO WILL STAND WITH ME!?_" He raised his fist high, shouting his final question for all to hear.

_"E TU! VUN DRA RUHUN UV BASTION! VUN DRA RUHUN UV ROWAN!"_

The Guard Commander was the first to raise his fist, followed by just about every other Huntsman and Huntress in the room. And damn it, there were more than a few. Chants and cheers rose from all throughout the hall in an echoing roar. Lucas just leaned back, basking in it all like some twisted king.

_'Prepare to get **dethroned,** **motherfucker!**'_

The Trappers were too busy trying to keep the crowd back, supported by the guards that still remembered what it was they were supposed to be doing, that they failed to catch sight of one, dark clothed figure shifting through the crowd with her arm rearing back. A clear shot straight to the head, with a follow up detonation strong enough to blow the dais and anything on it apart. All I needed was just one second...

I didn't even get the chance.

Lucas' pale eyes spotted me in an instant, before flashing with a dull teal glow. Instantly, my body just locked up, my muscles unable or unwilling to move. My eyes widened with a mixture of confusion and fear.

_'What the...!' _It was as if my own Aura held me prisoner, betraying my will as it kept me fixed stock still directly before the dais. There was no knowing smirk or glare of outrage from the man. Just cold ruthless action, as a silver and teal colored object appeared from his pocket, into his now outstretched palm. A variable weapon shifted into a heavy pistol, that he pointed directly at my head.

_'Move! MOVE, DAMMIT, **MOVE!**'_

Time seemed to slow down. I could see him pulling the trigger, but before he could complete the move, a snarling, glowing blue figure crashed into his back, upsetting his aim. The weapon went off, sure enough, but rather than turning my head into a fine mist, the shell merely cratered directly in front of my feet, forcing my Aura up in an instinctive attempt to repel the shrapnel and debris. With a surprised start, I realized I could move again freely now. The Thorn left my hand a second later, without conscious thought, to carve a deep gash in the female Trapper's shoulder when she pointed my way, embedding itself in the middle of the stone steps.

_"Briar? Briar, **speak up!** What's going on in there!? Did it work!?"_

I couldn't really spare the time answer to Strike 3's demands at the moment, having to move to avoid Joel, as he leapt away from his uncle, the man himself patting down his suit as sparks danced across it.

"Elizabeth... I'd figured that it was likely that you had survived, but I never actually expected you'd be this careless," he growled, another weapon appearing in his other hand, this one extending into a thin, single-edged short sword. "A mistake you won't live to regret. Plaga, Estelle, kill the girl! Leave my nephew to me."

Weapons practically appeared in their hands, similar to how their master's did. The two stepped forward as Joel and I wordlessly assumed a defensive stance side by side, wary of the crowd around us slowly grasping the situation.

"You had a plan to get out of this, right!? Just in case!?" The white haired bastard grimaced, staff extending with a few rapid clicks of shifting metal. "Because I _really_don't feel like dealing with him, right now!"

I noted, with a hint of worry, that there was a growing red stain on his left side. _'When did that happen?'_

"Family reunion didn't go so well, huh?"

"What, the punch didn't tip you off? Now, do you have an idea, or not!?"

Truth be told, I did have a plan, in the form of several Thorns I'd managed to place about the room earlier while still in disguise. However, it wasn't really an "escape plan," so much as it was a "take you down with me" sort of option.

_'Ah well. 'Plans are ever changing, after all.'_Marigold Rule #7. A set protocol drilled into both our heads by that madwoman.

"Just be ready to move when I tell you," I whispered, very much aware of the circle that was building around us, ringed by the sounds of swords being drawn, and hidden weapons leaping to hand. _'Just wait for the right moment...'_

"Alright. Just don't look into Lucas' eyes directly." I looked at him askance, though I quickly nodded upon seeing the serious look on his face, trusting his reasons implicitly.

**"I'm going to enjoy this, traitor."** Estelle rolled her injured shoulder, laughing menacingly, holding her chakrams up to her mask. **"I wonder how it'll sound, skinning you alive?"**

Ooh, fun. She had a "hobby." Why were all the Gen1s so damn crazy? _'The pot calling the kettle black...'_

"This is the last chance I'll give you, Joel! Either you stand _with_ _me_, or you stand_against_ _me_!" Lucas said loudly, kicking the Thorn away before I could even think to activate it. Not like I was going to bother with it, anyway. All it would do is incite the crowd even more, and likely do Lucas no real harm now that he had his Aura up.

The rational side of me should've been worried over Joel's answer. There might've been a very real possibility of him betraying me, and reconsidering his position. We were surrounded on all sides, with no real source of back up, and apparently he was injured. Any sane man would have at least considered it.

Of course, I needn't have been worried. This was Joel, after all...

"I already told you, Lucas! As tempting as that offer is, I'm certain there's another way to pull it off. But good on you for getting the sheep to follow along!" His eyes narrowed, sparks coursing down his arms, while the crowd around tensed at the implied insult. Even I was a little surprised by the uncharacteristically venomous outburst. "Remember when I said that I hated this place? I wasn't lying!... This just proves I was right."

I felt the corner of my lip twitch upward despite myself, the whole situation just so bitterly amusing. "I'm _sooo_ happy for you. Really, I am."

"...I told you before that your emotions would only lead to your downfall. It seems I was right! We could have brought justice to this world together!... Such a shame... Rescind the order! Dispose of them both," he spat, turning to make his way back up to the coffin.

He froze in place shortly after, along with the rest of us, when we noticed the scarlet robed figure wearing an ornate Nevermore mask standing next to the coffin, having seemingly appeared from out of nowhere.

"No... I think not," she said simply, her voice muffled and distorted somewhat, as she drew a ridiculously long blade about as tall as she was, similar to the one propped up for display up there, and held it in front of her loosely in one hand. Joel look shocked and a bit pleased, while Violette, on the other hand, seemed shocked and..._mortified_.

_'Never seen that look on his face, before.'_

"_Raven!?_"

Well, this day's turning out to be just full of surprises... Rule #1:_ "Always expect the unexpected."_ I couldn't help but think that Marigold, wherever the hell she was now, would get one hell of a kick out of all of this.

* * *

**_-Lucas Violette-_**

Impossible... It was simply _impossible_ for her to be standing here and now!... But there she was, in the flesh.

"You!... How is this...!?" I gaped at the ghost that had just appeared, running her free, gloved hand gently across the coffin's surface. Understanding came the moment I saw the tender reaction, already imagining the familiar sad look in her eye, despite the gaudy mask. "So... Joel was not Master's only surprise, it seems." My grip on my weapons tightened, as hot anger threatened to overwhelm my concentration.

She nodded, finally deigning to look at me directly, and I knew what was to happen next.

"Lucas, who is..." Guard Commander Aero began with a hint of uncertainty in his voice as he brought his sword to bear on the strange woman, only to cry out as she seemed to appear before me almost faster than even I could truly follow. By sheer instinct and dumb luck, I was able to intercept the long sword, managing to deflect aside a blow that left my arm numb with the force placed behind it.

Rather than simply pass harmlessly through the air, however, the wayward slice seemed to carve a tear in the space next to me, creating a raging red vortex. Sensing danger, I instinctively pulled back, only to find her sidestepping to get behind me, her leg rising up in an Aura fueled kick that blasted me off my feet, and sent me headfirst into the tempest.

For a few frightening moments, my world was an airless vacuum of roiling red and black. My stomach flipped over, and my senses failed me, as I tumbled end over end in the rift, only for gravity to meet me, along with a sudden flash of blazing sunlight and the scent of wild grass and tree bark. I had dropped my weapons when I landed, but they were quickly back in my hands, as my eyes surveyed my surroundings. A sparse clearing surrounded me on all sides, with thick vegetation, and no Grimm. Flora suggested we were still within the Frontier region, perhaps three, maybe four, days' hard travel South from Bastion's walls. All of this information was obtained in heartbeats. My body soon twisted into a crouch, as the sound of rushing air from what must've been the portal that had deposited me here cut off, leaving only another's slightly exerted breaths, and the light rustle of boots on grass.

I made sure to calm my nerves, before turning to my opponent, humbling myself briefly, before letting pride or indignation take root. _'I was careless; too certain of victory.' _A mistake I've made before. One I would have to correct against this opponent. She would get no fear from me.

"A cute party trick," I intoned, getting to my feet, making sure to beat away as many grass and dirt stains I could from my now haggard clothes. "I was wondering how it was possible for Joel to have gotten to Bastion without my knowing beforehand. Your work, I take it?"

"A ploy. One meant to bait the lure, and draw you in personally." The woman warrior raised a hand to her face, the mask coming away with a light click to reveal the dangerous beauty that lied beneath its fearsome visage. "The only way to ensure you would come to the funeral yourself was to place a target not even _you_ could resist."

Raven seemed to have barely aged a day since I last saw her all those years ago, her face youthful and smooth. _'Aura was always kindest to the Huntresses.' _Her eyes betrayed her age, though. They were those of one who had seen bloodshed and hardship, and had come away lesser, yet greater at the same time. Many of my Trappers had similar looks, including myself. Or at least that was how I wished to imagine it.

"I suppose this was indeed Kenneth's idea, then?" I asked, letting the sword _Will_ in my right hand dance lazy circles in the air in front of me, while my finger curled around_Duty's _trigger. The motions didn't go unnoticed, as her own grip shifted along the handle of her katana. "I expected he might have arranged something or someone to take care of me... But _you?_"

"He asked that I try to turn you from this path. To beg you one final time to reconsider your course," she explained calmly, red eyes flashing, leaving no doubt as to what the alternative to her demand would be, though careful not to gaze into mine directly. An alternative I accepted wholeheartedly, as my heart was set, and my home behind me. She knew this too, but kept speaking all the same. "He left me this duty as one of his last requests..."

"One he obviously failed to complete himself," I cut her off sharply, standing up straighter as I denied her the chance to spout more moral rhetoric.

I'd had enough of that today from my eighteen-year-old nephew. I didn't need_HER_ berating my choices, as well, trying to cast doubt using our Master's words.

_'Well, Kenneth. You've succeeded in making me lose my temper.'_

"He asked that I give you the chance to back down. To end this, before any more blood is shed. The fact that he has drawn my hand into this is proof enough. I understand why you're fighting..."

Not with that cold face, you don't.

"Don't waste my time thinking you understand anything about the concept of duty or honor, let alone understand my motive! I know well enough what you left behind." A daughter, barely more than an infant, and a detached husband. She abandoned her family in the pursuit of some goal, when there should have been no higher priority. Rachael would always be stronger in my mind for that, despite her lack of ability as a Huntress in life. "Tell me, Branwen, what did you say to that blonde oaf when you left!? Or did you just disappear one day; I never asked!?"

The words were meant to bite, though if they hurt, it didn't show on her expression. Her face remained the same cool unfeeling mask, as if she'd never removed the ornamentation in the first place. "So you won't back down, then?"

"My own nephew asked me to cease this, and you saw how that ended," I said bluntly, sword ceasing all motion now, hanging loosely at my side, same as hers. "You're here to kill me, or at the very least make a fair attempt at it... Let's get this over with."

"One last question before we begin, Lucas," she spoke up as I tensed forward, stopping me in my tracks for a confused moment. "...Did you have anything to do with Kenneth's death?... Anything at all? The truth."

"The old man was dying... You must've seen that."

"_Answer the question!_" The former Huntress raised her voice this time, anger leaking out now, before she could help herself.

_'Good. At least we're finally being honest with each other.'_

"Why bother? You already seem to have your answer..."

We glared at each other for a few moments, myself thinking back to the last time we'd sparred. It was well over a decade ago. She had won then, but only just barely. Better days. Much better. Still, her own thoughts were as ever a mystery to all, known only to her.

We moved when the wind ceased blowing. Both our bodies leaped into action within an instant of the other, my arm coming up to fire off a few heavy Dust rounds that the swordswoman deflected with unnatural speed while she rushed at me, her red blade meeting my own in a flash of sparks. With a slight twist, I brought her forward, my pistol already midway through shifting into another short blade, when she leapt back to break the stalemate.

I was on her before she even had time to blink, launching into a flurry of attacks that would've reduced any normal opponent, and not a few exceptional ones, to bloody ribbons. But she kept up her pace without seemingly breaking a sweat. She even managed to avoid my _Domination_, keeping her eyes leveled with my feet and chest, while steering clear from my gaze.

Seconds passed slowly, as our weapons clashed and sang together in the ever building light of the Fall sun. A step out of place signaled her first mistake, and awarded me first blood in the form of a shallow cut across her exposed thigh, as my Aura sliced through hers with focused precision. My victory was short lived, however, as her counter forced me back a step, and allowed her to escape into the brush, likely expecting me to follow.

_'She wouldn't give up. Not this easily, anyway.'_

The bout had lasted maybe a minute, so far, but I already felt the nagging ache of exhaustion building in my limbs. A slight tightening in my chest signaled that age and indolence was catching up with me. I made a mental note to lead from the front more often, and to make sure I didn't forget this feeling, as I strode in after her. It was a thickly wooded area, a sea of reddened blood colored leaves bellow my feet, and low hanging branches that I was forced to cut into and go around to navigate in search of my quarry.

Raven's first attack came after a full five minutes of tense silence, a crimson sword striking out in a cleaving arc that, if I'd been a beat slower, would have taken my head from my shoulders. As it stood, I bled freely from a wound in my shoulder, that stained the leaves at my feet redder still. She had disappeared yet again, as if the whole attack had been an illusion.

The second was more direct. It was an aerial attack from above that I parried, scoring a quick slice that rebounded off the fringes of her Aura, before catching her in a deadlock, intent on using my superior size and weight, coupled with my Aura, to force her back against a nearby tree with enough force to shake the ancient oak where it stood. I held the advantage. The reach her blade provided useless this close, which was a hindrance that would spell her end.

I pressed forward, intent on either cleaving through her, or crushing her beneath my own power. However, I didn't expect her to ease back further against the trunk of her own accord, or draw so deeply upon her Aura yet again, letting the tip of her sword nick the air to form another small portal. This one was barely larger than my thumb.

With a slight jerk, she speared the small tear, the tip of her blade vanishing only to reappear inches from my face from a similar small portal. The last thing I saw was the tip of a crimson blade racing towards my right eye, before my world exploded in a rush of agony.

-END

**-OC Voice Cast introduced this Chapter-**

Estelle Reseda - Karen Strassman

* * *

**(-Primer-)**

**E TU! VUN DRA RUHUN UV [BASTION]! VUN DRA RUHUN UV [ROWAN]!** \- I DO, FOR THE HONOR OF [BASTION]! FOR THE HONOR OF [ROWAN]!

* * *

**_A/N: Yep, Lucas' managed to sway the majority of Bastion's present Hunters to his side though I'll admit I'm not one for writing inspiring speeches. I just hope the reasoning sounds plausible. Any suggestions for improvements would be greatly appreciated._**

**_Another quick ask from the readers, been thinking of working on little trailer pieces for AMBR with the help of Da-Awesom-One which may be included in this story or perhaps on their own depending on what works. Just wondering what songs you guys think would work for AMBR, having a lot of trouble especially with Ben and Reika. Anything that would be fun for a fight and work for the characters._**


	64. Chapter 64

**Edited as of (7/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

ALL THAT'S LEFT

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Who the hell... ah, was that!?" Liz called out as we burst into action the moment the strange portal that had swallowed Lucas and its creator, making both disappear. We stuck together, easily dispatching two stunned guards as we pierced our way into the crowd.

A series of explosions rippled along the sides of the room, small enough so as not to catch anyone in their wake, but causing more than enough confusion and fear amongst the non-Huntsmen assembled, herding them like sheep away from the entryway.

"That mask, was she Fang!? The hell did she do with...!?"

_'Damn it all,' _I thought as I saw the clouds of Dust rippling throughout the room, hearing the screams and shouts of panicked civilians, and the swearing curses of Huntsman. _'Just like that night... Except now, I'm...!"_

"_JOEL_!"

"Too long to explain!" I shouted back, snapping out of my daze, and rolling over the back of a fleeing man in a long jacket, who'd just barreled his way past a Huntsman about to swing at me. "I don't think she's Fang, though!" A short spear flashed outward, missing my head by millimeters, my reflexes being the only thing that kept me from getting gored. "As for Lucas, I got no idea! Away from here's the only thing that matters!"

I snatched the Huntsman's weapon before she could draw it back, running my Semblance with enough force to send her staggering, making her easy prey for Liz, who finished her with a flying knee to the skull. She was already rolling back on her feet to tug the tie of a wayward student that had set out to get her while she was vulnerable, paying his eagerness with a full strength jab to the throat.

"We need to get clear of the room! There's too many!" She brought to of her Thorns to bear, ready to start marking throats...

"_No killing_!" I twisted past another sword stroke, before catching a gauntleted hand glittering with inset silver hurtling towards my face. It was fancy, at least until I crushed the brass plated steel, and the hand within my grasp like an eggshell, even through his Aura, much to the screaming Huntsman's stunned surprise, before I tossed him over my shoulder into the milling mass behind me. "They don't deserve...!"

"Are you _serious_ right now!?" I managed to return a glare, even while I was in the middle of rolling over another guard's shoulder, kicking out the back of his knee, before clocking him in the helmeted heat with the end of my staff. The Trapper groaned as she compressed the petal blades again, spinning on her heel, instead firing a small dart from her armguard that flickered with electricity, and sent him writhing to the floor, clutching for his arm. "Fine, we'll do it your way!"

_'Huh, that's a new one...' _Whatever those darts were, they were strong, even managing to stun the Huntsmen, though much less effectively, long enough for the Trapper to put them on the ground physically, or pass by as they were drawn back into the throng.

"This does makes things a bit harder!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" We only held the advantage by a thin thread. The Huntsmen and guards that had surrounded us were still too caught up in the chaos of the crowd, and the sudden disappearance of their new leader, to focus on us completely, or mount a cohesive offense. As a result, most of the Huntsmen that tried to reach us wound up in each other's ways, unable to match us both working in concert. Unfortunately, I doubted that would last much longer...

As if on cue, a choir of ragged coughs and the sounds of nausea rose up from behind us, as Plaga strode through the crowd intently towards us, radiating killer intent in waves. Those waves took physical form, as a sickening cloud of Aura outlined him, and poured outward. Most of those caught in its wake had doubled over, some even emptying their stomachs, while others had lost consciousness completely under the weight of his corrosive Semblance.

"_TRAITORS_!" he called out darkly in a voice dipping with malice, tossing and kicking those stumbling fools not lucky enough to fall out of his way. The contact left sickly burns and tears, as his Aura burned through theirs. "_I'LL HAVE YOU BEG FOR DEATH_,_ BEFORE I'M DONE WITH YOU_!" His sword rose up to block one of Briar's hastily thrown Thorns, deflecting it away before it could explode against the wall in flower-like ice patterns.

She grinned broadly at the sight, having ripped off that conspicuous veil and wig in one go, letting her black and purple highlighted locks fall free from the clips in a messy style, clipped close with long bangs. She's cut it since, almost like it got burned... I also noticed her movements were stiffer than I remembered, as a pained look failed to hide itself as she tossed back more projectiles.

"That's one of them. Where's the...!" I lurched to the side as she spoke, hand grasping hold of the front of her dress, and dragging her down with a surprised gasp just in time to avoid the chakram the soared silently in a cutting arc over where her head had been moments before. The weapon curved back towards it's master, who was hanging off a nearby pillar by her fingers, that had dug deeply into the stone, practically glowing a deep Mauve with Aura. "T-thanks, I owe you o..."

She shoved me back from her, as a guard-less katana passed between us, detonating in a flash of heat that was thankfully only just mitigated by my Aura. Briar was okay as well, if a bit singed at the hems of her borrowed dress.

"No you don't," I shot back jokingly, noting all too well the manic grin on my face, one I realized she shared.

_'The hell is wrong with me?'_

I can't be enjoying this, this insane situation, that wouldn't be... I promptly decided to save the mental debate for later, and focus on the present, ducking quickly past an axe swing, before leaping forward to head butt its wielder directly in the nose through his unprepared Aura, the crack of bone and squeal of flesh in my ringing ears, while warm flecks of blood splattered my face.

Two more blades had been pulled and launched from the depths of the Trapper's strange coffin, falling point down in the tiled floor directly in our path. It eased the way for us as Huntsman and guest both struggled to gain some distance, but was too inviting to be anything but a trap.

_'That'll be a problem. He means to hem us in.'_

From the rumors I could recall, each of those swords were high powered explosives triggered by his Aura, same as Liz's weapons, if more multi-functional, useful both as a close range, and impromptu long range weapon. It was his way: pin the target in, and eliminate from close range with either sword or Semblance.

My side throbbed again, sending another fresh spike of pain, that threatened to rattle my concentration, only to be beaten down along with a student, who had tried to flank me. The boy went down with a quick Aura powered blow to the back of the head from_Circuit _as I turned, already in the process of meeting my next foe. One after the other, no break, no rest, as seconds passed like minutes, my body moving on practiced instinct to meet each stab, thrust, or swing.

These I could handle for now, but the cold fact was that I wouldn't last against Plaga, even up close where I preferred. Using my own Semblance was likely going to do more harm than good, as it would lower my own defenses and open myself up to his_Corrosion, _which, from what I'd seen in just the last few minutes, would be a nigh fatal mistake...

_'That's it!' _I glanced towards a pillar currently not collapsing in on itself, or sporting a crazed Trapper on its face, compressing _Circuit _into a bladed baton, spinning it to intercept another sword swing, before beckoning to Briar. "We're leaving; get the door!"

Maybe it was the fact that we'd worked so closely together for so long that she'd realized my plan in a heartbeat, accepting it in the next, as she put two Huntsmen that had collided with each other, mid attack, on the floor, with steel flowers in their legs at the joints, and backed towards me, cackling like a mad woman the whole way.

The crowd had organized itself into a loose ring around us, with the Huntsmen and guards in the room front and center, unwilling to fire with ranged weapons in fear of hitting their comrades. Though in their minds, they had us trapped, both of us easy pickings for the two bodyguards making their way towards us almost as violently as we were trying to escape.

What they weren't expecting was for Liz to rush me, shoving my current foe aside quickly, before taking his place, my free arm encircling her waist as the other angled the point of my weapon towards the closest pillar. With a click and a sharp "twang," the blade launched forward with the force of a cannon shot, leading behind it a silvery line, before spearing the pillar deeply.

"Hang on!" I called out rather unnecessarily, my former partner knowing full well what was about to happen and had already braced herself against my chest as the line retracted, dragging us along with it towards the pillar in a wild shower of sparks. Using the heads and shoulders of two surprised guards to kick off, and gain some real height, we soared over the crowd like a monkey on a mad vine.

My wounds ached terribly, and my shoulder felt as if it would be torn from its socket at any moment from the extra weight. And the sheer noise... My senses picked up everything from the sounds of clicking gears, angered groans and shouts, and the rush of air. But above all, they picked up the pounding of blood in my ears, as my heart hammered like a drum.

It felt familiar... It felt fucking fantastic!

"On our six!" My euphoria was cut off with the Infiltrator's shrill warning, my eyes already picking Aero out of the crowd as he leveled his sword, shifting itself into a long rifle, intent on tracking us with a triumphant smirk, as his finger closed over the trigger, almost as if in slow motion. "Faster, c'mon!"

Bastion didn't exactly skimp on outfitting it's best and brightest with the means of punching through the plate and thick skin of a Grimm's head with ease. On Human targets with a battered Aura... I tried my best to adjust our trajectory, but with Liz tagging along for the ride, I found I wasn't nearly as maneuverable at this speed. Not enough to make a difference anyway.

Miraculously, though, when the shot came, it impacted on the pillar itself harmlessly, blowing a head-sized chunk from the stonework barely a foot from where our feet planted. The treacherous Master of the Guard had been tackled by an enraged Ash Garret, who currently had him pinned in a full body lock, the guards set to watch him nowhere in sight.

"Go! Warn them all!" the captain cried out towards us, barely audible, even to our superior hearing, over the cries and clamor of weapons being trained on us, as he spoke. "Get out of here, Ambrose! _GO_!"

He hadn't needed to tell me twice, as a katana and a saw-toothed chakram planted themselves mere milliseconds after we kicked off of the pillar, making us both simultaneously go into a full free fall towards the less occupied section of flooring, just before the heavy set of double entrance doors. Our impromptu launchpad exploded in a shower of debris that pitter-pattered across our Auras, and set the crowd into an even more chaotic sprawl.

I couldn't spare any thought for my friend, however, as Dust rounds, and even a few arrows, already started to fly through the air in earnest. One Dust-tipped shell was coming so uncomfortably close, I could feel the heat trail along the back of my neck as it passed, chewing into the wall behind us.

Of course, it didn't last long, as a cluster of explosions ripped sections of the room apart, in what could only be described as Nature's Wrath exemplified, that put more than a few in the crowd on their ass screaming. Thankfully, they seemed fine, for the most part. The distraction was meant to stun, rather than kill, but Liz was whooping like a mad woman into a forward roll, sending another Thorn flying that blew the formerly grand doorway off its hinges, and set both halves skittering and scraping into the hallway beyond.

"Keep close!" she cried back, sending another of the circular blades flying towards the oncoming horde behind us before they could take proper aim or right themselves. The Dust crystal embedded in the center of it exploded in a rush of freezing mist that obscured us from view. As she did so, however, I saw a pair of guards that must've been stationed within the corridor step around the corner ahead of us, and take aim at the laughing girl's exposed back.

My response was instinctive, if hesitant at the thought of attacking my kinsman, as two daggers were already in the air before their fingers had even grazed the trigger. One went down screaming, as the bar of silver pierced his kneecap, while the other's aim went wide as it met his shoulder. Both were unconscious moments later after a short burst of my Semblance, the entire encounter lasting barely two seconds.

Though, of course, she had to comment. "Thanks for the save. Not sure if that counts as even, though." I wasn't much in a joking mood, however, as we leapt over the still twitching prone figures, breathing heavily as we started down the corridor I recognized as the same one Ash and I had traveled when we first arrived. "Look, it's either them or us. They made their choice."

"I don't want to hear it," I told her flatly, glancing over my shoulder to catch sight of a singed, and _very_ pissed off Plaga stepping over the threshold behind us, beating at his still smoldering armor in true Trapper indifference. The other one, Estelle, was a second behind him, pulling of her mask to reveal a sharp, pale, freckled face twisted with malice. "You wouldn't happen to have any more tricks up your sleeve, would you!?" I called ahead, eyeing the now exposed metallic brace covering my fellow runner's arm. "Those two don't look keen on stopping!"

If anything, the pair was gaining on us. Plaga was using his Aura to launch himself down the corridor like a bullet while the woman was practically skating and swinging across the stone walls. She pulled another bladed weapon from her belt, a flaying knife by the look of it, with a broad grin, before filing her teeth, with it. She'd actually filed her teeth with it... Wasn't sure whether to laugh at the absurdity, or pale at the thought of their purpose.

_'This is getting out of hand,' _I grimaced, throwing down ancient suits of armor and more than a few statues in our path to try and slow them down, but it was, at best, delaying the inevitable. Wild shots from surprised guards we passed cracked all around us. Liz faltered for a moment, as one grazed her leg by chance, though I managed to catch her. Her face steeled as she shoved me off and kept going, as if the injury was little more than a flea bite.

Good thing too, as my whole body was starting to feel heavy by this point, and I wasn't entirely certain I was in any fit state to support anyone.

"Strike 2, Strike 3, we're coming in hot with company! Are Strike 4 and 5 ready with the sendoff!?" I heard Liz speaking to herself, obviously over some sort of channel, though with who, it was impossible to say. We were almost to the platform, by my reckoning. I could already make out a slit of sunlight through the slit in the sliding doors ahead. "No, I wasn't able to take the target. Something came up... Damn it, that doesn't matter; I'll explain later! Just tell them to get their asses in gear for the pickup... Yes he's coming; shut up!"

I couldn't really care at the specifics, too busy swearing as I spun back to put a few more knives in the air. Most of which were thrown too hastily, and were easily deflected off of the Trapper's weapons with sickening ease, though it did have the desired effect of scaring the guards off of exposing themselves hastily.

Unfortunately, the same didn't apply to the Plague Doctor. The imposing figure appeared before me so fast, I almost wasn't able to bring _Circuit_ up in time to catch his attack. As it stood, I was still sent flying from the sheer force of the snarling bastard's cut. Thankfully, however, Liz had managed to open the double doors just in time before I could collide with them. Instead, I fell sprawling and clanking to the hard metal grille of the airship deck, feeling like I'd just been hit by a large truck. I might have blacked out for a second, because next thing I knew, I was sprawled over Liz's shoulder, my arms feeling like jelly, as the slow clanking of metal behind us indicated that the Trappers we closing in.

"Just stay back, and be ready to cover... Oh, you dumb bitches!"

"Huh?" I raised my head, easily catching sight of what she had meant. Opposite of us at the end of the walkway sat one of the large steel-wrought shipping containers that had been piled up when I'd first arrived, looking significantly more beaten than it had earlier. Standing beside it was the same muscular girl in student's armor that had greeted us, shaggy, fire-colored hair flowing in the breeze around her shoulders, and storm grey eyes practically glowing as she hefted a large-headed spear-lance in one hand ,and with the other...

"Line 'em up, Jas!" she cried out in a cackling howl, raising the arm high with a mad grin that sent a shiver down my spine, her idea plain as day. "_AAAAAND **LOOSE**_!" She brought the arm down in an arc, and suddenly, the shipping container was in the air with an ear-shattering groan of warped protesting metal, that flew towards us, an ever growing shadow in its wake. The mad teen let out a gleeful cheer, jumping in place while her helmeted companion shouldered a hefty looking hammer that was smoking suspiciously from one end, admiring his handy work. "_AND THE CROWD GOES WILD_!"

The Trappers behind us were already scrambling to get back to the safety of the door. Meanwhile, I used what strength I could draw from my legs to throw Liz and I forward, as the container crashed down a few feet behind us, setting the whole platform shaking as it rolled, and smashing headlong into the entranceway, thankfully blocking off our pursuers for the moment.

Glancing back incredulously at the impromptu missile, I was just happy not to be a smear on the walkway. Just a bit less power, and if we'd been a hair slower...

"Y-you idiots!" Briar scrambled to her feet, dusting off the torn and bloodstained dress she wore, green eyes blazing as she stalked her way towards the pair now high-fiving one another. "Were you _trying_ to kill us!? I said cover! _COVER_! That had Dust in it; what if it had gone off!?"

"But it didn't. Plus, it got them off your back," the girl shot back, looking bemused as I finally had the presence of mind to get up and approach them, realizing by the muffled explosion and screams echoing from within the now blocked off entryway that the Dust was all that was keeping them from pursuing. For now at least.

Then I discovered her eyes boring into mine with a touch of raw challenge and a hint of professional disgust. I returned it and then some, the reaction seeming appropriate, and even a little familiar, as I realized what the hell these two must've been. "See she dragged you along, 'Mr. Immortal.' That title supposed to be ironic or..."

"_More_ Trappers." I spat a glob of blood off to the side with a bemused frown, having bit my tongue during the dodge, wary of the renewed sounds of metal tearing coming from the other end of the platform. "Great, just what I needed."

"Heads up, then. We aren't done," Liz informed me, thumbing a receiver I realized now was taped at her throat. The other two nodded as their weapons compressed into an easier-to-carry form. "Bring the car around."

On cue, the sound of engines tore through the air, as one of the short range Bullheads the city used for transport touched down. A small figure hung off the side from the open doorway, who was sickly thin to the point of being the complete opposite of the two muscled grunts before me.

I almost attacked then and there when I saw the modified Red Hand armor and mask issued to Trapper agents, this one's sleeves covered in tiny Scroll readouts and technical gear. His dark hair was pulled back into a short ponytail to keep it clear of the mask's visor. Thankfully, I noted the others reactions, and assumed this to be one of the last two members of Liz's allies she had mentioned during our escape. From the clear cockpit, I could see another person piloting the craft wearing a similar mask, silvery hair hanging down her back in a long braid.

"We need to go. They're organizing an aerial pursuit!" Skinny shouted in a distorted voice, motioning to the other landing pads where, indeed, I was beginning to see signs of rapid movement.

Liz merely nodded, gesturing for us all to get in the craft, before glaring at me as I hesitated. "Would you rather stick around with them?" she asked me calmly, gesturing to the container just as a black-clad fist punched through it like tissue paper, flames licking at the edges. as Dust flickered off the Trapper's Aura ineffectively. The scary thing was I couldn't tell if she was being completely serious or not with the question. Either way, it was potentially damning, but looking at my options...

"I want an explanation. For all of this," I growled, stepping onto the craft and lurching slightly as it kicked off immediately, the pilot obviously not keen on sticking around to test our luck. "The Red Hand, what's going on with you lot,_everything_."

"And you'll get it. But first..." Green eyes shifted to the still-masked figure who was currently fiddling with a display on his arm, a map or blueprint of some kind on the screen, from what I could make out, covered in blinking red dots. "Amys, make sure we're clear. Dai, how are we looking on the sendoff?" A simple, dull-voiced affirmative echoed over the cabin's speakers from what must've been the cockpit, while Skinny cocked his head to the side, fingers dancing over his screens.

"Just about... There. All synced up, and ready for the go ahead." A shiver ran down my spine at the way this "Dai" fellow said the words with a veneer of calm that couldn't quite hide the excitement, even with the distortion warping his voice. "Now?"

"What are you...!?"

"Light it up."

All it took from there was a single nod and the press of a button. It was the only thing needed to send a chain of explosions rippling across every landing platform, and sections of the great fortress itself, as Bullhead fuel tanks tore themselves apart, and ancient masonry that had stood since the city's founding crumbled in on itself.

The fortress academy wasn't destroyed; certainly not. The damage to the structure itself, while looking rather impressive in reality, had only been superficial, for the most part, aside from the landing pads. That didn't matter. In one button press, we had just crippled Aegis' ability to pursue us. For the moment, anyway. And had just inflicted more damage then had ever been done on the face of Bastion's pride.

It was... surreal, and, in many respects, downright horrifying. My eyes were unable to look away from the fresh scar, just as I knew probably almost every other gaze in the city would be unable to.

_'Grandpa... I'm... I'm so sorry.'_

"Well, Joel..." Liz closed the hatch right before my eyes with a clang, bringing me back to the reality of almost half a dozen pairs of eyes glaring holes in me. "...Ask away."

* * *

**_-Yang Xiao Long-_**

"I never realized confinement could be so_boooooring_," I moaned, digging my fingers into the sides of my pillow as I did my best to close off all the noises coming in through my open window, from casual conversations from students still on campus, to the far off sounds of airship engines calling for me. Tempting me.

_'And Joel did this for months? How!?'_

I scowled at the thought of the white haired huntsman, cursing his very existence, while at the same time wishing more than anything that he would appear. It wouldn't be quite the same, but I was certain it would at least be a comfort. He would know how I felt more than the others, at any rate. I appreciated the promises that it would all be okay, but unfortunately, it all was ringing a bit hollow, seeing as their reputations hadn't been shot, or have their worlds...

_'No! No, don't think like that!' _I shook out my head furiously, before rolling out of bed. If I couldn't shut out the world, then at the very least I could try and have it entertain me for a bit. I paused for a moment, moving back to my bed, and reaching underneath it to pull out a soft plush Ursa from its hiding place. The same doll Joel had won for me weeks back when we'd visited the fair.

It was childish, and no way was I going to let anyone else know I still had it, but for some reason, having it in my arms felt as comfortable right now as having _Ember Celica_ around my wrists. Which, of course, I didn't, much to my dismay.

So there I sat on my new little perch on the window sill, staring out at Beacon and the rest of Vale from on high, with my little friend clutched to my chest, running a thumb along the little side project it wore. A long blue scarf wrapped around its neck, similar to the one I wore now, a black crescent moon emblem emblazoned on both ends.

Blake had been skeptical when I asked her to lend me some of the spare Dust treated yarn she kept in her drawer. Why exactly she had such an item, I had no idea, aside from maybe a cat thing, but she had relented when I promised to conveniently forget where her latest "novel" had been stashed.

By far, the biggest difficulty had been actually been dusting off my old sewing skills, not having needed to bust them out since the days when it had been up to me to patch up Ruby's trademark cloak whenever my little sister had worn a hole into it, or some other bit of mischief she always seemed to get up to. A few tries, and a whole lot of swearing and shotgun riddled failures later, and I was finally proud with how it had turned out. Simple, but made just as sturdy as any formal Huntsman's gear. Durable, just like its intended owner, if hopefully less prone to injury.

I'd intended to give it to the Huntsman after I'd won the tournament, and make a big sappy show out of it. But now, with everything going on...

_'Where are you? Are you okay?'_

Positive. I had to stay positive. That's what I told myself, gripping the plush even more tightly. Everything was going to work out, just as it always does. This whole thing with Mercury'll blow over, and you'll kick your dumb boyfriend's butt when he shows up for making you worry like this.

_'Everything's gonna be okay!'_

With renewed vigor, and a determined glare, I set about... people watching. Okay, yeah, I was still bored as I possibly could be, but at least I wasn't moping anymore. Minutes passed, and the most interesting things I saw was a pair of second-years playing Remnant: the Game, poorly, I might add, and an Atlesian trooper sneaking off with one of the festival goers. Scandalous, but not too interesting.

_'There's got to be something better to... What the?'_

I leaned out a bit more, almost to the point of tumbling off my perch, as I narrowed my eyes at a rapidly fading airship. For a moment, it had almost... It looked like there were people riding on top of it. Someone... standing?

_'No, I must be seeing things.' _I sighed, resuming my lonely vigil, when I looked back to see no trace of it, laughing at myself for entertaining the insane notion. _'Great, Xiao Long. Maybe you **are** going crazy after all.'_

I mean, what maniac with a death wish would actually want to ride on the top of a tiny airbus mid-flight?

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"_NO_, _NO_,_ NO_,_ NO_,**_ NO_**! _YOU ARE **FUCKING INSANE**_!_ YOU_…_YOU_…!"

Words failed me, replaced by stifled screams as I shoved my face back into the crook of my elbow, trying and failing spectacularly to ignore the wind ripping past my face, and stinging my ears.

On the sheer dumb hope that this was all a bad dream, I raised my head, only to stare down a few hundred, if not thousands of feet below at the rolling carpet of green that was the Emerald Forest, and Beacon's fairground, what figures I could see smaller than ants even. Suffice it to say, my nails, which were already digging deep furrows into the metal of the airship hull, tightened even further.

"**_WHY_**!? _WHY_, _WHY_, _WHY_, _**WHY**_!?" I screamed, directing my anger at the woman standing beside me. Yeah... literally_standing_ beside me, with the wind whipping her coat tails and beaded hair back, while her hat sat folded neatly under the crook of her arm, her dark face split into a broad smile, as if she were actually enjoying the breeze. The whole scene made her look as if she were just enjoying the windy tides at some beach, not surfing on a goddamn air bus! "_WHY COULDN'T WE HAVE JUST RODE IN_!? _I HAVE A PASS_,_YOU_…**_ OH SHIT_**!" I cut out with a shrill scream as the bus met a bit of turbulence, sending my stomach into freefall for a few heart wrenching seconds.

_'Gonna puke, gonna puke, gonna puke! Kill me now! **Please**! Oh god...'_ I shivered on the hull, whimpering under my breath.

"_WANTED CRIMINAL_, _REMEMBER_?" Fortuna shouted back over the rushing wind, seemingly unaffected. "_BESIDES_, _IT'S BRACING_! _NOTHING LIKE A GOOD BREEZE TO CALM THE NERVES BEFORE A MISSION_!"

"_B-BURN IN_... _AH_!"

She looked over her shoulder, frowning when she caught sight of my watering eyes. "Huh. _NEVER TOOK YOU SOMEBODY AFRAID OF HEIGHTS_! _DIDN'T SEEM THE TYPE_!"

"_SHUT THE FUCK UP_!" I roared angrily, glaring at the smiling amber-colored eye with all the hatred and fury I could muster, only to have it laughed off right in my face. "_I'M NOT_... _WHO WOULDN'T BE FREAKED OUT BY THIS_!?"

_THIS_? This was _fucking crazy_. And who was she to judge? Yes, okay? If I admitted it to myself honestly, yes, I _MIGHT_ have a minor aversion to high places.

Who could blame me? How was I supposed to know when I stated using my power I couldn't make myself fly with it? It was a stupid idea, and yes, I fucked up when I jumped out of that tree... That _terrifyingly high_ tree. And it hurt so much...

My Semblance could affect the world around me. Unfortunately, I wasn't exactly included in that number. Things I held? Yes. Things I saw or stood on? Yes. But not me, for some dumb, convoluted reason. That had been cemented well enough during my first little experiment after my first week at combat school. My Aura control was still limited, and my barrier was almost nonexistent when I hit the...

I slammed my forehead down on the metal with a roar, letting the sharp pain distract me. if only for a few moments. _'It's all her fault for forcing me into this! I swear, when I get back on solid ground, I'll…!'_

I could see our destination looming over us, the bus mere minutes away from docking with the massive floating coliseum. Whatever this madwoman's reasons for riding it up like this, it wasn't going to matter if the Atlesians saw us riding in like this.

In retrospect, it would probably make an interesting show. Might even make the news, at least until people got a hold of our identities, and we were locked away. Marigold, specifically, for being a terrorist, or whatever it was she had done, and me for aiding her.

I voiced my concerns to her, and the results were almost predictable. I just hadn't realized the signs when they were right in front of me. "_ALRIGHT_, _THIS SHOULD BE CLOSE ENOUGH_,_ I THINK_!" the Bounty Huntress announced, stretching casually, still seemingly unaffected by things like gravity or wind force. "_NOW_, _IF I TIME THIS RIGHT_... _HEY_, _SIDEKICK_, _HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH_?"

"_HUH_!?" My ears perked up at the strange question. "_WHAT DO YOU_...?"

"_YOUR WEIGHT_, _DEAR_! _ARE YOU PARTICULARLY TOP HEAVY WITH THOSE THINGS_, _OR_...?"

I gaped at her with a red face when I realized where she was looking, a look of indignation on my face as I moved to try and cover my chest best I could, without letting go of the hull. "_WHAT THE HELL_!?" I screamed back, trying to wonder the merits of blasting the woman off with my Semblance, and the chances I might succeed.

'_They not **that** big, are they!? I mean they can be sort of a pain in the back, sometimes but... Wait, **WHAT THE FUCK**!?'_

I found myself snapped out of my embarrassment as a firm hand gripped the back of my t-shirt, and hefted me up while I was distracted, a steel toed boot prying my nails off the hull, as the Trapper threw me over her shoulder, before I even understood what was happening to me.

_'Huh…?' _I looked around wide eyed, letting out a small "oh" of surprise as my vision was suddenly filled with the forest of trees passing by underneath.

"_HOLD ON TIGHT_!" my captor called out with a note of excitement, as an amber-colored Aura began to burn down her arms, the air feeling uncomfortably hotter all of a sudden. "_AND DON'T YOU DARE THROW UP_, _OR I'LL DROP YOUR ASS_!"

"_WAIT_, _WHA_...!?"

_'No, no, no, nonononononononono**NOOOOOOOOOOO**!'_I mentally, and actually, screamed as we jumped. No, more like walked off the edge of a perfectly good airship, and into the open sky. I saw white for a few moments, fear overriding ever molecule as I fought the sudden freefall with all I had, drawing on my Aura, my Semblance. Oh. great Monty, himself, I'd do anything if only I could just... _'Heh_?'

"_YOU MIND EASING UP_? _YOU'RE GRIPPING A LITTLE TIGHT_!"

I pried one eye open, a harder feat than you might've expected, to find us bobbing, hovering in the air with the Huntress' arms spread in a wide V underneath her. Clouds of fiery, Red Dust were flowing from her coat sleeves, ending in a powerful flame that sprouted from her hands, like the wings of a great bird, the rest acting as a near-solid, smoldering cushion for her feet to support herself.

After a few moments, and a fair bit of jerky movements that had me hyperventilating, thinking we were going to resume our fall yet again, we were flying... Well, close to flying as the position would allow. We soared towards what I realized were a series of ducts spaced along the bottom of the coliseum itself. Maintenance shafts for the clankers, I would imagine.

"_DON'T FEEL TOO BAD_! _JOEL AND LIZZY ALSO SCREAMED ON THEIR FIRST RIDE_!" Marigold laughed wistfully, flashing me a white toothy grin. "_YOU DID GREAT_!"

"_I'M GONNA KILL YOU_... _YOU_...!" I spluttered, trying to think of some way, some phrase, to adequately process how I felt right now, and coming up empty.

"_FUNNY_, _THAT'S PRETTY MUCH WHAT**THEY** SAID_, _TOO_!"

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

It was tense silence in the Bullhead for a full minute after Liz's recounting of recent events up to our escape, the only sounds being the thrum of the engines through the metal, and the occasional rustling of armor.

"He wasn't joking... The command staff, the others, anyone who ever questioned him... He killed them all," I remarked, voice easily conveying my own disbelief at the notion. "I-I... I-I can't believe it."

"Well tough, 'cause it sure as shit happened," Strike 2, or Glimmer Fullmark as Liz had introduced her to me, said in a voice distinctly lacking the humor it had had since I'd met her earlier. For some reason, she was still glaring daggers at me. "He called as many of us back here that he could from assignments, declaring Bastion as the new center of operations. Bastard wanted a full accounting of our current numbers, and volunteers for new trainers for the recruits."

"We were late to the party. We wanted to finish cleaning up what was left of the Faunus in our region before flying over," Strike 3, her younger brother Jasper, muttered bitterly, pulling at the seals of his helmet to show a face very much the same as his sisters, if markedly more masculine, his reddish-gold hair spiked noticeably at the front. "The second we entered the city's airspace, we got a coded burst from Liz tipping us off. We seized the Bullhead, and well... here we are." He gestured around, focusing on a faint bloodstain I hadn't noticed at my feet. "The last of the old Red Hand, least as far as we know."

The skinny boy, Dai Jin, who had detonated the explosives at Aegis, still not exactly sure how I felt about that, though it was somewhere between ripping him apart or merely shocking him into unconsciousness, coughed into his hand awkwardly.

He'd removed his mask, and what I could see of his face was behind the curtain of dull-colored dark hair was shockingly youthful, except for the large patch of burn scarring that surrounded the whole of one eye, and a good portion of skin beyond that. It was easy to tell he was on edge, head twitching at the slightest provocation or sound, almost as if...

_'He's new to the changes,' _I realized dully, recognizing the signs.

The demolitionist, whoever he was, had only just recently completed the painful procedures necessary to gain the other "benefits" of the title. I didn't envy him that experience. _'Tearing muscles, working tendons, the continual drain of Aura as those bastards used the regenerative powers of my own soul to reforge my body from the inside out...'_ A 3rd Generation Trapper. This was my first time meeting one in person, having not been involved with the one Max had met on the train.

_'Holy shit, he's just a kid. Can't be any older than Ruby.'_

When I had gone through it, I wasn't able to move for a whole week afterwards, my whole body aching like a giant wound, clumsy as my limbs responded faster than I was used to, my ears ringing and humming incessantly... A lot of people don't realize just how much noise goes on in the background of the world from day to day that we don't hear, until it all comes in at once.

_'And the kid's apparent specialty is loud booms. Ouch.'_

What put me off more was his appearance. That itself was bad, but working as a Trapper wasn't a lifestyle that allowed people to slack off physically. Most of the Gen 2's, especially, were either like the sibling pair sitting across from me, built like an Ursa, and just as strong in the peak of their prime, or were similar to Liz and I, lean, but still easily capable of overcoming foes twice our size, and agile as any Faunus could claim to be. Dai was neither, which meant he'd qualified by grace of something else. Something much more sinister or destructive, knowing the Red Hand.

Glimmer took a second of her time away from attempting to stare a hole through my skull to turn her attention towards Liz, who had just clambered out of the cockpit after a few terse words with the pilot, carrying a small hard case. "So he's dead, then? Violette, I mean? Way you made it sound, the one who took him wasn't exactly being friendly, and I don't know of any Trappers who could could make portals. Not like that anyway."

"Without a body, I'm not prepared to rule the bastard out. At least not yet," she shot back, kneeling next to my seat with a frown on her lips. "Strip. I need to look at that wound." The hard tone in her voice wasn't exactly comforting. "Hurry up; we're landing soon."

"It's not an issue, I have it..." I started, before she hiked up the dress shirt, and drove a flat palm into my side directly above the exposed injury, setting that whole half of my body on fire, and doubling me over in my seat as she shrugged smugly. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew just looked amused... Well, besides Dai, who had a palm against his forehead, grumbling under his breath. "Y-you get used to it. J-just takes time, and... Ah..." I wheezed, thinking I'd extend an olive branch, one he grimaced at, but seemed to accept with a murmured "_I'm fine."_

"Worry about yourself. You're lucky you were still able to move with a cut like this," Liz cut in, pulling some gear from the kit, and getting to work with an efficient air that spoke of familiarity. "How you haven't managed to bleed out, or get yourself killed on a regular basis, is still a damned miracle. I thought you knew how to dodge?"

"What can I say? I'm dura... _Ah_! Warn me before you go in with the stitches!" I flinched away, only to be pulled back by a slim, if iron grip on my forearm. "You know how I am with..."

"Coward. How's someone like you scared of_needles_?"

"I don't know. How's someone like you afraid of _clowns_?" I shot back with a pained grin that she immediately stole with another poke. "Okay!... _Gah_!"

"Fuck off! Remember who has the needle here."

I couldn't help but smirk at that, soldiering through the mini operation. In the end, it did feel better than having it ripping open with every breath. It was so familiar, almost like I was back in the Hand aga...

_'No!' _I reminded myself firmly, schooling my face back into stony indifference. Unfortunately, the shift didn't go unnoticed, as Briar's face faltered slightly...

"So, I hate to interrupt whatever _THIS_ is..." Glimmer waved a hand at us irritably, though it was easy to tell she found the interaction somewhat amusing. "But we still have a bit of a problem. Our plan hinged on Lucas being visibly dead, to throw the Red Hand Forces off. Now we have a bunch of hopeful, if pissed-off Red Hand, along with a whole city of pissed-off, backwards Frontiersmen to worry about."

"Maybe if you hadn't tried blowing up our most celebrated landmark," I spoke up with a bit of righteous rage to remind her one of those Frontiersmen happened to be sharing the craft, which she predictably pointedly ignored, while her brother merely shot me a dark threatening look.

_'Which would be so scary, if I didn't have to deal with them from Max and Goodwitch on a regular basis. Those two can glare with the best of them.'_

"What plan?" I looked to Liz, noticing the pained look on her face as she was forced to lean back to grab at another length of thread for the stitchwork. "Oh, don't tell me..."

"We intend on leaving Bastion, yes," she replied before I could finish, preparing a sturdier bandage now, one more suited to the field than the quick patch job I'd received at the wall. "Unfortunately, it was barely feasible to begin with. As for how it is now..."

"Well, if it weren't for the damn defenses on that..." Jasper opened his mouth to speak, but I was faster.

"I can get you out." The entire cabin fell silent. Even Dai was looking at me now with a note of surprise, and even a bit of suspicion. "You need to get past the wall, right? I can help... On one condition."

"Oh look, the big guy's got 'conditions,' now!" Glimmer snorted, leaning back in her seat as she crossed her arms under her chest. "Remind me why we picked him up, again? Just throw him out the side, I say..."

Briar silenced her with but a look and a hiss, before urging me to continue, the other girl surrendering, if only just, though she was still grumbling under her breath.

Typical behavior, as I recalled from my limited experience working with other Trappers aside from Vergil and Liz herself. Most of the time, a leader had been assigned by command based on experience, or the situation at hand, though on some occasions it was usually the one with the plan. Liz had likely brought this lot together by sheer virtue of wanting to get back at my Uncle. Unfortunately, now that that had failed...

_'She owes me big for this, which I intend to collect.'_

"There is a way to get through the wall, even by air, which I'm guessing you would all prefer. Thing is I come along, and if we're going to work together, then we do it my way."

Here's hoping my way didn't get us all killed in the process.

"And what's 'your way,' if you don't mind me asking?" Glimmer growled, sounding honestly a little amused at the prospect. "Please, enlighten us."

"Simple..." I nodded, turning to the cabin at large, doing my best to keep my voice strong and determined. "We're going to fly away, and they won't be able to do a damn thing to stop us."

-END

-CODEX-

**An Atlesian Recruit's (Very) Basic Explanation for the Various Types of Trappers Serving with the Red Hand, and Rules of Engagement. – Unofficially proposed by Former Gunnery Sergeant Carrie Bole, Counter Terrorism Task Force, to prospective recruits.****(REDACTED due to issues with Morale - Later transcribed by Indentured Huntsman William Carson, and released over Public Scroll Channels without authorization. Subject later reprimanded and returned to confinement) **_-In my defense, it was a laugh, and totally worth the lecture from General Ironass._

"Alright, you living waste piles! Seeing as those Red Hand masked freaks have seen fit to apparently get over their issues with attacking civilian and government targets, your superiors have tasked me with making sure your sorry asses are ready to deal with the worst these criminal elements can dish out, so pay attention!" (Followed by lengthy diatribe about the apparent worthlessness of recruits, and many insinuations on the reputation and modesty of one Private Carmine's Mother) - _I summed up with this for ease of readin', and younger viewers. Here's the important bits, along with my own notes. Thank me later, kids. It was a big folder I had to wade through. – Bill C. "Handsomest Man in the whole of Remnant, Uncontested"_

"Trappers, right bastards that they are, make up the smallest, but easily the nastiest of the Hand's forces, while also representing the majority of the threat when facing them. Like any military force, some are more geared towards direct assault and target elimination, while others prefer subtler assignments, as the name 'Trapper' implies... The list goes on, but, hands down, each and every one of them is more than capable of showing you your own intestines, if your guard is down for even a second!"

"At the moment, we are aware of three types of Trappers, called 'generations' by their own, that vary wildly by age and skill level. Here's what we have, though..."

**_1st Generation: _**"Made up almost entirely of former experienced Huntsman &amp; Huntresses, people. Our own best and brightest, the first ones to call themselves Trappers. If you've ever seen a Huntsman in action, ladies and gentlemen, then you will understand why these individuals are considered so dangerous, and are priority targets on the battlefield, if you see anyone wearing one of those masks who doesn't look like they should be in school today.

According to information from the captured Joel Ambrose, they are thankfully very few in number, many unable to make the full transition to fighting White Fang rather than Grimm successfully. Don't be mistaken, though! They may not have all the freakish augments the later kids got, but they were still heroes once, even if most now are little more than depraved killers. Remember that when you face one, and try to at least make your death one that won't shame the noble uniform you wear! Or run like hell! I won't blame you for trying!"**(Please attempt to hold the line and await Specialist Unit assistance) – **_Better hope there's one around, and better yet it isn't me._

**_2nd Generation: _**"Here's where shit hits the fan, people! This is the variety we used to see most often, but have since fallen to only a few dozen left after the beat down we gave them a few months ago. I should know, I was there! Most people think Trappers are monsters, but the unfortunate truth is most of them are young men and women, even more so than you sad bastards, tricked and taken in trying to get a shot at the Fang, and trained by the 1st Generation themselves, so they don't copy their mistakes! Don't let their looks fool you, or make you hesitate, though! They don't have the experience of the Gen 1's, but trust me when I say they make up for it with enthusiasm, and cunning brutality!" –_She ain't kiddin'. I've met two personally, so far, aside from AMBR's leader, and I still have the nasty scar to prove it. Bad attitudes too, for the most part._

"From autopsy reports performed on those killed during our raids, and live examinations on Ambrose himself, we've ascertained that this Generation was apparently subject to a host of experimental medical procedures, using Aura and drugs I won't even bother to try and pronounce, to improve their effectiveness in combat by orders of magnitude. They're stronger than they look, and have better reflexes and senses that out scale most trained Human Huntsmen, even without their Aura, and can endure more punishment than a soldier on his first shore leave, and keep on shrugging it off like it was nothing!" _– More than a little intimidatin' to see in person, but don't worry. They certainly still feel it._

"Apparently, these 'treatments' were dangerous, though, and is the reason why they started training most of them them from early to late adolescence, so their bodies could handle it. During many of the raids on their bases, we lost a lot of good people to a bunch of 'crippled' office and support staff, many of which were later found to former Trapper recruits that washed out due to the severity of their disabilities. Some barely even looked human afterwards.

As to how to fight the ones that did make it, the best thing to do is target their overclocked senses! A well-placed flashbang will incapacitate, or at the very least slow them down, and take away their advantage for a few moments. Otherwise, use overwhelming force, and pray to whatever deity you want to that they're more focused on killing someone else than you!" **(Please attempt to hold the line and await Specialist Unit assistance) **_– Don't bother. Just run and live another day. Take it from me, it's a much better policy._

**_3rd Generation: _**"The youngest, both generation wise and physically as well. They're also the most unknown, our one living source having left before the first round of recruits exited training, though we do have our own sources of information." – **Never substantiated –**_Because they got it from old Lady Luck herself on one of her good days. Not like they'll ever admit it._

"What you all need to know, however, is that while most of the Gen 2's are young adults by this point, these one's are the fresh meat that now seemingly make up the majority of the Trapper forces. They lack experience, are reckless and out to prove themselves, and, unlike their predecessors, don't possess quite all of the augments those before did, so use that!" – _Givin' kids weapons, and not expectin' them to go wild. Wow, what a unique concept that will OBVIOUSLY work._

"The 2nd Generation, by Ambrose's own words, was a testing ground for what those mad scientists could cook up to make a damn good soldier. Most of his and the other 2's bodies and senses amped up to eleven, while with this new batch they took the safer, if less showy route to raise numbers more safely, taking what worked from the 2's, and developing it along, while leaving behind the more dangerous examples.

Flashy or not, however, these new Trappers still possess reaction speeds comparable to an average Faunus, the gamut of sensory enhancements, all the while still being durable as tanks. What's more they're learning something new every day, just like any other kid in combat school does. Just be careful and watch your ass, 'cause from what we've seen, these little bastards like to get inventive to make up for whatever shortcomings they might think they have in comparison with their older cousins!"**(Please attempt to hold the line and await Specialist Unit assistance) **– _I think we get it by now. Atlesian commanders have a thing for throwin' men and expendable drones at a problem, and waitin' for someone else to clean up the mess._

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced This Chapter-**

Glimmer Fullmark - Jessica Strauss

Jasper Fullmark - Roger Craig Smith

Dai Jin - Jason Liebrecht

Amys Claret - Trina Nishimura

Carrie Bole - Erin Fitzgerald

**_A/N: A lot of this is based around Halo's Spartans, each generation having their own advantages and disadvantages. And so another chapter in and things are still picking up. Other side note my thesis film is turned in and I am DONE! Months of work finally over with and graduation around the bend. Thanks to all of you for the support and for helping keep this hobby alive that helped when things were getting rough._**

**_Fortuna still enjoys "accidently" torturing Max, she's got bigger things on her mind than the comfort of her peons…I mean sidekicks, Yang's dealing with her boredom if only just barely, and Joel's met this new batch of OC Trappers._**

**_Glimmer's lance is based off of the main character's weapon in Busou Renkin, if you're looking for a reference anyway. (Spoiler alert this version's also a gun) Jasper's is essentially a RWBY leaned up version of Warframe's Jat Kittag weapon, essentially a maul with a built in Dust powered booster. Dai Jin is basically that one kid that likes explosives, fire, and general mayhem a little too much, much more tech oriented than other Trappers so far._**

**_The flying trick Marigold's pulling is (Spoiler though at this point this is a formality.) similar to what Cinder pulls in the finale to travel up Beacon's elevator, a short term thing she uses to break a fall or travel short distances. How she does it goes back to the whole "Infusion" concept same as Briar if on steroids in her case, no sudden Maiden OP powers for her though, it tires her out so she can't use it for too long._**

**_Finally, I am actually indeed still in the process of working with some elements of the Badlands arc. It won't be huge changes to the story though there will be new characters, a bit more action, and some plot elements better executed etc. I'll make an update post when I put them up in case people want to read it and make critiques. After that I am going to be in the process of moving so their might be a delay on the next chapter depending on how things go, hopefully not much of one though._**


	65. Chapter 65

**Edited as of (7/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

ACCEPTING DESTINY

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Is this information really up-to-date?" I asked Dai as he keyed in a few commands to his wrist-mounted Scroll, activating the holographic display before us to reveal a grid overlay of Rowan's Bastion, complete with section-by-section designations. "All of it?"

"The fuck do you think we are? Amateurs?" Glimmer growled irritably, shutting up when Liz shot a glare her way, promising blood. The other Trapper looked more than ready to meet it, if her brother hadn't been there, placing a calming hand on her shoulder, leaving her to mutter under her breath venomously, easily loud enough to carry, if not interrupt. "'Fly out.' What the hell are we doing, letting him..."

The boy himself glanced at me nervously, before nodding slowly with a murmured affirmative, delving headlong back into his work without another word. Bastion was hardly the technical marvel of civilization that Atlas boasted of being. Not by a long shot. But that didn't mean it didn't go out of its way to protect sensitive information, especially regarding military matters like the wall and troop placements.

_'So that's another reason he made Trapper... Likely the reason for all this,' _I realized, glancing surreptitiously at the concrete walls and branching halls surrounding us, and at the bulky steel wrought doors we had walked through minutes before.

Bastion, like every city out in the Frontier, was subject to the near constant threat of the creatures of Grimm. Not a day went by without the sound of cannon shots or mortar rounds swiftly followed by the dying shriek of their intended targets. It had its mighty wall, a great bulwark that set it above many other similar cities, and allowed us to exist in so deep a wild and unclaimed territory. But the danger was still there.

Grimm had breached the walls before, during the Night of Falling Silver. The breach had been defended and sealed, but at the cost of many lives. After that, we finally swallowed our pride, and did what other cities had done, and developed bunkers for non-combatants. The city was littered with over a dozen structures like the one we now stood in, capable of housing hundreds in the event of the worst. It was easily defensible, and as only a pair of city workers were ever sent in to each months at a time to take stock of supplies, and required a specific code to enter at all...

_'It's the perfect hiding place. If you could manage to get inside.'_

"So, you said you had a plan?..." Amys, the shockingly young, silver-haired girl who had piloted our getaway craft, spoke up in a richly accented tone to break the sudden silence, her red-colored eyes fixed on me. "A plan to get out of the city? Alive, I hope?" She sounded apprehensive, and more than a little on edge.

I didn't see a weapon, or anything else suspicious, except for a long length of copper-colored cloth, tinged with silver and red, wrapped tightly around the length of both arms, ending at a single red crystal hanging at her wrists. The whole piece crossed and trailed slightly partway down her back.

The casual way she held herself, and the dark tinge to her skin, screamed Vacuoan, or at least someplace similar, though the accent was impossible to place. Her age put her as a Third Generation, like Dai Jin. According to Liz, she was something of a favorite of hers to take on as a student before all this. An infiltrator, like herself.

"I do. It's pretty simple, but it's the only way I know that might work, given what we have to work with." I pointed to the hologram, the tech keying in a few commands that expanded the area I was focusing on. "This is our biggest obstacle for escape: Rowan's Bastion..."

"No shit," Glimmer grumbled, tapping her foot incessantly on the floor as Liz hissed for her to be shut it and pay attention.

"One-hundred meters tall, split into eight sections, each a few miles in length, and plated with Dust-treated silver and steel alloys. Designed with the express purpose of keeping Grimm and invaders out, while also keeping any dissidents or rebels in." The sections outlined before the image zoomed in to focus on one of the many artillery emplacements lining the top of the structure. "These are cannons that were provided by the Atlesian Military to help ward off Grimm. About the only thing we ever did appreciate them for."

"And you said you wanted to fly right out?" Amys asked, eyeing the image warily. "What are the specs on those things? Are they possible to avoid?"

"Not in the air, no. Those cannons and their crews are capable of launching magnetically propelled, Dust-tipped rounds for miles in any direction, and can bring down a moving Nevermore in a single shot before it can even think of getting close." As if to emphasize that fact, we felt the dull murmur of a distant shot echo through the city, as one of the great weapons fired once, and only once. "They're damn good with their aim, too, as you can imagine. They get a lot of daily practice in."

Liz shook her head, letting out a small sigh before speaking. "Besides, we'd never be able to clear a pursuit force in the transport we have now, even if we did manage to get past the cannons..."

"Which Mr. Bigshot still hasn't explained how he's going to pull off yet, has he?" Jasper had to actively work to silence his sister now, though even he was looking dubious. "What's your big plan, then?

It was an intimidating prospect; the wall had only ever been breached once, though that was years ago during the Night of Falling Silver. Of course, the Wall, as it had stood then, had possessed far fewer defensive measures, and even then the horde only succeeded by being lucky enough to catch the defenders with their guard down somehow.

_'Something I sincerely doubt will happen again.'_

"I was just getting to that," I told the Trapper firmly, keeping my voice level as I indicated a certain section of the structure. "This is Section 8, formally commanded by one Ash Garrett... However, we can assume this is no longer the case..." Thoughts of the man, and how he'd saved us from Aero's attack, were still fresh I my mind, and the spike of worry that I hadn't seen what happened afterwards was still there. "But this does, in fact, present a weakness."

Not much of one, unfortunately. Certainly, Ash would've left someone half competent in charge while he was off escorting me around. Despite my chagrin, it would have to be enough.

I tightened my fist as I moved on, Liz shooting me a nervous, sidelong glance. "The cannons for each section all draw power from the wall itself through their own generator placed roughly here." I highlighted a large room towards the center of the wall. "It's independent of the city's grid, which means knocking out the power won't stop the defenses. However, that also means that it will take longer to supply back up power, in the case that these go out. A few minutes, at least."

"So we hit the wall hard, fight our way past a few dozen, if not a few hundred soldiers, and knock out the power." Amy rattled off on her fingers. "But what about the pursuit craft? We didn't manage to take them all out at Aegis, and we're still outgunned and outmaneuvered."

I nodded, acknowledging the problems before turning to Jin. "You wouldn't have happened to grab anything on some project called the 'Storm Hawk,' did you?" The boy blinked, before turning his sunken eyes back to his readout, typing away briefly, before letting out a light affirmative. "Put it up."

Suddenly, the wall was replaced with a three-dimensional image, a smaller vision of the craft sitting atop the walls of that particular section. "What the hell is that supposed to be?" Liz walked up to the display, examining it closely. "Our ride?"

"Fast enough to get us beyond the defenses, and well on our way back to Vale in short order, if Ash's guess was right." I commented, deciding to leave out the fact that it was untested, and potentially suicidal to attempt.

_'Cross that road when we get to it.'_

Glimmer, of course, refused to stay silent. "And what if we don't want to go to Vale?" We all turned to face her, the girl having managed to shoulder her way past Jasper to now stand roughly equal in height to me, eyes narrowed sharply. It was almost cute..

"Tough." I gritted my teeth, but didn't rise to the bait. "I don't really care what you lot do afterwards, but when we get that ship, our first destination is Vale. That's what's happening. You have a better idea?"

"Here's one. You get us our ride out, and we 'graciously' agree to take your ass along if you shut up and don't get uppity."

"She has a point, you know." Liz stepped in between us, shoving the other woman back with a bit of difficulty, though still frowning at me. "I know you have some attachment to the place, but be smart about this. You could go anywhere. And whether or not Lucas really is gone, we'll still have the whole of the Hand to contend with. Vale's..."

"The same as anywhere else we go!" I finished for her, looking around at all of them. Jin and Amys had stayed out of it, but seemed conflicted as to who to support. Meanwhile, Glimmer seemed ready to grab up her weapon if pushed any further, and I doubted her brother would be on our side. "But it's also where General Ironwood is stationed, at the moment."

"And we should care _why_, exactly?" Amys voiced from the corner, her arms crossed and the cloth around her arms looking just a bit looser. "You intend to have us turn ourselves in?"

"I'm giving you the option to survive this..." I said before the Fullmarks could pipe in again. "Because, face it. Wherever you go, the Trappers will be right behind us every step of the way."

"So a jail cell's preferable?" Liz this time, sounding unconvinced now, probably regretting giving me that support earlier. "Joel..."

"Ironwood won't let you sit around collecting dust. You have my guarantee on that," I said. Maybe not so truthfully, but I had to sell this if we were going to get anywhere. "He wants Trappers to fight his battles. He wanted me to keep going after the White Fang for him, when I turned myself in. Just because I refused doesn't mean he's likely to have given up on idea." He's certainly kept Capaneus around long enough, seemingly unwilling to move the Trapper out of his sight, same as the one Max had found, though apparently his injuries still had him out of commission. "I don't know why some of you joined the Red Hand, but that's at least one thing we all had in common. The Atlesians can provide that, and a chance at revenge against the Hand I. _If_ you want it."

The room was practically silent for a while, as the siblings conferred furiously amongst themselves. The tension in the air was almost palpable, as we all sized up our opposition if things went south. I'd like to think that if they turned on me, Liz might have taken my side. But of course...

"...Alright, Ambrose..." Jasper said after a sullen nod from his older sister, seemingly too prideful to speak up for once since I've met her. "We'll play along for now. But as for how this is going to be done..."

Maybe this wouldn't be so impossible after all.

* * *

**_-James Ironwood-_**

"As I told you last night, I can't simply allow Miss Xiao Long's actions to go ignored or unpunished," I sighed, massaging the aching flesh of my forehead around my metal implant, wishing dearly that my aide would hurry with the tea blend I'd requested. "Regrettable as it is, she attacked a fellow student in front of thousands, if not tens of thousands, and started an inter-Kingdom incident that has drawn more Grimm to Vale's borders than the Breach, which is still being dealt with as we speak."

Ah, just the most obvious tick in the ever growing list of problems that have arisen since I'd taken over command of Vale's Defenses. The Kingdom's Huntsmen, coupled with my own forces, managed to hold the tide just barely. Couple that with ever rising tensions between myself and the Valean council, on top of Mistral screaming and clawing for harsher retribution over the injury of one of its sons...

Benjamin, however, still seemed unconvinced, and remained sulking in his seat, arms crossed beneath that ragged poncho he insisted on wearing seemingly everywhere he went. Even apparently to the halls of my own airship. "I'm not tryin' to convince you to put RWBY back in the Finals. That's off the table; I get it."

"Obviously, the public would never allow..." I started, but was cut off as the boy continued on unabated, doing his best to cut off my little diatribe before I could gain traction. It was unexpected, certainly. And though unwelcome, at least it showed the boy had initiative, if little tact.

"All I'm askin' is that you put a stop to the media practically rakin' her ass over the fire every five minutes!" I raised an eyebrow as the former bandit coughed into a bionic hand awkwardly, remembering just who he was speaking to, and electing to try and remain professional. "Sorry. It's just, at this point, you have to admit it's doing way more harm than good with the Grimm at our gates. Besides, she's already gonna have a hard enough time gettin' work after all this passes. Don't see the need to rub it in further by havin' the vultures pickin' over her home life."

It was a valiant attempt, presenting his request in the form of a solution to deal with the public's flagging morale. He was learning to play the game, at least. it was a shame I couldn't do more to help him along.

"I can keep the paparazzi off of Beacon's grounds, but Vale isn't like Atlas." I raised a hand, motioning to the city below us in the quickly fading afternoon light. "I don't have the authority to prevent people from talking, or spreading rumors."

"You could always throw a few troops at the problem. Good old Atlesian way of doin' things, right?" I spared him an irked grimace that got the point across, the blonde shifting uncomfortably in his chair, a resigned look crossing his features. "So... not possible then, I'm guessin'?"

"Hardly."

He sighed, before getting to his feet with a bit of sway in his form, obviously as tired as everyone else involved in this mess was. "Well, worth a shot, I suppose. On that vein, anythin' on where my elusive team leader disappeared to? Blondie's been askin' for him, and I'm runnin' out of excuses to shill out."

"You know as much as I do, I'm afraid." I shifted through the scattered reports on my desk and on my Scroll, woefully incomplete, and piling up minute by minute. "My people are still searching, but the only hit we've gotten is an apparent sighting in Bastion, of all places. But my sources there are hardly reliable. Not even mentioning the fact that it would be physically impossible, given the timeframe they provided."

"Still at square one, then?" I nodded, trying to gauge the sniper's reaction and, surprisingly enough, finding it more difficult than expected. "Great... As for our other issue..."

"Which is going fine, I trust?"

"As well as can be expected, which isn't great, seein' as she apparently has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Literally," he said stiffening slightly, eyes flickering towards a dim corner of the room suddenly, as if in response to something, before settling again on me. "We were never exactly the best of pals, but it's easy to see something's off. Her team thinks it's nerves over the Finals. Dusty says to let her have her time, and keep my distance if I can."

"Dusty?... Oh, you mean Qrow. Typical." Nothing to be done I supposed. We could hardly force Miss Nikos to accept her potential role, and Ozpin had been clear with the danger.

_'Our timetable seems to have shifted, however...' _We needed a new Fall Maiden secured now more than ever, if Ozpin's assumptions regarding our enemy were correct.

The rest of the hour passed by quickly, much to the relief of both of us. The young Specialist snapped off a mocking salute on his way out, followed by my aide, leaving me alone to my thoughts, and a steaming pressure heated cup...

Well, almost alone.

"So, what do you make of him?" I asked, as a figure in tactically modified Atlesian armor stepped from the corner. How he'd managed it, I could only guess. Stealth was never quite my forte, though I suppose if it was, figures like this wouldn't be necessary. "Honest opinion as always, Spectre. I insist."

"Certainly, sir."

The agent identified as Spectre, a codename he'd grown to prefer over his years of service, and one I was more than willing to oblige him with, removed the polarized helmet he wore to reveal thin, if chiseled features, pale from lack of sun, and marred by a scar that ran from his temple to his bottom lip, his brown hair styled in an undercut fashion, and the faint outline of a beard that just barely showed across his cheeks. Rare signs of the man's own stress, no doubt. Another soul that hadn't been sleeping, at least if the bags under his eyes were any indication.

"He's abrasive, disrespectful even if he tries to hide it, and, frankly, more than a bit hostile towards your presence, sir."

"Benjamin does lack in some personal aspects, I'll admit. Though he excels in others," I replied after a nod, taking a moment to savor the honey-laden taste of my drink, feeling the restorative effects tending to my frayed awareness. "He grew up in the Badlands, so his animosity towards our people was expected, though thankfully less than I'd worried it might be. He's a man who can get things done one way or another. Something of a rarity, and a quality worth nurturing, in my opinion."

"He isn't without some skill. He almost noticed me, after all." I nodded in agreement, happy to keep the fact that the former bandit's own paranoia had tipped me off to Spectre's presence, myself. Appearance of power, and whatnot. "Sharp and wary, almost to the point of paranoia. I can see why Schnee favors him. The potential is certainly there. Perhaps even more than Ambrose."

"Glad to see we all agree, then. Winter put him through his paces with a personal test of her own to measure his attitude. You'll be delighted to hear that he stood his ground. Even threw a few barbs back, as I heard it. He can't be cowed easily."

"I'm aware." Of course he was. The man hadn't risen to be one of my personal staff's greatest assets in the shadows, and a formidable Specialist Operator in his own right, by being ignorant of goings on. "My report. Preliminary interrogations on suspected dissidents has proved unsuccessful in locating the Queen behind the curtain, or anything at all, really. Most chose to keep silent, or succumb when questioned. White Fang movements are similarly obscured at the moment, leading me to believe the two may be linked more deeply than we realize."

I frowned, but kept any further disappointment from showing beyond that. Not that it fooled the Agent, of course, but it went a long way towards fooling myself._'How? How is it that she inspires this sort of loyalty!' _That had been our greatest obstacle by far, each link in the chain refusing to break under pressure.

"And Ambrose?"

"Nothing of note to report."

"Damn... Continue focusing on the main issue at hand, and leave Ambrose to the regular troops. Target every related source to this 'Black Queen,' and keep me appraised if anything changes. I want a name, face, anything you can manage. We need this person found and dealt with."

The Agent brought his arm up in a crisp salute, bowing his head, before replacing the helmet with a hissing click. I looked down to my work for a moment to confirm everything was still on track for the Finals, and delete a particularly nasty message thread from a Mistralan Councilor, before looking back up to find no trace the soldier, the assassin, had ever been there.

Once there would've been a time where I'd have balked at the thought of having such a piece at my beck and call. A time where I might have paled at the thought of funding projects like Endgame or Polendina. Of course, back then I was a different man.

I stared down at my arm, the limb twitching and whirring somewhat, as some phantom pain gripped me as it so often did these days. Riding it out as always with a stoic face, I took a deep breath, sighed, and resumed my work, hoping for the hundredth time that all of this was truly necessary.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'Well, that's my day wasted, I suppose._'

It had been worth a shot to try. At the very least, it meant I wouldn't have to break anymore cameras trying to sneak a peek at Blondie, including more than a few Scrolls from indignant students trying to cash in.

_'Traitors... She's one of your own...' _Back where I'm from, people lived and died by the loyalty of supposed comrades.

Bully for them though. Most ran away the instant I dropped the Boss' name, or showed them the kung-fu grip my arm possessed. Those that hadn't, well... Some just required a fair bit of "convincing."

_'Startin' to think Max is rubbin' off on me just a little...' _Not entirely sure how I felt about that.

"Now, what're the magic words?" I said with a note of cheerful menace, squeezing just a bit harder on Carden Winchester's throat, which I held in a vice-like metal grip against a stone wall in the light of the dying sun and cool autumn air. "C'mon, Winchickenshit, I can't really control the strength on this thing." The team leader coughed and spat, actually looking like he might hold resolute, at least until he started turning purple. "I don't hear _talkin'_..." Truth be told, though, I'd be surprised if he could_HEAR_ anything at all, what with the ruptured eardrum and head trauma.

Russel and Sky were still screaming their heads off on the ground a few feet away, their hands clutching their eyes. They'd tried to rush me from behind while their Boss came head on, thinking the wise-cracking sniper easy pickings without his Trapper and Guard Dog watching his back, and had blundered into a cloud of vaporous yellow powder right to the face. Diluted Death Stalker Venom. Easy enough to get a hold of, if you knew the right channels, and perfect for home herbal remedies, pesky pest control, and for showing lowlifes how we dealt with thugs and bullies the Badland's way.

_'Well... Almost anyway.'_

Luckily for them, at this dosage, it was nonfatal. The worst they'd suffer would be extreme searing pain, and a touch of temporary blindness. Nothing a bit of time and water to the eyes couldn't fix.

The last one, Dove, had spun on his heels and run like hell after that, leaving CRDL's over large juicehead of a team leader for me to deal with personally. He was fast, for someone his size. Skilled up close, too. But it was amazing how a bionic arm and an "Argus brand" firecracker to the side of the head can shift things in your favor.

_'He's no Ambrose, that's for damn certain.'_

"You crazy...!" More pressure, artfully applied with a jaunty whistled tune for flavor. "O-okay, I'm sorry! _I'm sorry_!"

"For _what_?..." I urged him on, easing up just a bit, wary for any attempt at a double cross or sneak attack, but to my relief, it seemed he was a bit too cowardly for such a tactic, or he knew when to cut his losses. For his team's sake, I hoped it was the latter. "Just so I know you get the hint."

"W-w-we won't try and get any more pics of Xiao Long! W-we..." The metal fingers clenched again, turning his rapid pleas into a high pitched squeak. "A-and we'll delete the ones we do have! Honest! I swear on my mom's..." I sighed, releasing the broad man to let him fall, gasping at the foot of the wall. "So... Are we... _Ack_!"

"Nope," I cut him off with a quick knee to the side of the head, that crashed against his unprepared Aura like a sledgehammer, and sent him sprawling on the ground, scrambling to get away. His cronies picked their way blindly after him, stumbling along, Mohawk managing to run straight into a stone pillar. "_Now_ we're good," I muttered after they'd left earshot.

I turned around to make my getaway before the Witch, or some other teacher, found me skulking around. _'Somehow, I don't think a fancy new rank in the glorious Atlesian Army is gonna get me out of detention.'_

I waved idly at a passing Bubbles and Pinkie, the hammer wielder practically dragging her friend... Crush?... teammatealong by the arm, beaming like someone had just told her it was raining syrup. Pinkie just seemed resigned, carting around an armful of food that I knew was probably just a snack to the rabid Valkyrie.

_'Probably off to enjoy the fairgrounds, no doubt. Maybe I can track down Max, and...!'_

Thoughts of my suspiciously elusive teammate, and the whole fiasco that came with them, were suddenly silenced hard by a deafening crash that shook the walls and rattled windows in their panes. My first instinct was to duck to the ground, looking about for the weapon that caused the explosion. Problem was there was no smoke, screaming, or anything else I generally associated with an accidental weapon discharge.

Getting to my feet after a second or two, warily just in case, I worked my way along the wall, just in time to catch Hero coughing and wheezing his lungs out, laid out in front of a large, man-shaped hole in the stonework behind him. On reflex, I looked about to see if Cardin, or someone else, had thought it funny to try and put him through the wall, only to catch sight of Pyrrha Nikos running away from the scene as fast as she could, which meant about as damn fast as one could short of Red's level.

_'Is she... Is she cryin'?' _No. Pyrrha Nikos was one of the furthest people I could ever imagine tears from; someone who was equal to Joel Ambrose, the strongest in our year, and probably beyond... And whose life I'd had a hand in mucking up. Not too hard to connect the dots. _'Oh no...'_

"Hey, you all right? Oi, answer me, man! Don't tell me she...!?" I ran to the knight's side, bending down to check for any serious injuries or head trauma, but finding little more than signs of light bruising.

_'A damn miracle. A blow like that probably would've put the Boss down for the count. Hell, it would've turned me into a smear...'_

If it hadn't been Jaune in his armor, whose ridiculously potent Aura was already the closest I knew of except, maybe Blondie, who could challenge Reika's, he might well have died, or been seriously injured. As it stood, however, he still wasn't looking at me. In fact, he barely registered my presence at all as he looked at the retreating mane of red, looking like he'd just had something good ripped from him at the last minute.

I knew the signs. I had felt them before after waking up on that damn rooftop, only to hear Maxine...

"What did I do?" I perked up as the knight whispered to himself, shaking like a damn leaf in a windstorm. "D-did I...? What..."

He looked at me forlornly as I clapped him on the shoulder, shaking my head and doing my best to be reassuring, having gotten pretty damn good at it in the last few hours. I knew enough to bullshit it, at least. "I doubt it's somethin' you did Hero... Jaune. What the hell just happened?"

* * *

Tracking the Spartan from there hadn't been as difficult as one might've expected from a Mistralan Champion, but I suppose she didn't get the title by being subtle. Still, I wasn't expecting to strike Dust on literally the first place I checked afterwards, the girl having locked herself in her team's dorm room, with the sound of sobbing easily apparent through the wooden door.

The lock wasn't the issue. It was a standard electronic key lock attuned to Scrolls I bypassed directly in seconds, almost as an afterthought, sparking an inner wire between metal fingers, and hearing the lock shift automatically. What was stopping me was the gnawing ache in my stomach, that screamed at me to get out of there, and just leave things be. This wasn't condolences from an outside perspective, as had been the case with Blondie, and even Arc. This was something else. I don't know, maybe...

_'No. This is my fault as much as it is Ozzy's, Woody's, or any of the others.'_

I took a deep calming breath, exhaling in the same way I had every time I eased my finger onto the trigger. The execution was much the same actually, fingers tightening on the doorknob, and turning to show a neatly spaced room, if lacking the usual bunk beds some other teams employed. It likely would've been quite quaint, actually, if every piece of metal wasn't floating absently, as if weightless, and suspended in air.

Flashes of the old days when such a thing usually meant Max was somewhere between angry, bitter, or downright murderous came to mind unbidden, and made actually stepping into the space a bit harder than I would've liked.

At the center of it all sat the red-headed Mistralan, hands going to her face to wipe at her eyes quickly, as she turned with a much too cheery fake grin on her face. The look vanished, of course, once she realized it wasn't one of her teammates, but myself, the floating objects all clattering back down as gravity reasserted itself once again.

"B-Ben? What are you...?" She faltered, noting my expression, before gazing down at her knees again. "Jaune, is he...?"

"Fine. Least as much as someone who went half a foot into a wall can be." I stepped in, closing the door behind me, before taking a free place on the wall, keeping green eyes fixed on hers. "I've heard of pushin' people away, but never quite so literally."

"I didn't mean for that to happen."

"No shit, you didn't. You don't strike me as the type," I said, trying my best to sound comforting, though I doubt it came across very well. "So, what happened? Did Arc get too handsy, or...?"

"No, of course not!" She was on her feet and in my face with surprising speed, eyes burning so fiercely I almost pulled a weapon on reflex. Thankfully, I was able to arrest the motion. "Jaune would never, it was...I-I..." She shuddered, crossing her arms over herself tightly, looking as if she would be sick. "It was an accident; I couldn't stay, but when he tried to get me to tell him what was wrong, I just..." She breathed in, before glancing at me suspiciously now, examining me like I was the enemy."Did the Headmaster and General Ironwood send you to check up on me? Make sure I could still be counted on?" She hid it well, but the bitterness in her voice still rang clear.

Of course, it all made sense. Hero must've finally worked up the courage to finally open up to his partner, tried to understand what was happening. He was just trying to help, but of course...

_"You have an important decision before you, Miss Nikos. There's no guarantee this transfer will work, and there's no telling if you will be the same person if it does. I advise you to take time on this matter. But understand that before the Vytal Festival is over, we will need your answer."_

I'd been so caught up what was going on, the trouble with Yang, Joel, and now Max vanishing without a trace, trying to work out where I now stood, that I'd forgotten my biggest responsibility, and the burden she now carried. I got a new job and some fancy perks, but meanwhile a seventeen-year-old girl was told her life, who she was as a person, might be changed forever, and the continued time of peace Remnant held dear might just hinge on her willingness to say yes. Having to hide that, from your friends, from the man you cared for...

I opened my mouth for a moment, surprisingly for once finding myself at a loss for words, before shaking my head. "No. This is for me, and for Jaune... Are you okay?"

She stood up straighter, looking down at a shaking arm by her side, before clutching it firmly. It was heartbreaking, to say the least, watching her pick herself up like this. "The Headmaster, the General, Professor Goodwitch, they all believe that I might be able to change the world, to become what I've always dreamed I destined to be."

"...But you don't know if that's what you want anymore?"

Pyrrha hesitated before nodding, staring at a picture of JNPR posed together in Vale, the redhead next to the hapless blonde knight, looking genuinely happy, completely at odds with the unsure warrior maiden before me. "When I came to Beacon, I wanted to make a name for myself, find true friends that cared about and respected me, rather than 'Pyrrha the Invincible.' And I found so much more than that," she laughed, the tears starting up again, even as she stood there resolutely, paying them no notice.

"If you can't..."

"But I _can_, if this is what is required of me. No matter what it takes, if I truly am the person they feel the world needs, the only one capable of fulfilling this role... How can I say no?"

It was just so damned heroic. She was someone so ready to give up her own happiness, if it truly was what was expected of her... If she was truly the only one... But she wasn't. Maxine's laughing face came to the forefront of my mind unbidden. She was another very likely candidate, if Ironwood was correct in his assumptions regarding her power.

If I spoke up, and let the Huntress know that she might be able to avoid all of this... She could be spared this possibly gruesome fate...

But then Amber's scarred face replaced hers, comatose with only a metal coffin to keep her alive. Then it was my teammate behind that glass, a husk drained of everything that made her who she was. Her joys, her creativity, whatever it was that made her... _her_.

I couldn't allow that to happen, even if the alternative was utterly selfish, so disgusting, that I hated myself for even considering it...

I let Pyrrha speak out her mind, and encouraged her even when the words tasted like ash in my mouth, comforted her as had become so routine in the last few days as I "protected" her, and all the while feeling every bit as cold and unfeeling as my arm.

-END

-CODEX-

_Excerpt of diplomatic guide provided to new ambassadors of the Atlesian Armed Forces..._

**Cities of the Frontier- **While certainly the oldest and most well known, Bastion is hardly the only settlement occupying this most hostile region of Remnant, or in fact the most unique. Many small pockets of Humanity still dot the harsh landscape, eking out a living in some of the most treacherous environments, though only two others come even close to matching the famed "Silver City" in political clout and military potential in the region. It should also be noted that, while located much further in known Grimm territory than any other established society, the Frontier in fact makes up barely a quarter of the southernmost landmass of the continent.

**Safehold- **Directly due east of Bastion, deep within dense Grimm infested forests, lies the Frontier City of Safehold, otherwise referred to as "The City of Hounds." Similar to Bastion in that its people descended from more warlike origins, and maintains a cordial relationship with Aegis Combat Academy by readily supplying willing recruits for training each year. The settlement is famous for its training and use of a type of canine creature native only to the region that they refer to as a "Kin Hund" for tracking and battle in a region of dangerous Flora and Fauna. Similar in appearance to dark haired dogs, but with the largest capable of reaching the size of a warhorse, and the average not much smaller, they are easily capable of dispatching Beowolves, and even larger varieties when in packs, through a combination of fierce intelligence, terrifying endurance, and jaws capable of piercing steel.

Early surveyors were originally surprised, at first believing that the people of Safehold had somehow tamed Grimm. Further investigation has revealed no link between the two, however, finding that the Hund, when unprovoked, are actually quite peaceful, and even possess the marked ability to utilize a sort of Aura to some extent, a rarity here in the Kingdom's animals, though not unheard of. Its people treat the creatures like family, and take great offense to what they might perceive as insults towards them. If one takes a liking to you, it is a sign of respect, and should be encouraged, as rebuffing has led to... unsavory incidents and injuries.

**Mooring-** Located along the southern coastline of the continent, Mooring stands as a major trade route, and the proverbial "Gateway to the Frontier," at least in terms of business potential, the flight of large airships too risky for those unfamiliar with the area. Even then, the area is often subject harsh thunderstorms that only its people seem able to navigate with any ease.

It has since been insinuated that the many sudden disappearances of large ships bearing Dust and other supplies between the Kingdoms before the Frontier's inclusion was in fact the work of Mooring-based pirates, rather than large aquatic Grimm as was once believed, these acts possibly explaining the exposure of Dust into Frontier society. The truth of these claims, if any, is subject to much debate, well away from where any of the locals might hear.

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced This Chapter-**

Spectre - Quinton Flynn

**_A/N: Well that ended on a bit of a low note, sorry to Ben but the guy had his own priorities._**

**_In other news, big thanks to Buckets8118stek for allowing me to use his character "Spectre" an Atlesian assassin and shadow agent in the employment of general Ironwood, something that with Atlas' apparent focus on the military and his own occasional underhandedness is something he could believably possess. Here's hoping I got him somewhat how you wanted him. He along with other OCs will be making appearances and influencing this story as it continues just like The Baz's Fidelis who has made a comeback and will have his own parts to play hopefully in the future beyond a mere cameo. For example, Fide now knows and has a past relationship with the Blood Hounds while in his story's AU, Joel and the rest of the AMBR ended up at Shade rather than Beacon. Can I promise to include every OC, no, but I will do my best to try._**

**_The idea for Safehold and the Kin Hund are drawn from the direwolves in game of thrones and Doomsdayguy12345's Death Korps of RWBY, a Warhammer/RWBY crossover which I'm enjoying the hell out of and includes a similar beast. Not entirely sure if it's his own invention but yeah I'm gonna credit them. Also people with dogs are awesome and a place where people love dogs is also awesome. And then pirates because why not._**

**_Finally, this particular story is going to be ending shortly, at least this part of it, with a sequel planned afterwards which will likely go more into more OC territory than canon as this fic has followed but still be involved in the world of RWBY and follow those that make it through what's coming._**


	66. Chapter 66

**Edited as of (7/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

**_A/N: Big thanks to Tech776 for allowing me to use his characters in this chapter. It was a blast to write and I hope I did them justice._**

BREAKOUT

**_-Etho Corvus-_**

"Etho! Etho, I know you're up there! Come out already!"

I glanced up from the thin blade I was sharpening, shifting around in my impromptu hiding spot amongst the shadow-laden girders, and piping that lined the ceiling of the dimly lit maintenance passage, to peer down at the diminutive, dark armored figure glaring back at me sternly from almost a dozen feet below, a large dark metal case almost as large as she stood slung over her shoulder.

Not entirely certain she'd seen me, I slid the length of razor sharp steel back into place with a flick of my wrist, and skirted along the mess of wiring and support beams carefully away from where I'd been seated peacefully for the last few hours.

_'As peacefully as you can with cannons rattling off every few minutes. How do the people here stand it?' _I wrapped a thin lean muscled arm around a length of thick cable, chancing another look at my current assailant, my armor's coloration making me appear as nothing more than just another stray shadow. _'Maybe she's just guessing. She can't...'_

"Yes, I can see you, ha ha. Now, are you going to get down, or do I have to come up there? One!"

"Iris, come on, just...!"

"Two!" I knew exactly what would happen on Three. Had been on the receiving end more than once, and knew I shouldn't push my luck any further than I already had. Iris could be more than a bit vindictive when she had the mind to be. Had been that way since we were kids. "Two and a half!"

Sighing fitfully at the loss of my free time, I released the cable, coming down in a graceful decent to land softly without a sound before her. Coming up to my full height I looked down on her now smug face with a trademark frown, my dark grey eyes narrowing. "Enjoy your downtime, Bird Brain?"

I flinched inwardly, suppressing the sudden spike of worry the name presented with familiar ease, and a rueful rub through my messy, raven-dark hair. It was just an innocent pet name, an all too accurate one for my taste, but, of course, my partner didn't need to know. She couldn't know...

Only Master Kasai had been aware, and he wasn't going to be telling anyone anything. I flinched as the memories flooded back, the girl in front of me unconscious on my back, my face bloody, our mentor's shaggy face having lost his mask in the fighting, and devoid of his usual easy grin as me told us to run, one hand on his stomach, and the other on his weapon... I suppressed the urge to reach a hand towards the puckered scar running down the side my right cheek.

"How is it you keep managing to find me?" I said in an attempt to pass off the nervous tick, my voice coming in a low, level tone, cracking somewhat from lack of use, and laden with just a hint of disappointment. "I thought I did a pretty good job this time."

You'd think miles on miles of similar dark hideaways would've been enough to throw her off at least for a bit longer. No such luck, of course.

"You don't exactly change things up whenever you run off," the teen said with a not too modest shrug of her shoulders, trying to make the move seem casual. "Always the darkest, coziest places without too much traffic. Find that, and all you need to do is look up." She gestured to my little hideaway knowingly, before punching my chest playfully. "It was a fair attempt, though. Now come on, it's time for our shift out front."

I cracked a rare smile at her attitude, but it soon faded away once again into a mask of stoic indifference, as I followed my friend down the passage and out into the bustling main corridor, listening to her rattle off details on her little sightseeing trip along the top of the structure, seemingly ignorant that we were earning more than a couple stares as we passed from the natives.

_'At least she's talking again. That's good.'_

Most of the looks were directed at Iris, I noticed, especially from the male student ones that must've been on shift from the school here, not that I could really blame them. Lilac colored eyes, delicate doll-like features, dark hair that hung down her back in smooth waves, marked out by a single streak of violet she'd picked up a few weeks back. Iris was certainly capable of turning heads if she wanted to.

Of course, those admiring looks soon stopped dead once they noted the stark crimson handprints stamped on the mask hanging at her belt, and embossed on my shoulder piece, wandering eyes soon wandering right off other way.

Prevailing rumor circulating around the wall had it that an over-prideful Huntsman a few sections over had thought it a good idea to get in the face of one of the Trappers that had been stationed there since the morning with the rest of us. Didn't end well for him, it seemed. The nicest story had him walking out with both arms broken, and his face crunched.

_'Funny, not even a day, and we've already ran out our welcome,' _I thought darkly as they passed us by, making sure to give a wide berth, not that I cared much as we were probably going to be moving out soon anyway, if the Commander's vision was any indication. _'If we still had a Commander...'_

Word in the city was spotty at best, given the rough signals out here, and no one had bothered to give me or my partner much to work with. All we did know was that some kind of attack had happened at the school where Violette was set to make his big speech, and was now currently unavailable. That, and that Joel Ambrose and Elizabeth Briar were somehow involved, and loose in the city.

_'Trapped in the city, more like. Only way out is through all this.'_

I eyed some of the Wall guard suiting up for their coming night shift, adjusting and triple checking drab, green flak armor while their squad leader barked orders. Most were glaring at the new additions in black, however, the Red Hand troops shouldering their own weapons, and making sure the emblem patches on their uniforms sleeves stood out. Some even noticed us, and snapped off a sloppy salute we didn't acknowledge.

Our boys might act tough while we were around, though, even with my minimal interaction, preferring to leave most of it to Iris whenever I could, it was easy to see who was better prepared for a fight if one occurred, the Frontier born troops carrying themselves with a familiar ease that even Atlesians probably would've balked at, let alone my own native Valean.

_'Just more pressure on us Trappers to perform, then. Just what I needed...'_

I grew aware that Iris had stopped talking, and was now staring at me with an eyebrow raised. "What?"

"You realize I can't keep covering for you whenever you run off, right?" she sounded worried now, her expression darkening as we reached the lifts, those in the elevator clearing quickly so that only we would be heading down. "Could you try and make it for the reports, at least? Master isn't..." She took a deep breath to steady herself. I tried to place an awkward hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off, her face serious. "He isn't here to keep them off your back about your behavior. You saw the Purge. Anyone they don't feel can cut it, or make trouble..."

"I know; I was there," I said darkly, thinking back to the chaos of the night when the organization that had taken us in as children had changed forever. Iris and I still hadn't been cleared as active, and were stuck in the base's infirmary. Of course, that hadn't stopped me from checking what all the screaming was about, or from killing the renegade Trapper that had tried to take shelter there and had attacked us.

I hadn't known him, and I'd never bothered trying to put a name to the face, one of the Second Generation Trappers I suspected, given his age and the level of his skills. He hadn't been expecting the kind of fight I gave him, though, but even after days and the Commander's compliments for defending a wounded comrade, I still had to wonder why exactly he'd chosen to hide there in the first place.

The infirmary had been towards the center of the skyscraper, far away from any exits or paths of escape. Any rank novice could've figured it out. For someone at the Trapper level to make such a mistake would've been...

_'The mission we were sent on where Master fell, the 'lapse of information' over the fact that a full unit of Blood Hounds had been present at our target. That had been strange, too...'_

I let what I realized were more than a little treasonous thoughts fade from mind, as I focused on trying to reassure my friend. Besides, Kasai might not have been as loyal or as fond of Violette as some of the others, but he'd been with the Hand since the beginning. Had fought the White Fang's evil as long as anyone else had, longer even.

But what if his death hadn't just been some accident?...

"Look, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful. I promise," I said after a tense moment, deciding not to share my hidden doubts with her for probably the hundredth time since being discharged. Iris loved the Red Hand. Certainly not as a family, but as a purpose. A way she could show she was no longer the scared orphan hiding under beds so the monsters wouldn't find her.

I could appreciate that easily enough. I wouldn't just take that from her, not without cause anyway.

Thankfully, she seemed to calm down a bit at that, smiling warmly, before her demeanor shifted into one of professional detachment, pulling the large case off her back, and to examine the silenced, semi-automatic sniper rifle contained within. It was a painfully long trip down by elevator, so I chose to do much the same, sliding _Raven Needle _from its sheath to examine the short sword closely for nicks or smudges. Unlikely, as I wasn't _THAT_ lazy.

Another few moments saw the rest of my considerable arsenal checked and double checked on the familiar mental checklist Master had always urged me to keep.

_"Treat your weapons like your best friends, and like any good buddy, they'll never let you down when you need them the most. Remember that."_

With one last look to each other, we unclipped the masks from our belts, and went about affixing them to our faces, the two nearly identical except for mine, which lacked the trademark handprint. True, I wore the symbol proudly on my uniform, but I just didn't see the tactical sense in giving the enemy your face as a target.

"Ready to go to work?" I spoke coldly to Iris as I raised the heavy hood affixed to my armor, now in the low distorted voice that served both to hide the source of the sound and influence my own mindset. A "detachment" Kasai had called it.

"As I'll ever be," she said through her mask, the delicate face hidden beneath a cold alloy front as the lift shuddered to a stop, the doors opening to reveal the late afternoon sun. "Ah, I love my job."

* * *

_"UGH, I **HATE** MY STUPID JOB!"_

I flinched visibly atop my perch as Iris' voice boomed without warning from the comm bead fit snugly in my ear, almost losing my balance as I barely managed to settle myself back on the rooftop of a small barracks a short distance from the silvery wall, usually reserved for guards in between shifts, but not wanting to suffer the long ride up or their commanders chewing them out.

_'Even Frontiersmen can get lazy, it seems,' _I thought regretfully, turning my mask on one of the marching sentries who had noticed my slip, showing him one of my hidden blades with a flick of the wrist that sent him scampering off in short order. _'Gonna be up all night with this.'_

"It's only been an hour," I thumbed the bead gingerly, lowering the volume somewhat as I did so. "You've done worse jobs."

_"At least then I had White Fang to shoot at while I waited, or at least imagine it. Why can't they just show up already!? And that's Strike 1 to you; at least try to follow protocol."_

"And when have I ever cared about that? Not like Locke's around to snoop on us anyway." At least I thought he wasn't. Honestly, I had no idea where the Hand picked up that twisted little AI, but if they certainly weren't going for force of personality. "Anything?"

_"I saw a few dumb kids sneaking peeks at the wall, one of those enormous dog things those Safehold nut jobs brought in which was kinda cool, ooh, and some police dragging folks away, but no. No rogue killers to report. I promise you'd be the first to know."_

With a near audible groan, I peeked back over my shoulder towards where I thought the sniper's nest she had set up in would be, placed neatly atop a small communications tower located next to the lift, which gave a good view of the surrounding area. Blocky buildings and orderly streets in the distance, and little else to gaze at but guardsmen in dull forest greens and browns, none of the silver that would've marked out a Huntsman from the dregs.

_"Cuidranh Caldeuh lmayn. Fydlr cuiht uvv."_

_"Lahdnym Fydlr, nabundehk ymm lmayn."_

Still though, we'd need the view, seeing as said Bastion troopers weren't being too talkative with us, or letting us in on their personal channels. The few attempts we'd made to hack their radio channel only got the occasional grunt mouthing off an all clear, or a short burst of static to signal the same in a protocol language known only to them.

_"Aycdanh Caldeuh, druikrd E sekrd'ja raynt cusadrehk, lralgehk huf..."_

_'And anyone who's worked with them, now that I think about it...'_

I tried to get over that little issue, though I couldn't help but feel my back start tingling on and off, an old reflex that hadn't left even after... Well, it still set me on edge, in any case.

No matter. While not exactly possessing a marksman's steady attitude, Iris was still quite possibly one of the best sharpshooters in the Hand, certainly the star in our growing Generation. A bit talkative she might be, but with her providing over watch, I was about as safe as I could ever trust on being in the field. Even if I had to deal with the occasional snarky comeback every now and then.

_'These are Trappers, though? No telling what they might pull.'_

You'd think with similar training I might have some idea to go off of. Only problem was we were so damn individualistic, and often crazy to begin with, that it made it almost impossible to look for a pattern. At least the White Fang was predictable for the most part. Insert the biggest concentration of wealthy Human business owners, and they practically flocked like bees to honey.

_'Maybe if we had some White Fang chained up... Nah, that's stupid…'_

Of course, even Bastion itself wasn't making this easy, our little posting consisting of a dozen guards forming six separate patrols. not including myself or Iris, patrolling a small area of wide-spaced buildings consisting of the barracks I stood upon, a storage area, holding cells for miscreants looking to tag the structure, which, while a rarity, was still punished severely for even the thought.

That was easy enough to monitor while moving from roof to roof every so often. It was the few dozen yards of fabricated silvery barricades spaced in rows that caught the fading light off the wall. An extra benefit to defend against any Grimm that might get this far, but at the moment it made looking anywhere close to that direction, a test in eye watering patience, even with my mask's visor stopping the worst of it, easily serving to hide an approaching enemy's movements.

Hopefully, that would fade once the sun fell behind the wall. Then it was a night game. My favorite kind.

_"You... You've heard the stories, right?" _her voice crackled over the receiver once again, calmer this time, but with a hint of hesitation I was only able to pick out by virtue of knowing her as long as I had._"The one's they tell about Ambrose?"_

"Which ones?" I said after a moment, realizing that keeping her busy was probably my best chance at avoiding having my eardrums ruptured again. "The ones where he supposedly can't die, even after getting impaled through the heart, or the ones saying he killed two dozen Trappers with his hands tied behind his back? Most of its bullshit, Iris; just stories."

_"But what if..."_

"Don't let them get to you. It's all just stories the grunts throw together when Trappers aren't looking. Its why they think we all eat Faunus hearts to gain our augments."

Heard that one a few months before either of us had known about the surgeries which would convert regular humans from Trapper recruits into soldiers capable of hearing a pin drop from a dozen yards away, and react like a bullet to any threat as quick as a Faunus. My partner had been sick for weeks just thinking about it, loading her plate with beef hearts and the like to try and work through the taste.

The poor bastard that had to explain the true process got such a talking to... Of course, I'd always wondered what it had been like to go through the surgeries. Kasai had covered for me after figuring out about what I was. Even helped me to fake my way through for the higher ups. Iris had been... The changes had hit her harder than most, and lying to her about my own "experiences" to help her through the muscle pains and bleeding had never sat well with me.

_"You realize he'd still have to be pretty strong, or smart enough to earn a reputation like that in the first place, right?"_ she spoke up again, sounding bashful this time, obviously still smarting from that little mistake that I'd never let her live down. _"And what about Briar? If she's anything like her brother, then...'_

"If she were anything like her brother, they'd have sent a hell of a lot more than just you, me, and the greenies down here. She's a sneak, as far as I know, so if she's coming, then chances are she's already... Iris, when was the last time you saw a patrol, anyway?"

My fellow Trapper seemed taken aback by the sudden shift in my tone, but realized a moment later what I meant. The momentary silence that followed was likely her checking through the scope of her rifle frantically. Meanwhile, I was searching about for any sign of green plate in the dying light of the evening, seeing nothing but empty concrete paths beneath me, and dark unlit buildings.

_'Oh shit.' _The tingling was back now, way worse this time.

_"I saw the one you spooked a minute ago round a corner. What happened to him?"_

I nodded, sending my own hand signal to Iris to cut radio communication while I moved. No reason to give an enemy any clues if they were listening in.

Leaping down from my perch silently, I made my way along the same path I'd seen the trooper take before, doing my best to meld into the shadows. Rounding the corner of the next building over, I was met with the sight of the trooper leaning with his back to me against the wall casually in the shadow of the lip of the building's roof, rifle hanging at his side within reach. Problem was he wasn't wearing the helmet I'd seen him in before.

Instant red flags went off in my head, my hand straying for _Needle's _hilt to bare the blade a few short inches. "Trooper, what are you doing?" I said warningly, looking for any sign of surprise at my sudden appearance, yet still he didn't react, even as I began to reach towards him with a gloved hand. "Troop...!?"

The moment I put pressure on his back, the man slumped forward limply, turning to reveal a nasty bruise across his forehead, and his arm tied by the strap of his rifle to an insulation pipe, which I guessed had been meant to help hold him up. He was still breathing, judging from the steady rise and fall of his chest, though whatever had hit him had hit him hard and fast.

_"Etho, movement up top! I can't..."_

Iris' warning, and the slightest rustle of cloth on concrete above, saved my ass, setting me ducking forward just as a large figure crashed down from the rooftops, landing directly where I'd been standing only moments before. I shifted around, but he wasn't done, honed reflex allowing me to crane my head back, and avoid the stabbing head of a blue and silver staff that struck like a bullet, and passed mere centimeters from my masked face.

"Ugh!"

In full panic mode, I batted the weapon away, and somersaulted backwards to fall back into a low crouch, sword bared before me as the would be assailant straightened to his full height, towering over me as he brought a probing hand to the matte grey armor he wore, rolling his shoulders, seeming almost annoyed with himself.

The motions were familiar, a soul fighting in unfamiliar weight for the first time, meaning the armor was probably new. Strangely enough, it resembled a lightly armored variant of the standard kit supplied to Trapper agents... Well, aside from the color and make of the some of the alloys dotting the fatigues appearing different from my own. What confused me, however, was the storm blue spots of fresh spray paint splattered over his heart, wrist guards, and his left shoulder plate, almost like they were covering something. Maybe a former emblem.

_'Well, no doubt who this is then.'_ Even if he was wearing a plain faced mask similar to my own, the strange white hair, the staff he held, and height were all unmistakable. _'Joel Ambrose. The so-called 'Immortal,' himself. Crap.'_

"Good reflexes..." Ambrose said, managing sound genuinely impressed even, through the distortion of his mask, as he looked me over. "Meant to finish you off with that one. Third Generation, then? What's your name?"

I didn't bother responding. Who would? Instead, I did the smart thing and brought my free hand up, shifting my finger to a small firing pin at my wrist, shooting off a dart tipped in toxin in a hiss of compressed air, which caught the traitor off guard, though he was still able to knock it away with a jerk of his staff to splatter harmlessly against the wall.

"Okay, not a talker then...!"

Thing is it hadn't been meant to hit. It likely wouldn't have even penetrated his Aura if it had. What it did do was distract him long enough for me to get in close with natural speed supplied from my... unique circumstances, catching him off guard again, and putting him back a few feet so he was in open ground, where... No.

_"I can take the shot, just let me...!"_

"Don't! I can handle this. Just stay low, and only join in if you have to!" I grumbled into the speaker so Ambrose wouldn't catch it, only to hear a grumble across the line, but thankfully nothing to signal dissent.

This was tactics, plain and simple. Ambrose had left with at least Briar and some other unknown force, likely more deserters. Unless he was brave and utterly stupid enough to attempt this on his own, revealing my partner's position would only be a bad move in the long run...

_'Why? Why couldn't he have hit the other postings!?'_

I kept up a steady, relentless attack, darting in and out of his defenses from every angle and side I could manage, feinting in before shifting to attack from somewhere else, keeping him off guard. He tried to respond, throwing his staff and every part of his body into his counter attack, though it must've been like fighting a shadow or a ghost, as my body seemed to shift in the fading light, always just out of reach.

_'Typical. 'Ghost.' A silly nickname, Vergil, but I have to admit it fits.'_

Apparently getting a nickname from the Commander's personal lapdog was supposed to be some sort of honor reserved for a select few. Well, fat lot of good it did for me now against someone with one like this man's title.

_'The 'Immortal,' that's encouraging to go up against in a fight.'_

He was good. _Really_ good, and a lot stronger than I was physically. He got over his surprise quickly, and began to read my movements now. His weapon was actually making contact with mine now, on the attack and knocking away every sword strike and stab from the obvious weapon with enough force to almost knock the blade from my hand. That was at least until a hidden blade from my opposite wrist almost caught him in the side of the head, clipping a few pale hairs as it passed by, followed up by a swipe from my sword that caught sparks across his armor, though didn't penetrate deeply due to his Aura and the nature of the material.

_'That's not steel... It's Bastion silver.' _That this bastard had gotten hold of something like this was irrelevant. All it meant was I had to change my tactics, and avoid the darker patches on his person. _'I'm still faster. I can do this.'_

There was a reason the Trappers had kept me around despite my less than stellar work ethic, a fact even they couldn't deny. I was strong, cold, and simple, and this was merely another target I had to deal with.

_'I can do this!'_

The Trapper reeled back, staff held in front of him while I pressed my advantage, bringing my sword striking forward... only to realize my mistake as the staff split apart with a whirring of gears and shifting metal, forming two daggers connected by a silvery wire, one that I suddenly found wrapped tightly around my outstretched arm, the Trapper shifting into my guard.

With a yelp of surprise, and a grunt of effort from the other warrior, I found myself pulled painfully by the arm, and thrown hard into a bone-rattling crush against the wall, stunning me for a brief moment with a sharp knee to my side that rattled my ribs, before I was lifted from my feet and over his shoulder, hitting the ground hard. I coughed harshly, with the air knocked from my lungs, and _Needle _skittering away along the ground, arm held awkwardly, while Ambrose twisted into a crouch above me.

"Sorry, this was fun, but I'm on a bit of a schedule. This will only hurt for a second." His body began to glow a brilliant blue, and suddenly I could smell ozone on the air. I felt my arm tingling uncomfortably, and knew exactly what was coming... _AND_ how to avoid it.

"Not yet, traitor!" I growled, the former Trapper hesitating just long enough to allow me to draw upon my own Semblance in full, my arm glowing a pale grey as it seemed to shift through the steel, freeing the appendage as the metal sparked with impotent static that still raised the hairs underneath my armor, and at the back of my neck.

"What the...!?" He gazed dumbstruck at the line for a moment, as I brought both hidden blades to bear and rolled into a leaping crouch, intent on driving both steel edges into his chest with all the strength my Aura could muster.

It should've worked. Probably would have, too, if the sharp repeating crack of a heavy firearm going off hadn't forced me to draw upon it again, and shift through my surprised opponent to avoid the large caliber bullets that ripped a hefty chunk out of the building behind me.

"What the fuck is with this guy!?" I took a millisecond to register through the intense shock of having to use my ability in such quick succession, before another form stepped from the shadows in heavily plated gear, this time all too similar to what I was used to. She was topped by a head of red-streaked blonde hair that glimmered like fire. "What? Not gonna do it again? C'mon, I wanna see it!" she taunted, leveling what I now saw was a massive spear of some kind, that had split down the middle to reveal a smoking barrel.

_'Who the hell is that!?'_

"Took you long enough!" Ambrose called out, still clutching at his chest in disbelief. Guess my Semblance was something new to him. "Don't...!"

"I just saved your ass, so shut up or get up! Now where were we, Spooky?" She cocked her masked face, the grin almost visible beneath the façade, her finger teasing the trigger on the handle of her weapon.

I tried to move, to get to cover, or maybe use my Semblance again, but my body wasn't responding how I wanted it to, still too disoriented to do more than glare back at her defiantly from underneath my hood.

I'm damn glad I did. It gave me a great front row viewing as she was suddenly blasted back, as a Dust round smashed against her shoulder with the force of a cannon round, somehow not exactly piercing her Aura, but more than enough to send her stumbling behind the cover of the building she'd just cleared, swearing as her head swiveled frantically looking for the source. Ambrose was doing much of the same.

"Sniper!"

"No shit, I fucking noticed! _Gah_!" Well, at least they didn't seem to friendly towards one another. I could use that.

_"Sorry, bitch was practically asking for it. Couldn't resist." _Iris rattled off coldly, adopting the cold attitude one might have expected now she'd fired the first shot, _"Do your thing, though I'm going to shoot if I get the chance. No complaints?"_

Huh... Two on one. The new woman was already getting to her feet, rolling her shoulder with a wincing grunt, and spewing out words that would've made a sailor proud. Ambrose, on the other hand, was watching me carefully now from behind his own cover, his weapon compressed into a short baton or club now hanging off his belt. They were also both positively glowing with Aura, enough to make it clear they weren't happy.

"Nah. No complaints here."

I thumbed my belt for a smoke pellet, and threw it to the ground in a sudden blast of warm, steaming mist that coated the area, obscuring me from any sensors their masks might've possessed though. Of course, I didn't need them.

These two could be stealthy. They'd proved that by getting the drop on me twice. But they didn't have silenced gear that allowed them to move quietly about the mist, meaning my own natural senses could pick them up with painful ease. Of course, having eyes like mine helped to.

"Ambrose is on the move; you know the drill. Keep him in the mist," I hissed as the man darted past me unknowingly, my hand scooping up my sword and giving it a good spin to clear the dust and rubble marring its surface.

_"Copy that, Bird Brain."_

A short crack of displaced masonry and concrete chunks, followed by a short curse and quick footsteps, showed she'd done just that, driving the Traitor back. Meanwhile, I leapt from seemingly out of nowhere behind his partner, sword striking outward, and managing to pierce the other Trapper's copper-colored Aura in a shower of sparks, as steel screeched off the thicker plates of her armor at her lower back, though I did leave a good scrape across her side.

_'Damn. Too shallow.'_

She'd been lucky. Her reflexes had allowed her to shift at the last moment once she felt the knife, and avoid the worst of it, her turning fist outstretched looking to backhand me away. I ducked the wild blow easily enough, leaving another long scratch across her chest piece, which only seemed to fire her up more. With a renewed war cry, she rounded on me fully faster than her size would've had me believe, the spear she bore in her other hand a blur as it thrust outward, in a move that would've impaled me easily if not for my Semblance. My body shifted through the weapon as it passed, allowing me to step into her guard.

"You cocky little...!?"

I grinned despite myself, arm lashing out as the blade shot from my wrist, clipping a few hairs as it passed along the Aura of her neck. She turned at the last moment by a shift in weight, one which I realized too late, as her masked face collided with mine in a vicious head-butt that snapped my head back, and cracked my mask's visor, though I managed to leap back and get some distance before she could do anything more, fading back into the cover of the mists.

"Glimmer, regroup!" Ambrose called from a few yards away, seemingly giving up on his escape as he darted left and right to avoid the oncoming fire, falling back. The fire-haired girl grunted her angry acknowledgement, giving her surroundings one last once over, before leaping away with a bestial snarl.

I was more than happy to let her go, bringing my hand up beneath my mask, and pulling away to find wet blood coating my gloved hand. This feeling, the thrill of facing challenging opponents, where one step out of place, one tiny mistake, would be enough to...

_"He's certainly a quick one. Watch your ass. We got this!" _I grinned at the sentiment, the confidence in her words renewing my own as I set about getting to work on my opponents.

_'I can do this! **I CAN WIN**!'_

I had an idea now of how Ambrose moved. And as for this Gimmer woman, she might be stronger physically, but my Semblance was more than enough to make up the difference. With skill and a bit of luck, I could take her in a straight fight if I hit fast enough, but my preferred method was and always had been fear. Even back when it was just spooking bullies who used to go after Iris for defending me.

I needed to make sure my opponent was off guard, panicking, and unable to respond until the moment I slipped the knife in. From the looks of things, that would be difficult here. Both Trappers had vacated what cover they'd picked up after realizing Iris' bullets weren't coming at this point, standing back-to-back, with Ambrose raising both fists, and his companion flourishing her spear in wide circular patterns in an unsuccessful attempt to try and clear the mists.

They were only a few years older than I was, but I could sense the shared experience between them as clear as I could their Aura. Hell, Ambrose was practically sparking at this point, and had to keep a few inches away from his comrade just to avoid shocking her by mistake. I could even hear Fire Head chuckling to herself, the sound made absolutely demonic by the filter in her mask.

_'They won't spook. Not easily, anyway...' _Fear was a useful, yes, but of course the only thing more vulnerable than a frightened enemy was an angry one, after all.

"He's toying with us," Ambrose spoke up between ragged breaths, as if focused intently on something, his head twitching every so often, looking desperately for some sign of my presence as his Aura pulsed erratically. The other one was doing something similar, if more active, sweeping her weapon in wide arcs, looking for any sign of motion in the roiling, greyish smoke.

It really was amazing what the Red Hand's scientists had managed to do with these two, both perfectly keyed into their environment. They and the rest of the Second Generation seemed barely human, at times. Ironic, really.

"You have any idea who this kid is?" the white haired trapper muttered, though it mattered little, his voice echoing clearly to my senses as if he were standing right beside me.

"Yeah, like I kept a note of every stray Third that the Hand picked up from the kiddie factory!" Fire Head shot back, her mask turning her growing irritation into a low demonic sort of snarl. "Always getting in the way, just like the jumped up kids they are!"

Ooh, taunting. Well two could play at that game.

"Funny, says the one who caught a bullet from one of those 'jumped up kids.' Someone sounds jealous," I crooned, making sure my voice seemed to echo from behind her, getting exactly the reaction I expected. "Not the first of you lot I've killed. Not the going to be the last, I expect."

Enjoying the work was important. The masks we have might hide our features, but we weren't programmed machines, no matter how some of us might act at times. We were killers with a cause, symbols of Man's wish for vengeance, but always with our own motivations. Remembering that difference was paramount, at least that had been what Master had taught me the day I put on my new face.

"Oh, the kid thinks he's scary, does he!?" she screamed incensed, shoving Ambrose aside with her free hand, and ignoring the sudden shock that set her hair on end while she unloaded in a wide wave of explosive rounds, tearing the surrounding area apart. Dimly, I wondered if any of the soldiers were still alright afterwards, wherever they'd been stashed. "Come out and fight like a real Trapper, coward!"

"Glimmer, stop!" the white haired warrior leapt up, shoving her out of the way as one of Iris' rounds tore through the smoke around them in a shot that would've pulped her head if he hadn't acted, the shell ricocheting harmlessly against the side of a building

"I'm sure we both have our own interpretations of what 'fighting like a real Trapper' means," I said mockingly over their whispered arguing, this time placing the voice to their left. The girl struggled to get the large man off of her. I tapped the comm bead once, letting Iris know she'd missed, though it still had been one hell of a shot as she seemed to be going off of muzzle fire alone. "Mine's pretty fun, I must admit. Not so much for you, though."

With a roar, Glimmer kicked Ambrose off her in an Aura-fueled rage, storming off on her own now, though it seemed she'd learned her lesson about firing off blindly. "Come out where I can see you, bastard! Fight!"

_'Easy prey for later. Now the more pressing threat.'_

I tapped the bead again in an attempt to alert Iris to my plan, but no response. I tried again, though there was still nothing. Either she was busy lining up a shot, or...

An explosion echoed suddenly from where I knew her nest sat, the sound gripping my chest in a panicked intake of breath.

_'I have to finish this now!'_

Ambrose was on one knee staring off towards where Glimmer had wandered off, still glowing with Aura, hands poised in front of him, with one held out further than the other in a loose claw. I thought I might have felt something nipping at the back of my neck, a rush of static as the air took on a strange tang.

"Death haunts the shadows, and he knows your name, Ambrose!"

His head twitched at the echoing words, but I was already well away from that spot, skirting through the smoke, examining him like a bird that's spotted a worm. It was almost too easy to mess with him. A few tossed stones and displaced masonry I scooped up had him jumping at every stray sound, every tap. Even the occasional scream of anger Glimmer let out seemed to be setting him off balance.

_'All the easier for me, then...'_

Twenty long seconds and another mist pellet was all it took for me to close the distance, sword poised to strike at the back of his neck. One quick stab to the spinal column, and we would see if the stories were true after all.

Six feet away, my sword was raised to my face, tip down, each step soundless and indistinct from the chaos around us. Three feet, and I could make out the spots of dust in his hair, the bead of sweat dripping down his neck, and his labored breathing. I was standing above him, arm reared back, grinning despite myself, though I couldn't help but feel hesitant, my scar itching again.

_'Die!' _I brought the blade down, only to gape open-mouthed as his hands shot up to clap around my wrists in a vice grip before I could complete the motion, my bones shifting painfully under the pressure. _'Not yet, bastard!' _I drew upon my Semblance once more, and pushed forward through his hands with everything I had, but the delay had given him the time he needed to move, the blade catching deeply across the mask he wore, knocking it loose, but doing little else aside from glancing harmlessly off his shoulder plate and Aura.

Before he could make a grab for me again, I leapt backward, similar as I had minutes before with Glimmer, attempting to get to the safety of my cover, only to catch sight of his now bare face, a wild triumphant smirk sending a shiver down my spine at the sheer sight of it. "Found him!"

A shift of motion on my right exploding from the fog to my right. My arm came up on instinct, in an attempt to block the broad side of the massive spearhead.

Unfortunately, I'd severely underestimated the sheer force behind it, however, as the blow crashed through my arm like a twig, catching me full in the side with enough force to shatter my Aura, and toss me clear of the mist. Dark spots were at the corners of my vision, as I rolled in a heap, trying to gasp for air that was coming in fits and spurts through the filter in my mask, the sky fading into a grim darkness.

I hadn't gone through the trials like Iris had, but I had to wonder if they were something like this. Lighter bones, hollow, that had allowed me to maneuver silently, to one day even have flown through the sky, perhaps. They'd never stood a chance against a blow like that, snapping like tree branches underfoot.

My whole side ached with a sort of numb burn, the sort of pain I hadn't felt since my Aunt clipped my wings years ago. I dimly noted the shadow obscuring the sky, the smell of spent Dust powder on the air.

"Wow, aren't you a delicate one?" Glimmer's voice issued from above me, a heavy boot resting painfully on my already damaged chest cavity, slowly applying more pressure. "And you were talking such a big game earlier. Shame." I struggled for breath, for any bit of air I could, trying to draw upon my Semblance, but I had nothing left.

"Stop it!"

Suddenly I could breathe again, barely. Ambrose had pulled her off of me, whispering a few quickly uttered words to her, before she stormed away, swearing loudly, smashing a nearby air conditioning block into scrap with the heel of her boot.

"She did have a point, you know." He crouched down next to me, blue eyes examining me with a note of concern. "Who are you? You're good. Could probably give a certain ninja I know a run for her money." I grimaced behind my mask, baring my teeth angrily. "Not much of a talker now? You seemed so eager earlier."

"His name's Etho Corvus. Third Generation Trapper from my recruitment group," a new accented voice listed off. Ambrose looked up, hands curled into spark riddled claws, until he relaxed, greeting the newcomer warily. "One of the orphans the Hand picked up during the HHF days. He's specialized in fear tactics and advanced infiltration. One of the best, who was later assigned to Agent Seinaru Kasai, who was recently declared K.I.A. as of a month ago."

"Kasai's dead?... _Shit_." He said it with what sounded like genuine regret in his voice. Who knows? Maybe it was. Master had never really spoken much about his relationships with others in the Hand, except for a marked few. I barely cared, too caught up in the realization of who this new voice belonged to.

"A-Amys?" She was supposed to be dead, a casualty of the Purge, buried in the rubble, according to reports, lost in the fighting. Amys Claret, the only other Trapper in our generation to come close to matching me in infiltration and fear tactics.

_'Of course, that wouldn't be too hard to fake, knowing her.'_

I maneuvered my neck to face the source, despite the fresh spasm of pain it sent rippling down my spine, to see the familiar silver curls framing a blank facemask with a jagged skull carved across it, and across her shoulder, wrapped in brightly colored cloths that wound around both her arms, was...

"Iris!"

"Okay, sniper bitch, I get to put a bullet in you now!" Glimmer was back in all her fiery fury, pausing only as Amys shot her a clear warning look, the ends of the cloths hanging around her seeming to flicker, even in the dim light. "Give me this one, at least! Little shit shot me!" She clapped a fist to her cracked shoulder plate with a dull thud for emphasis.

"Don't you touch her!"

I fought to drag myself up while the girl casually tossed my unconscious friend down in front of her, ready to claw her apart, though I quickly found myself forcefully guided back down to the ground courtesy of one of Joel's hands, keeping me pinned as easily as one might a small child.

"I wouldn't move. You've got multiple fractures, and probably internal bleeding to boot. Aura's holding fast, but until help arrives, you need to stay still," he said in a reassuring voice, or as reassuring as he could be, given the circumstances. "So you're one of Seinaru's, then? I only worked with Kasai a few times, but my mentor Marigold liked him. He seemed a decent man, for a Trapper."

Small talk? With the enemy? Was he insane, or did he think I was just that stupid!?

"S-screw yourself, traitor!" I spat back, only to barely suppress a howl as I felt something in my chest shift with the action. "Ack... Ah! H-he died fighting the White Fang, with... with honor. You don't deserve to even say his name!"

Why, then, did my voice sound so devoid of resolve? My earlier doubt reared its ugly head. Ambrose seemed unconvinced as well, muttering something under his breath I couldn't quite catch, before glancing at Amys again.

"The girl alright?"

"She'll live," she nodded, prodding with her boot at Iris, who groaned weakly, rolling on her side. As much as the situation rankled, I couldn't help the swell of relief at the sound. "We should get moving. Briar, Dai, and the smarter Fullmark have already made their way inside."

Glimmer was almost spitting hot coals at this point through her filter, but he merely nodded once before looking back down at me, looking almost regretful in a way.

"For what it's worth, Corvus, I'm sorry it had to come to this." I said nothing, merely trying my best to compare the man in front of me to the monster the stories made him out to be. Hell, to the monsters standing at his side right now, who he had just stopped from killing me less than a minute before. "If you ever want a rematch, a fair one... Feel free to..."

I enjoyed the sentiment he intended, but his words soon faded into little more than muffled buzzing, as my consciousness quickly slipped away. My last thoughts were of the mercy shown to me, and, strangely enough, me wishing the foolish man luck...

_'Dust knows he'll need it for what's lying ahead...'_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced This Chapter-**

Etho Corvus - Bryce Papenbrook

Iris Brielle - Cherami Leigh

Seinaru Kasai - Kaiji Tang

* * *

**(-Primer-)**

**Cuidranh Caldeuh lmayn. Fydlr cuiht uvv. - **"Southern Section clear. Watch sound off."

**Lahdnym Fydlr, nabundehk ymm lmayn. - ****"**Central Watch, reporting all clear."

**Aycdanh Caldeuh, druikrd E sekrd'ja raynt cusadrehk, lralgehk huf... - **"Eastern Section, thought I might've heard something, checking now..."

* * *

**_A/N: All right, the rare single POV chapter and I hope you all enjoyed it. Starring Etho Corvus the half raven Faunus, Iris Brielle, and in lesser part their mentor Seinaru Kasai. Trapper OCs courtesy of Tech776 that I very much enjoyed putting in the story and might just use again in the future._**

**_I liked the idea of a half Faunus Trapper being presented, the White Fang hasn't just hurt humans after all and Etho has just as much reason to hate them as anyone else judging by the story Tech gave me. Is it recommended being one in an organization sworn to kill a sub set of your people, probably not, but it takes guts to try. Anyway I had fun bringing this lot in and I'd love to do it again sometime in the future._**

**_He put up a damn good fight and as for Iris, Amys is quite literally the worst opponent a sniper can have as will be explained at some point in the next chapter though she tried her best. As for Joel's new gear, I was sort of imagining a more tactical version of Daredevil's season two armor with a bit of plated protection and no horned helmet, least in my mind anyway. Where he picked that up will be addressed next chapter as well._**

**_Now for the biggest announcement, I'm currently working a full time job along with a bit of Summer work on the side to deal with some expenses that came up. As a result until I'm used to this new schedule chapters probably WILL BE DELAYED. I will keep working when I can, but this is going to influence releases for this story and others at least until August. Apologies._**

**_In closing big thanks to all of you, you guys are all awesome._**


	67. Chapter 67

**Edited as of (7/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

CLOSURE

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

**(Hours Earlier)**

"You're sure you want to be stuck with her?" Liz motioned to the opposite end of the central room, where the siblings stood muttering amongst themselves. Glimmer was trying to reassure her brother for the operation, by the looks of it. "There are easier ways to kill yourself."

"Probably. It's for the best, I think."

It had taken a whole two hours of planning, tactical reads, and shouting, before we'd arranged everything into something resembling effective strategy, and not just a batshit crazy idea. Two teams, each moving towards an objective, were assembled. Amys, Glimmer and I would be going in loud and aggressive, as we did our best to draw attention, and, with any luck, take out the power generator in the process. Meanwhile, Liz, Dai, and Jasper would be running quietly on their way towards the top of the wall and the Storm Hawk. If everything went well, the second team would pick up the first, and we would be on our way to Vale before Bastion can mount a proper defense.

Getting the siblings to agree to splitting up had been what had taken so damn long, Jasper especially. He had been saying that they'd work better together, and half thought I was leading them into a trap. Even Liz was unconvinced, and she was the one person I could actually believe was on my side.

_'God, that's sad,' _I wondered as she motioned for me to follow her from the room, the eyes of everyone in the room following us as we went through a set of double doors further into the complex.

The Trapper waited until we were well away from the others, before speaking up. "Don't trust me to watch your back anymore? I apologized for the whole train thing back in the Badlands earlier." Actually, as I recalled, she'd muttered something that vaguely sounded like a cross between an apology, and a choking wretch in between swears while stitching me up. But of course, I let that fact slide. Knowing her as well as I did, I'd have been foolish to expect much else. "Joel, you can't seriously trust these people; none of them! This isn't Beacon. First sign something goes wrong, they'll..."

"Trappers look out for themselves, I remember. Which is why, if they're planning something, anything at all, I'd rather have them where I can keep an eye on them," I said firmly, stunning her into a tense silence with a look as we paused at a short bend, the air starting to chill up a bit, meaning we must've been drawing close to or passing by one of the food storage areas. "Which is also why I need someone I trust on that airship to make sure it sticks around. Plus, I doubt Jasper will be too keen on leaving his sister behind."

She gazed at me for a moment, before nodding, resuming our little march with a small smile across her perfect lips, and an appreciative look in her eye, as if I'd passed some test or fulfilled some expectation. I hated it, having to think like this again, and how easily it all came back, having to put myself and my own interests first at the possible expense of others.

"So Marigold was right. Beacon _hasn't_ ruined you, after all. Not really, anyway."

"I like to think I just know what to expect from you people." That wiped the smirk off her face, and set a sudden twinge in my chest that seemed almost like guilt. "Alright, sorry, that was..."

"Probably completely deserved. Don't bother."

We carried on in silence for a few minutes after that, the only sound being the occasional rustle of her dress, and the echoes of our feet with every step, carrying through the dimly lit halls, Liz having long since discarded the awkward heels she'd worn.

AMBR was difficult at times, but we'd forged a strange sort of trust in our shared experiences over the past few months. We had grown used to covering each other's weaknesses, and promoted one another's strengths. They were my friends. The Fullmark siblings, Dai Jin, Amys, and even Liz to some extent... They weren't comrades. They were means to an end. And the same held true for me, as well...

_'What's worse is she accepts that that's 'normal,' like that's how things are supposed work. Was I really like that?'_

The months at Beacon, with AMBR, Doctor Oobleck, and later Yang, had given me a fair bit of hindsight on the sort of man I used to be only scant months ago. Unfortunately, or perhaps for the best, I'd seemingly distanced myself as time wore on, at least on the surface anyway.

Even now, I could feel the old instincts mocking me, setting the hairs on the back of my neck on end with nervous tension just being around a potential foe. Even her.

"Funnily enough, we actually have a fair bit to work with, gear-wise," she spoke up, breaking the silence without warning, and looking over her shoulder as she led me down one of the service corridors, before stopping at a large steel sliding door leading to one the storage areas littered throughout the facility. It made sense, I supposed. It was easier to defend, I would imagine, if the Hand or anyone else found them holed up in here. "Enough to get out of these rags, anyway."

She grimaced at the torn and bloodstained fatigues I was wearing. "Rags" were a pretty apt description, as it left most of my pale chest exposed from her earlier stitch job on my side. Her own dress was faring little better, the skirt hemmed well past her knees after she'd almost tripped over her own two feet on the way out of the airship when we'd arrived.

"That's a surprise. Thought you lot were trying to keep a low profile," I commented dryly, glaring around at the stone walls as we moved along. Lucas had been surprised by their presence, at least, though knowing him that could've all been some ploy or trick. I doubt he expected this many survivors, or he just didn't care.

"Yep. Dai skimmed off a bit of a supply shipment bound for our... for the _Hand's_ fancy new headquarters. Dust, Huntsman-grade ammunition, and even a few little extras we weren't expecting."

_'Some of those 'little extras' probably went towards blowing up Aegis...'_

I shook my head out as the Trapper beckoned for me to assist her in opening the heavy metal slab Bastion's technical staff considered a door. From the looks of it someone, Glimmer or her brother judging by the sizable dent in the mechanism, had had to crack the thing open manually to get past the lock. Hard enough to take out the automated motors, I supposed.

It took a fair bit of work, and more than a bit of help from our Aura, but we succeeded in hauling the thing open with a keening metallic groan, greeting me with the sight of rows on top of rows of sealed metal crates lining the walls and filling the space.

Thankfully, the sort of gear Liz was thinking of was pretty conspicuous, at least as far as heavy ordinance and scattered bits of military grade gear was considered, so it wasn't as if I had to grow scrounging through individual crates. The gear was front and center, loosely organized between sections of body armor and fatigues, some strewn about randomly, signaling a few scavenging jobs by one or more of the others to repair their gear, and a small workbench littered with Dust vials, paints, and other tools.

"'Fair bit,' huh?" I whistled, moving to the closest workbench to examine the bolt lever of what looked to be a disassembled Vacuoan pattern rifle. "Bit modest, don't you think?"

My former partner in crime shrugged with what almost sounded like a snort of amusement, before underarm tossing a hefty-looking black hard case my way. I caught it easily enough, though I was surprised by the unexpected weight of it.

Upon closer inspection, I noted the small silver lettering displayed across it. A serial number, a name denoting one of the larger forges towards the edges of the city, maker's mark clear as day stamped beneath it. I grimaced, opening up the case with a click to reveal a dark grey-colored bodysuit, similar to those I'd grown accustomed to during my time with as a Trapper. Flame retardant, form-fitting, and layered with a weave of flexible metal and thicker cloth padding to protect vital areas. This particular set, though...

"Is this... Is this_ Bastion-worked silver_?" I felt my chest tighten as I thumbed an exposed section of the metallic weave, instinctively recognizing it as the miraculous resource my people had become known for, refined with a mix of Dust, and worked to stand, lighter and stronger than its more mundane counterpart. Anyone who'd grown up in the city, worked in its forges, would've been able to tell it apart at a touch, if not a glance, despite the usual luster having been artificially darkened to avoid a shine. "What the _hell_ is this supposed to be?"

The words came out fiercer than I'd meant them too, my eyes narrowing as I set the suit aside, piecing through some of the flak plates meant to pair off with it. The signature blood-red emblem of the Red Hand was stamped across just about every piece in some form or fashion, but it was the Crescent Moon of Bastion worked along the inside that drew my gaze.

My people had designed this... My people had _SANCTIONED THIS_!

"Exactly what it looks like, dumbass," the infiltrator sighed, confirming my worst assumptions, pulling a case of her own from the pile. "New armor for a new age. Can't have Trappers running around in obsolete gear, after all, especially not when their new partners can provide something better." I stiffened at that. "Partners." The realization of the day's events finally sunk in, as my knuckles went white with how hard I clutched the material.

_'How... **How** did this happen?!'_

"H-how long.. How long has this been going on?" I asked her, the words stumbling out as if I were afraid of each syllable. "This can't have happened overnight."

"For what it's worth, it happened slowly after you left. Your uncle kept it pretty tight under wraps, moving key players and operations in slowly. I didn't think so much of it at the time. Not until the shooting started, anyway." She shivered slightly, with anger rather than fear. "He had the whole place surrounded. Had Huntsmen looking for anyone fleeing the scene."

So that's what that damaged building had been. Figures he'd take one of the tallest as his hideaway.

I stared at her a moment. Bastion, where I'd been born and raised on stories of honor and heroism, was now in bed with terrorists and murderers. Isolationists had been speaking out against the Kingdom for years, ever since the unification. But to break off relations completely in favor of my uncle's madness?...

_'This could... No. It **WOULD** mean war, if the Hand's new ideals went forward, and the Kingdom's learned of it.'_

And they would. No doubt about that. They weren't completely as naïve as people out here liked to believe. People like Ozpin and Ironwood had shown me that much, at least.

I felt sick to my stomach just looking at that crimson mark, the knowledge of what it meant to the world. The fact that my home, a place steeped in tradition, that lauded our independence, had tied itself to such a dark legacy seemingly so... so _easily_. It defied belief.

"And all this... _This_ was the 'change' you thought Lucas and Vergil were going to bring?" I asked, having difficulty hiding the angry, frustrated tone in my voice.

"...Just shut up and get dressed. You might not like it, but it's the best we have. Feel free to pick around if it doesn't quite fit. We have bits and pieces lying everywhere."

I turned to protest, only to be met with the sight of her bare back and arms. The ragged dress slid limply to the stone floor with the lightest rustle, as my eyes widened in shock at what else it bore.

"L-Liz, what...?"

"Hmm?" She looked around back to me, eyebrow raised in confused mirth as she caught sight of my reaction. "Oh, grow up, Ambrose. It's not like you haven't already seen... Joel?" Her eyes followed mine, mouth twitching as she realized I wasn't embarrassed. More that I was angry. Angry at the prominent length of scarred tissue cutting its way down her back beginning from her shoulder blades. It was still raw, and looked to be barely healed. I'd seen enough wounds and injuries, even sharing a few myself, to know what it must've come from. "Not too pretty, is it? Been lucky so far. Figures the first would be this..."

"_Who_?"

"You know who; who else would it have been!?" My gaze didn't falter, nor did my temper. She just sighed through gritted teeth. "Vergil. Blind bastard caught up to me during the Purge before I could get clear. Bikinis might be a bit of an issue from now on, but hey, I dropped half a building on him. I can't complain."

"Don't joke about this! You shouldn't even be walking with an injury like that!"

She shrugged, slipping her way into the under suit with familiar grace, wincing as the rough fabric met raw flesh. "Oh yeah? Funny, I remember saying the same to you a half dozen times back in the day. After the factory fire, that smuggler's den in Mistral, that damned White Fang monster, and even today when I patched that thing at your side. Well, it was none of my business then, and its none of yours now. Not anymore. Besides, you should be more worried about your shallow, blonde bimbo. What's her name again? Yin? No, Yang. Didn't she put a round in some kid's kneecap? Naughty, naughty."

"Liz, you're in pain; don't hide it! And last time I checked, you didn't know a damned thing about Yang, so..."

"True enough. I don't know her; I just know her type," the Trapper cut me off with a wicked smirk, zipping up the suit, before fastening strips with a few short clicks. "The straightforward, cheerful, exciting young beauty, brimming with hope and enthusiasm. Can see why you took a liking to her, aside from the obvious bits I mean." She mimed puffing out her chest, not acknowledging the sudden static in the air as my fist tightened. "Problem is she's all childish confidence, and little else. It drives her, holds her together. But the second it's shattered..."

"Shut up!" I was glowing with Aura now, sparks running down my arms as a matte black shoulder guard I'd been inspecting folded in my grip with a drawn out crunch like a soda can. Within moments, a Thorn was sitting in her hand. Not poised to throw, but there all the same, her eyes staring at me warily. "I'm not talking about this. Not here, not when we have...!"

"What better time is there, huh? You, me, hell, we might both be dead in a couple hours!" she growled under her breath, knowing full well I could still hear her. "I know what we had is done and dead. I can accept that, believe it or not; I'm not that petty. I just want to know why? Not why you left; I heard that story. I mean why you never..." She faltered, her eyes shimmering in a way I hadn't seen since we'd started this whole thing. Genuine emotion. Her emotion, without the subterfuge or trickery. "...Why you never told me?"

It was that which made me take a deep breath and focus, calming my emotions from a raging storm to a dull throbbing ache at the back of my skull. In moments, the sparks ceased, and my hair fell back into place.

One more deep breath filled my lungs, before it felt safe to speak again. "...I had a lot of time to think in that cell. Hours to remember Lancaster pulling the trigger, wondering how I could've stopped him if I'd just been in my right mind... Days to think back on my escape, and what came after..." Those had been the worst, the times when no amount of exercise, meditation, or sleep would distract me. Hindsight was a cruel thing, indeed, and a poor partner in isolation. "Long enough to realize that night was all just one blur of me, trying my best to get away..."

"So you abandoned me, Master, and Eddy? Abandoned everything you'd fought, killed, and bled over for years, dragging that little whimpering wretch Corbell along for the ride? Did you even stop and think...!?"

"No, I didn't! And I wondered why for weeks afterward, looking for a reason why that was. I still don't have any answer other than I was weak!" I snarled back at her, slamming the now twisted smoking shoulder piece down with enough force to shake the metal table. "We were kids, Liz! We did terrible things to terrible people, had monsters rip us apart, and use our own souls to build us into killing machines, and justified it by thinking we were making some kind of difference! That it was all for our family, our friends, for us... But it _wasn't_. Not really."

"Joel..." she murmured, but the floodgates were open. She'd asked for an answer, and I'd be damned if she wasn't going to get the honest truth.

"I cracked. And yes, I left you behind. A part of me is going to regret that for the rest of my life. It's not fair to you. It's not 'honorable.'" The word tasted sour now, as men like Aero and my uncle had twisted it for their own ends. "But I won't apologize for the choices I've made since then. Beacon, AMBR, Yang... I want to do better,. To _be_ better. Now, I can keep my distance, if that's what you want... But I'd prefer it if we can maybe start over on the right foot this time... Because I still... Because I..." I looked down, unable to meet her gaze.

_'I still care about you, damn it.' _I couldn't deny that, as much as it probably would've been easier to do so. The aftermath and implications hung in the air between us for a short while, the only sounds in the room being the rattle of silver as I made to put on the suit, and the tug of leather and clicks as she finished affixing her plating, and went to tie off a pair of purple cloths to her upper arm and at her waist.

"...Fortuna was right after all... You have changed. I think I'm finally starting to see it," she said with a sad chuckle, giving her chest piece a solid rap, before striding towards the door with a predatory grace. Her wrist guards were loaded, and ready for use in their deadly purpose. "I don't need an apology. I just want to make it clear that the reason I'm doing this, running off to Vale, is because, last I heard, my brother was there. I intend on finding him, and keeping him safe. Ironwood can eat it, for all I care."

I hesitated, but soon answered her with a nod, affixing both of my dispensers and _Storm Circuit_ to the belt at my waist. Meanwhile, Ruby's _Spark _was placed on my left shoulder in a loose scabbard. The armor itself fit like a second skin, though slightly heavier than I remembered, and lacked the hood my previous armor had possessed. To my pleasant surprise, I found that my body was unused to the strain after so long in my school gear. I never wanted to become accustomed to this. Not again.

"Hey..." She paused in the hallway, keeping her face forward. I could tell her shoulders were shaking minutely underneath the armor. "Would you have... Back then, If I'd asked... Forget it." I let the matter drop, not wishing to draw this out any further.

To my shock, however, she answered, clearly, without any sign of what showed on her face. "No... I don't think I would've... Might've killed you myself if you had tried, actually." She left without another word, leaving me alone in the room to think, staring down at the emblems adorning the armor in disgust.

It wasn't closure, but it was a sort of start, at least.

I shook my head ,and started rummaging through the room, through crate after crate, until I found what I was looking for. A half rusted can of industrial spray paint, Dust-infused for long lasting durability.

_'Perfect..._'

* * *

**(Present)**

"So have we got a plan for when we spring the trap, or are we just winging it?" Glimmer said as an aside, cleaning some grime and dust off her spear idly, as the lift trundled and ground its way slowly up the wall. "I mean, I'm fine with either. Just thought I'd ask, if... Oi. Hey, Ambrose, you still with us?"

"Huh?" I glanced up from my painted vambrace to find her staring at me. At least she appeared to be. It was impossible to tell for sure with that mask, but it was a pretty strong feeling. "Right, sorry." My eyes moved about the lift, doing my best to check against my mental map of the wall, and every protocol I could recall. A fair number, seeing as how it was drilled into me for years long before I actually set foot within it. "If the Trappers or anyone else managed to get an alert off, then chances are they'll have each exit on heavy guard."

"Ready to rip apart anything that moves to exit," Amys finished unnecessarily, nodding to herself as she checked the lengths of cloth. Looking more closely at it, I could now see the old stains, small spots of red burned or frozen into the brightly colored fabrics. "Numbers?"

"Dozen or so, I expect, with a Huntsman to lead them. Maybe a few Aegis students for support, if we're unlucky." Chances being we probably were, knowing our luck. The main problem was that the lift would exit into a singular, moderately large corridor, which made it a near-perfect kill zone. "We'll need to break through the line fast if we want pull this off." Longer this took, the more the chance of something going wrong increased. Liz and the others would only be able to hold the airship for so long before they figured out what we were up to.

"So we go in hard and fast, then. Just how I like it. All while hopefully not getting riddled the second we step out. Same question stands, though. Do we have a plan?" Amazing how she seemed to expect me to lead them through this by the hand, especially after her near constant nagging to the contrary earlier. "I mean I'm open to suggestions."

"That must be a first," Amys chuckled, the mask distorting the light giggle into something anything but endearing. Glimmer gave the masked equivalent of a scowl, and advanced on the smaller girl. The other Trapper admirable held her ground with unflinching menace. In fact, it was fast becoming harder and harder to focus on her, as if my eyes actively didn't want any part of her.

It was her Semblance, a powerful one at that, which allowed her to Aura to somehow shift in a way that messed with people's perceptions of her entirely. She could walk right past someone and go completely unnoticed, as long as they weren't actively looking for her at any rate, making her harder to pin down.

_'Must come in handy…'_

Luckily for all of us, I did have something in mind. "I was thinking we take a page from that Corvus kid's book," I spoke up before they could start something, reaching my hand into one of the pouches at my belt to show her the small dull gray pellets within. "He won't mind I think; he did owe us one."

Looting supplies was nothing new to me. The Hand openly encouraged scrounging what you could in a combat situation, and my later interactions with Ben had only strengthened the sentiment. Didn't mean I was completely heartless, though, having placed an anonymous call for a medical team, which by now should be loading up the two unconscious Trappers down below us as we speak.

I heard Glimmer murmur something, which sounded suspiciously close to "Soft cowardly little..." I ignored her, before passing them along to Amys with only minor awkwardness, as I wound up a few inches off the mark from her true position.

"Remember, if it wears green or silver, you don't kill it unless _absolutely_ _necessary_. Understood? Not unless you have to," I repeated firmly to both women as they took a pellet, the infiltrator nodding slowly while the warrior grumbled under her breath, snatching the smoke pellet roughly, before cocking her head. "They're just following orders."

"And if we see Red Hand, or more Trappers? What then?" Fullmark asked, her voice low and menacing, even through the distortion. "We play nice like we did with those kids back there? That's liable to get us killed." I took a brief moment, glancing at the sizable dent Corvus' partner had left in her shoulder plate earlier. A few more inches to the right...

"Like I said..." I turned to face the sliding doors as the lift shuddered to a rocking stop with a clamor that rang through my ears, "...Do what you have to. Just try to keep up."

"Almost sounded like a challenge, Ambrose." The larger woman flexed a muscled arm, hands gripping the haft of her spear with an almost loving tenderness. "Excited?"

I didn't bother gratifying the question with an answer. Not just because I disliked the implication, but because I a small part of me couldn't say she was entirely wrong.

* * *

**_-Michelle Aldrich-_**

It was a tense scene, standing there amidst the whispers of anxious guardsmen while the clamor of heavy boots rang through the space as they jostled for positions along the long corridor. Some wiped at sweaty brows, while others were checking their rifles and the comforting weight of the VA blades at their belts out of nervous habit.

I couldn't rightly blame them for their behavior. As soon as it had become apparent that ours would be the floor Ambrose and his compatriots were exiting on, the general call had been put out, and our positions had been "reassigned" to the purview of the Red Hand and its taciturn commander, a gaunt faced man who even now was marching about the space shouting insults and slurs at every opportunity, while his dark-armored, faceless troopers bullied their way to the most secure positions along the entryway, seating themselves in ridged alcoves while our people did their best to think small.

These "soldiers" were an absolute nightmare. Undisciplined, rude, and, unless they had a superior, or, Dust forbid, one of those Trapper beasts lurking around, almost laughably defiant of conventional command structure. One had even thought it wise to try and flirt with me, of all things, flashing a crooked smile that had taken all of my training not to cave in with a gauntleted fist. Their commander had even allowed it, merely giving a light reprimand, before sending him back smirking towards his fellows, all while acting as I'd been the one to incite it.

_'Inability doesn't stop them from wanting all the glory for themselves, no doubt.' _I frowned sourly, tucking a curly lock of my short, chocolate brown hair over my ear before I could stop myself, my mood only worsening at the lapse in poise. _'Damn it, even I'm feeling it now!'_

I couldn't show weakness. I was a Huntress-in-training; a student of Aegis! Of the more than two dozen men manning this post, ten were loyal sons and daughters of Bastion, not including myself and Huntsman Fenwick, who, by all rights, should've held command of the situation. We needed to present a strong front.

It was bad enough that these thugs and their captain were asserting themselves as if they were Rowan's chosen elite reborn. And as they were considered the new Headmaster's personal troops, they had the clout to pull it off. I'd already had to step in to prevent a few near fights from breaking out between the two camps, and it had only been ten minutes since they'd wormed their way out of whatever den they'd been skulking in.

_'This doesn't bode well...'_

"Sir, forgive me, but can't you do anything about these... these...?" I spoke up to Fenwick as the large worn faced man ran a platemailed hand along one of the thick Dust-coated spikes adorning the head of his two-handed mace, words failing me as I noticed the rogue leering at me again from his position towards the front. An unwanted heat warmed my face, along with a scowl of disgust. "They can't just be allowed push us around like this!"

"Sorry to say, Aldrich, but the Captain of the Guard gave specific instructions stating that all matters related to Ambrose and his ilk are the purview of the Reds, regardless of how things _should _be done." He shot a venomous storm blue eye at the Red Hand Captain, who'd just finished chewing out a Frontiersman for some imagined, or trumped up offense, no doubt. "They don't have the stomach to get rid of us, spineless _vuumc,_ so they'll do their best to throw their weight around in the meantime, and shame us before the other cities' Hunters." He almost spat the words, trailing off as he marked a small imperfection along the spike with a frown. "Honestly, all this trouble for one whelp, even if he is the Demon's grandson..." He let loose a stream of harshly muttered expletives that on any other day would've had me questioning how such an old language could have room for so many words to describe one part of the body, yet I was too wrapped up in my own head to notice.

_'Joel Ambrose...'_

Just the name sent a visible shiver down my spine, and not just because of the story going around that he'd attacked his own uncle in some mad fury born of misplaced grief, before damaging Aegis Academy itself with stolen explosives. What madness could've lead any son of Bastion to do such a thing?

_'Something about him never sat right with me. If only...'_

"Something on your mind?" Fenwick got to his feet, shouldering the impressive weapon as he glared down at me concerned. "You were familiar with our Huntsman, yes?"

I shifted uncomfortably under the gaze, thinking back to the day when we were admitted to Aegis. Joel Ambrose had been the name the Headmaster had called after my own. The whispers and comments in that moment had been almost audible. I could still remember looking at the little runt of a boy striding onto the stage behind me, blushing and gleaming with pride, recalled my bewilderment that such a person had survived the initiation, and, to my shame, the bets we'd made on how long he'd last afterwards under the academy's harsh curriculum. His father had barely finished out the first year before he'd been forced to leave. I'd wagered on three months, tops.

"_Hud naymmo, _We were classmates. Hardly friends." True enough, I'd must've hardly said more than a handful of words to my fellow Huntsman through the two and a half years I'd studied alongside him, and the usual competitiveness the teachers had encouraged didn't exactly go a long way towards mending that. "He's skilled, I can say that much. And determined. Frighteningly so."

One of our first unarmed combat instructors had taken offense to something his esteemed Grandfather had committed, and had taken it out on the young teenager, setting him up against the biggest and nastiest of his student aids. The first day had seen the runt bruised and bloodied on the ground. So had the next day, and the one after that. Each time, his Aura would heal the worst of it, and each time Ambrose would learn, watch, and adapt.

By the end of the week, he no longer had to be carried out on a stretcher. By the end of the second, his opponent had taken his place. Aura and Dust application he might have struggled with, but he was a rare talent in anything related to combat. Always reading, copying, and applying everything he learned... I'd seen him at it once, out of a window, down in one of the training areas, practicing with a wooden dummy again, and again, until his knuckles bled. Distaste had become a grudging competitive respect. He'd just vanished one day after the tragedy that had befallen his parents, along with that Corbell girl he'd been so friendly with.

_'A shame. If he'd managed to complete his training...'_

"That seems to be a common trait in his line," Fenwick nodded, but the sudden loud buzzer signaling the coming arrival of the lift snapped us both into action. I snatched up _Maiden's Bite_ from the far wall, shifting the silver-plated halberd into an automatic rifle that fit snugly in the crook of my arm. "_Dyga ouin bmylac!_"

With near mechanical precision, every Frontiersman's rifle was up and trained on the double sliding doors, the red-lighted siren blinking above incessantly. throwing the entire corridor into shades of pulsing crimson. The Red Hand thugs swiftly followed at the angry behest of their Captain, the man holding a pistol in one hand, and a thin cutlass in the other, a manic, yellow-teethed smile crossing his face. "Fire the instant that door opens! For the Red Hand!"

"_FOR THE RED HAND_!" his men echoed back. Meanwhile, our men looked to Fenwick for reassurance, a hesitant nod the only suitable answer as I took position as well. There was no glory in this. No honor in gunning down a former kinsman like a Grimm taken unawares. But we had our orders.

The siren ceased with a strange finality seconds later, before the light flashed green, as the doors opened. At that moment, all hell broke loose.

"_FIRE_!"

_"VENA!"_

And we did. Nearly two dozen firearms went off all at once, in a near defining staccato. From the measured short bursts and cracks of our men's rifles, to the full automatic sweep of the Red Hand's troops. The sheer volume of fire hitting the doors sent up a sea sparks, as Dust-tipped rounds tore through the secured steel doors after a few moments, chewing them apart with a grinding noise that set my teeth on end.

We ceased after nearly seven seconds of sustained fire. More than enough time for my Aura enhanced senses to be ringing in my skull, and for what was left of the doors to fall in on themselves, a piece of one still attempting to retreat, only to grind against the intake in vain. The interior seemed like some madman's attempt at art, as scorched gouges and tears warped the metal within.

To the surprise of all involved, however, there was none of the gore or viscera one would have expected from a body, even that of a Huntsman with Aura, that had been caught in the cross fire. No sign that anyone had been in the lift at all.

A sense nagged at the back of my mind... _'Something's wrong...'_

Perhaps Ambrose had taken another lift, and set this one as a decoy? I suppose he could've taken one of the service entrances inside, but that would put him at the base of the wall, and any entrance there was even more heavily reinforced. Not to mention the only place to go would be the Grimm infested forests beyond. That was near suicide, even for a prepared Huntsman.

_'Somehow, I don't believe he's **that** desperate.'_

The Red Hand Captain must've had a similar notion, as he ordered his men, the flirty rogue included, to advance on the lift, rifles held at the ready. They moved slowly, our own men trailing to follow, as some drew blades warily with the hiss of compressed air. The flirt reached the lift first, and peeked in on both sides warily, weapon at the ready...

"...I don't see... _Gek_!?" He was cut off with a strangled yelp, as something colorful wrapped around his windpipe with the speed of a Taijitsu, and yanked him within and upwards, followed by a rushing hiss as grayish smoke rushed from the lift's depths with the speed of a billowing tidal wave, obscuring those further down the corridor entirely, and sending the whole force into a coughing state of disorder as it passed by me, smelling absolutely foul. What's more, I caught sight of shadowy figures exiting from the lift before their movements were consumed by the smoke.

A shout quickly ripped from my throat. "Contacts!" Others had seen it too, as panicked shouts rose up with renewed hails of gunfire flashing through the mist before me, Fenwick leading me in as he roared for a ceasefire. It was absolutely necessary, as the smoke was so thick at the source. The only thing the frightened men were going to hit, at this rate, would be each other.

Only a few listened, however, most, which I assumed to be Red Hand, keeping up the assault regardless, even going so far as to turn and fire on the source of our voices, if the sudden sparks near my position that set me reeling back was any indication. What sent a true trill of fear down my spine, however, was that the muzzle flashes I could still see were vanishing fast one after the other mid burst, as if the shadows themselves were dragging them into itself, with only startled shouts to mark their passing.

"Stay close, Aldrich... Michelle, stay close; they're coming!" Fenwick cried out, the sound of my name breaking my slight panic, and setting me into action. My halberd extended outward to ward off any attacker.

"Cease fire, you fools! Cease...!?" I saw the captain, waving his sword around madly at the fog as it seemed to close in, firing his pistol wildly in all directions, until... Something, or someone, large barreled into him, not unlike a charging Ursa, silencing his cries with a wet gurgle, followed by a laugh that chilled me to the bone, and set my heart pounding in my ears.

Some of the troops had thrown down their weapons trying to flee, thankfully none of ours from what I could tell, only to cry out the same as all the others, as our enemy sought them out mercilessly.

"_They run, they flee, with no place to hide..." _a distorted voice, dripping with malice, echoed around us. A form burst from the mist right in front of me, which almost stopped my heart, even as I brought my halberd down, freezing once I realized it was one of the Red Hand Troopers trying to get away. Despite the pause, I was still forced to knock him out with the butte of my weapon before he could finish bringing his rifle to bear, or he likely would have shot me in his panic.

_"The Trapper's come for you worms! Haha!"_

The laughter was awful, echoing in my ears, in my mind, distracting me just long enough to almost catch me off guard. My weapon was barely able to rise in time to stop the crushing blow of a blue and silver colored staff that almost took me in the side of the skull. I struggled, almost managing to turn the blow aside, before a flash of blue radiated through my vision, and my whole body fell back to the floor, numb and shaking, the air driven from my chest, and a sudden burning scent of singed hair in my nostrils.

_'What the...!?'_

Ingrained training kicked in as I tried to right myself, succeeding only in being able to glance up at the towering figure with stark white hair and shining blue eyes above me in dark grey armor, practically glowing with a storm blue energy that set the hair of my arms on end, and seemed to crackle through the air, even as he jerked to the side to avoid a bright burst of weapons fire. He answered with a dagger drawn from his belt almost reflexively, and hurling the glinting weapon with pinpoint accuracy at the source. It must have struck true, as a pained cry rose up to greet him. How he'd managed to track his attacker in this dim area, I had no idea.

_'Joel...?'_

The contrast from my memory was palpable. The young man who'd tried so hard, who'd brimmed with pride after besting his opponents on the training field, was so different in comparison with the warrior before me, who had a determined, almost mad gleam in his eyes as he engaged Fenwick, all with a manic grin on his face, as he somehow managed to duck and swerve to avoid the elder Huntsman's wide sweeping attacks, the old man's probing motions, as he tried his best to get to my side and aid me.

What hurt most was that Fenwick had been winning, too. His blows had picked up speed. However, with his attention only on me, he was unable to notice the fiery cloth catching his neck and Aura from behind, yanking him backwards out of sight before he could do more than blink or mutter a cry. Ambrose registered this for a moment, before noticing me staring back at him. The mad smile then faded into a surprised, almost regretful, grimace that had me frozen in place before I could reach for my fallen weapon.

He murmured something then, what almost sounded like it might've been an apology, before leaping after the entrapped Huntsman A flash of blue light, followed by a pained shout that I recognized as Fenwick's, could be seen in the mist seconds later.

I never knew what it truly was, as the sounds of chaos in the corridor were too overwhelming to make out more than the odd scream or spurt of impotent gunfire. That was where I lay, until I had feeling in my limbs again. I managed to get to my feet as the smoke cleared, only to reveal bodies strewn in various states throughout the corridor. Most were merely unconscious, slumped where they had fallen. Others, all of which I noticed were wearing a red handprint, hadn't been so lucky. The rogue from before was staring blankly back at me from the lift, his neck at an awkward angle from the rest of his body. The mere sight almost had me emptying my stomach.

_'Monsters...' _I thought shakily, finding Fenwick's prone form a few feet away, mercifully still breathing, though unable to be roused. _'**Monsters**!' _I could hear them even now, the weapons fire from our fellows as they advanced further and further away into the depths of the great bastion.

I could've followed after them. It was my duty to follow after them... But the mad look in the boy I had once known's eyes as he'd fought, that brief glimmer of solemn recognition as he'd caught sight of me... It left me frozen. Terrified.

_"THE TRAPPERS COME FOR YOU!"_

-END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Michelle Aldritch - Kara Edwards

Abel Fenwick - R. Bruce Elliot

* * *

**(-Primer-)**

**vuumc - **Fools

**Hud naymmo - **Not really

**Dyga ouin bmylac - **Take you places

**VENA! - **FIRE!

* * *

**_A/N: Alright another chapter down. Probably gonna try and finish up the Bastion Arc in one more chapter if I can, then if things go as planned it's going to be Ben's memory chapter before we kick off the Vale portion in earnest because I know you guys will be wanting to see how that turns out._**

**_Glad to know Etho and the others last chapter turned out how their creator wanted them too, and as always its great to hear other people's thoughts, never actually thought the whole "Trapper" concept would go over as well or go as far as it has. As always if you guys have any ideas feel more than happy to share and I'll see what I can do._**

**_In other news, the new revisions for the Badlands Arc (Ch30-40) are up upon this chapter's release. Not a lot of meaty changes, just some new characters, POV's especially one for Briar's intro, and some grammar work that I'm sure I still couldn't completely fix. It's still in flux and I won't be surprised to see more changes as things go forward._**

**_Namely the biggest new character is an Atlesian Specialist named Dorian Altrosa who's been assigned as the lead for a full 4-person team now set to accompany them along with Bill._**

**_Sorry these are taking longer and longer to come out, just to clarify for those that have been asking, at the moment I'm trying to keep a back log of at least two chapters to account for work and such and will be waiting until I at least have that much before moving forward (Ben's got a lot of history turns out, 11,000 words worth that might be split into 2 chapters though I doubt it). Once I adjust to the new schedule things should improve but for the rest of the summer I'll likely need to be more focused on getting thing in order._**

**_To those of you that read Fate/Beacon, my other story I know I haven't posted for that in a while, ideas just aren't flowing as easily as they are here. Trying to change that but it's slow going._**

**_Enjoy and a happy RTX 2016 to all attending!_**


	68. Chapter 68

**Edited as of (7/24/16)**

**PB: Da-Awesom-One**

BLIND SLAUGHTER

**_-Elizabeth Briar-_**

"So what's the deal? Between you and Ambrose, I mean?"

I paused at those words, while the hapless bitch who's neck I had my arms around, actually thinking she had a chance, tried to elbow me off her. I put a stop to that with a twist and a short lived crack, using the still twitching Red Hand trooper's corpse as a meat shield to take a few shots, before tossing the riddled sap at some poor kid in green.

I'd promised Joel not to kill, or unduly harm, any Frontiersmen if it could be avoided, and was certainly doing a much better job than my fellow infiltrator, who seemed to think merely crippling his opponents, rather than outright murdering them, was being overly generous. Still, I couldn't help but roll my shoulders, as the near constant ache on my back set my teeth on edge, despite the mental barriers I'd erected to keep it at bay.

_'Keep your center. Keep the pain separate. Keep your center, keep the pain...'_

My mantra was punctuated by a sickening squelch echoing from over my shoulder. Jasper Fullmark pulled his _Furioso _from the bulkhead, leaving a fresh new crimson smear across the dull grey surface. "I mean, I knew you two were banging, but that's in the past, right? Not judging, but...!"

A Thorn found itself hurtling just a _shy_ bit to the left of his head, finding its place in the wrist of a larger Bastion soldier trying to sneak up on the Trapper from behind. It exploded in a shower of pink-tinged ice, that stuck his limb to the wall.

_'Shit... I missed.'_

To his credit, the man didn't scream in the second it took Jasper to casually drive a mailed fist into his face, setting him slumping against the wall limply.

"If you have time to be gossiping..." I said, stomping on the hand of a not-so-clever grunt who'd been feigning unconsciousness and had been trying to go for his rifle, crunching the delicate bones into dust, before silencing him with an axe kick to the head that dented the floor with his face. "Then you have time to _PAY ATTENTION_! Danger can come from anywhere, and anyone, after all!"

The Fullmark bowed his head, rubbing at his shoulder plate awkwardly. Finding him sufficiently cowed, I peered down the hall towards the magnetically sealed shutters barring us from our goal, and our final team member, who was sitting cross legged with a groaning body as a chair, feverishly picking at some loose wiring.

"How's it looking?"

"Almost got it, and... Ah ha! There we go!" Dai shouted back, flinching as the door creaked open with a loud whine that no doubt set his new senses on end. A month or two, and he'd be right as rain. Shame all this had to cut into his recovery.

He really was an amazing kid, though. A real talent with tech and explosives. Despite this, I'd had no shame in admitting that I had doubted the usefulness of such skills in a head on assault, and had, admittedly, found myself pleasantly surprised.

His hand-to-hand was sloppy, but usually more than enough to deal with the odd soldier. He was, shockingly, brutal in his execution for the most part, preferring to duck and weave his way around foes, before delivering a nice sharp blow to any weak spots he noticed with the dull black steel lined briefcase he'd been carting along with him. His "toy box," as he put it. Whatever it was he was carting around, it was certainly enough to break bones and shatter vertebrae.

The real saving grace was his Semblance, however. It was a relief, as it meant neither Jasper nor I had needed to struggle to remember the winding paths and corridors that made up the wall. Jin's Semblance allowed him to trace his Aura outwards through objects, and determine their structure and layout, which was useful for finding weak points in defenses or secret paths. Apparently, it made demolitions a breeze, and made navigating a maze like this much easier, as he could effectively determine the quickest path to our goal after only a minute or two of inane mumbling, as he ran a lazy palm along the floor.

"Good work." I gave him a light brush across the shoulder blades as I strode out along the top of the wall, breathing in the fresh air through my mask with a sigh of audible relief. Rowan's Bastion was a remarkable achievement for mankind, a wonder of engineering and determination.

_'It's also cramped, hot, and loud at the best of times.' _It also made communicating with Joel's team a mess. The signal in our masks were unable to cut through whatever the damn thing was made of. _'Probably why this lot depends on such archaic signals.'_

I basked in the shadow of the large silver plated weapon emplacement that overshadowed everything, artillery that, even now, stood poised to take down anything that dared come close to the city, just as its fellows were.

_'We'll need to deal with that before we ship out...'_

Of course, someone had to go and fire off a few rounds at me, ruining my good mood. The offender got a Thorn to the kneecap, I made sure of that. I then raced forward with Aura-enhanced speed to reach his startled form, twisting his arm out of its socket, before planting an Aura-fueled kick into his black-armored fellow, hurtling him back so far, he sailed over the safety railing, and fell into the netting that lined the edges of the wall, leaving the annoyance for me to deal with _intimately_.

Still, my flier was one of the lucky ones, as the sound of warping plaster and metal signaled that Jasper had used one of his maul's features, jamming a Dust crystal from his belt into the engine affixed to the side of his weapon, before driving it to the ground, the rocket generator creating an explosion of pure force that sent a half dozen souls flying as if gravity had become a non-factor. Half of which missed the nets, if the distant screams were any indication.

I merely shook my head, and worked on putting the heavily muscled artillery crew to sleep. The men actually put up a decent fight, bulky and well muscled as they were, though they were exhausted. Likely from the rapid loading process their weapon of war demanded. Easy targets, though I could respect their attempt, fruitless as it was.

Within short order, we'd cleared the deck, the two of us managing to overpower the Huntress leading the defense through the sheer overwhelming force only two Trappers could inflict, whittling away her efforts under a barrage of Dust and Jasper's blows. Her advanced skill was unable to keep up against an attack from all sides.

The unfortunate woman was now curled up on the deck, too busy using her Aura to stem the blood flowing from a tear in her thigh to focus on stopping us, as we walked forward calmly to examine our prize. Jasper rested _Furioso _on his shoulder, while Dai stuck to the larger man's shadow, muttering to himself as he looked over the deck with distracted abandon.

The Storm Hawk itself certainly wasn't pretty, barely much larger than the standard Bullhead commercial flyer most of the Kingdoms and several organizations employed. If anything, the interior looked to be smaller, the extra space taken up by engines and sloping angles that made the thing seem more like an awkward attempt at a paper airplane, than a vehicle that could do what Joel claimed it could.

"So this is it, then? Sure doesn't look like much..." The large man rapped a hand against the bird voicing my own opinion, likely scowling behind his mask. "We're screwed."

"If you guys had any better idea, you were more than free to share."

The demolitionist's murmuring was starting to get annoying, grating at the edge of my hearing, before he cut off with a short gasp. _'Something must've finally caught his interest.' _Thank Dust for small miracles...

Jasper, on the other hand, lifted his face mask to spit on the ground, shooting me a wry grin. "You kidding? Our 'better idea' was likely to be busting through this damn wall, and live off the land. My sister and I are a bit on the blunt side, if you haven't noticed."

"First step's admitting it, I suppose." I walked around the length of the craft, running a hand along its surface, before looking back at the various points of exit along the wall. "Gonna be a bitch to hold this point, though... Dai, see if you can't... Dai?" I glanced around searching for our demolition's expert, only to find an empty spot where he'd been standing only a moment before.

Jasper let out a grunt as he picked up on the issue. "Where did he...!?"

The ping of a Dust round ricocheting off the airship's flank, inches from here I'd been holding my hand, wiped all thought of the Third Gen from our minds, as priorities reasserted themselves. At least they didn't seem to be using the lifts, opting instead for hatchways and manhole-like covers, which unfortunately surrounded our position. Good news was that this likely meant Joel's mission had been successful. Bad news, however, was that it didn't really mean shit if they weren't actually here.

_'Leaving the shit job for me... Typical.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"So what's the bet that lot's just sitting up there, drinking cocktails in the warm sun!?" Glimmer's mad distorted laughter punctuated by a wet gurgle, as she speared the dark-armored man she was fighting through the trunk, my mouth gritting in sympathy and annoyance as she did so. She lifted him off the ground, and threw his lifeless body towards his fellows. "Jas is probably putting the moves on little Lizzie, as we speak!"

I'd already let her tear apart the generator room with her bare hands as a way to work off stress, and _maybe_ reduce the body count. Of course, it didn't seem to work, though. At least she seemed to have ceased her constant grumbling.

One of them managed to dodge the improvised missile, raising his weapon to fire back at the terrifying murderess. But before I could warn her, before he could even pull the trigger, two delicate hands wrapped around his neck, and twisted it with a snap, like a dry tree branch, dropping him like a puppet with its strings cut. He fell forward, revealing Amys standing over his corpse, her movements gone unnoticed as usual.

_'These two could give Max a run for her money...'_

I shivered, especially after losing sight of the infiltrator again, as her Semblance sprang back to life. I could vaguely determine her position, and that was by grace of my honed senses. My eyes slid away on their own accord at certain points, as if unwilling to acknowledge her presence.

Even so, I still leapt every time she'd just reappear beside me after a fight, whole yards away from where I'd thought she'd been only a moment before. If she did so on purpose, it was impossible to tell, her stoic silence and the skull faced mask hiding any trace of emotion she might have held.

To be sure, trusting only your vision around her was a sure way to end up like a good share of the Red Hand troops we'd met. The surprised looks on their corpse's faces were an easy indication of who had done the deed.

"Who knew the walk up would be harder than breaking the damned thing." She motioned back the way we came, the alarm claxons having ceased wailing with the destruction of the generator, meaning the sounds of heavy footfalls, echoing like drums, were much closer than I was comfortable with.

My eyes scanned the hallway, comparing it to the mental map I had of the structure's interior. _'I know there was one here, somewhere... **There**!'_

I motioned to the other two, catching their attention as I gestured for them to follow. I crouched down near the wall to pull away at some loose paneling, revealing a small maintenance tunnel. The two nodded, Glimmer snorting as her weapon compressed to allow her room to fit. I soon followed them in, giving the hallway one last check, before replacing the panel and putting us all in darkness. Well... darkness for one without the vision enhancing properties the Trapper's masks possessed. As for me, I knew these tunnels, and had spent enough time cleaning them as a recruit to have the layout down to the last rivet.

Of course, I had to turn around and smack headfirst into a new addition, setting Glimmer into a fit of giggles as we worked our way along in the near darkness. You could get pretty far by going this route. Just short of the top, in fact. The only problem was that, with the lifts under powered, and the hallways swarming with angry guardsmen, we'd have to get creative with our options.

Footsteps rang out from up ahead, the three of us exploding into motion in response, as I motioned for the two to take cover and blend, finding my own place in a knot of exposed wiring. The space was small and cramped, but laden with small crevasses and service alcoves, that it made easy to pass unnoticed if you were careful. The small five-man patrol sweeping the tunnels wouldn't have stood a chance of spotting us, even in my brighter armor.

Just before they were upon us, I heard the slight shift of metal, as Glimmer readied her weapon. I quickly signaled to let them pass, her grinding teeth almost giving us away then and there, but she held off pasting the closest soldier to the wall. _Barely_. And soon enough, they were gone, having left further down the pathway, reporting an "all clear."

We seemed to melt from the shadows, the larger Trapper gazing off in the direction the squad had marched, looking somewhat put out. "I had them. Wouldn't have even seen it coming."

"Yeah, and then people would wonder where the team they sent into these tunnels were, and use the hydraulics to close us in," I pointed out, motioning to the small release levers spaced every so often at each doorway, before gesturing for the pair to follow. Amys followed without complaint, though the Fullmark took a second or two of coaxing. "They don't run with the generator, and are built to withstand a Grimm incursion. They're spaced in just about every corridor from top to bottom."

"Well, you seem to know your way around well enough. Place like this, I bet you know a dozen ways around if..."

I cut her off right there. Better to stress the point now, before it came back to bite us in the ass. "I do. And each would take us a mile or _more_ out of our way. Chances are the others have reached the Hawk already. The faster we get to them, the less chance of anything going wrong. That means quickly _AND_ silently. Understood?"

She nodded, though I noticed her hands were twisting and tightening around the compressed haft of her weapon, shaking somewhat. Max tended to act in a similar manner when her blood was up, and the hunt was on. Of course, back then, we'd only have mindless Grimm to worry about.

"Looks like someone grew a pair. Stories didn't mention you were such a..." She shut up at a combined glare from the silver-haired Trapper and I, whistling to herself the whole way, much to our chagrin.

We still made good time, all things considered. We worked our way up ladders and winding ventilation shafts in minutes, with a speed only purpose, and a slight bit of desperation, could provide. We came out in a thin corridor, that, by my guess, stood only a few meters from one of the cargo elevators leading up top.

Unlike the smaller personnel lifts, these ran on more archaic fail safes, rather than the Dust generators, steam, and other Dust-powered systems built into the wall itself as it grew larger and had served in its construction. The architects had kept them around afterwards, thinking it prudent to keep at least one method of quickly scaling up the wall, just in case some miraculously lucky enemy managed to pull the plug.

_'To think this thing once had stairs...'_

"She's right, you know..." a light voice sounded from beside me, my heart skipping a beat as Amys skirted ahead of me, checking the corner ahead. "Something about you seems to have obviously changed. Since your time in the Hand, I mean. You are more assertive; commanding."

If she was trying to be subtle around her fellow Trapper, she wasn't doing a good job keeping her voice down. Thankfully, it seemed Glimmer was too busy reloading and checking her weapon, head twitching at every sound in anxious anticipation to bother speaking up, readying herself for the next fight.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, even as I moved to cover her advance. one hand poised at my hip, knives at the ready for the first sign of hostile movement. "And how would you know anything about how I used to be?"

I'd never met the girl previously, to my knowledge, having steered as far from the Third Gen trainees, while not on missions, as much as I could, seeing as they were either the type to hang off you like leeches, looking for advice, or their way to get ahead of their peers. Some, as I recalled, could get pretty bad, especially once the Thirds got a hold of quality weapons.

"Your file, mostly. Records paint you more as a 'lone wolf' or a follower, rather than an assertive presence. This is evidenced by you first tying yourself to then-Trapper Fortuna Marigold, and later Vergil Jett."

"Don't remind me," I grumbled, flinching as the memories of what I'd done under that madman's command played in my subconscious. The screams, the bloodshed... Things that were better left forgotten, as the actions were of a now dead past. "I preferred following orders. Made everything easier, you know? I didn't have to think. I just fought, feeling like I was doing something important for the mission."

She nodded in understanding, the motion somehow meaning more than I think either of us had expected it to, especially given the circumstances. Oobleck could give all the encouragement he wanted, and Yang could try to understand to the best of her ability. Neither, however, had gone through the same experiences I had; the same that I, Amys, Glimmer, and every other Trapper had. It was the closest show of emotion I'd gotten out of the girl that hadn't seemed dulled, somehow, either by detachment or conditioning.

_'If she read my file... That means she was one of the ones they were thinking of sending after me. Maybe a trial run for the Thirds.' _Alexander had been bad enough. Her though... Chances are I wouldn't have even seen her coming.

"It is just strange seeing how much difference a few months can make," she continued on, the momentary emotion buried under the usual distance. "We had reports you were made the leader of a team at Beacon."

I nodded, scratching a sudden itch on the back of my neck. "Yeah. I think they did it to try and break down the social walls the Hand had built up. Hell of a way, too..."

"AMBR or something, right?" Glimmer's voice crashed down on the conversation, making us both jump, the girl lifting her mask to grin at us both wickedly. "Who's bright idea was it to stick one of us as a team leader?"

"The Headmaster, Professor Ozpin. With any luck, you might get to meet him," I grimaced, thinking back to the silvery-haired headmaster and his damn smile: the self-assured, sagely kind, that made him seem as if he knew everything. My fist was already curling. "Fair warning, though, you'll have the urge to hit him after about five minutes. His secretary won't like it if you act on it, and it only makes you angrier. _Trust_ me."

"Not at _all_ sensing a story there." Fullmark eyed me strangely, before taking point. "So do we all get a band of lovable misfits, or... Ah, wait. Ironwood. Right." She shrugged, holding up a hand to stop, us as footsteps thudded down another corridor across from us, our breaths held until they passed. "So's that why you're so keen to get back? Team can't go one day without its glorious leader?"

We'd reached the lift, Glimmer's hands already pulling at the lever that would spur the old relic into motion with a hiss of rushing steam.

"You kidding? Personally, I think they picked the wrong man, even if Ozpin doesn't think so himself. I've just sort of held things together as best I can. But if he just came around to the idea, then we'd be led by the other guy..."

Too late, I realized the danger, as the two slaps of the door sprang open silently, with well-oiled efficiency. My eyes widened in terrified surprise, as Amys already raised her weapon, cloth rearing like a serpent, with flames licking at its fringes. Glimmer looked back at us looking confused, before she stiffened with a wet cough, blood pouring from her mouth, as her eyes trailed down to the silvery sword sticking out towards us through her gut, the faceless mask of its wielder peeking over her shoulder almost casually.

"High praise, Immortal. You couldn't possibly be referring to that _rat_ of a bandit, are you?" Vergil's voice rasped, dripping with confident menace, as Glimmer's hands attempted to rise, her breath coming in chocking gasps. "You should give yourself more credit than that." He twisted the blade embedded in her sternum, eliciting a loud whine from his victim.

That's when I noticed the blade he held, somehow still shining cleanly, blood seemingly unable to stick to its glimmering mono-edged surface, despite its position. Untouched by all, just like its namesake.

_Silver Moonlight... _Grandfather's sword.

"Oh..."

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"..._SON OF A BITCH_!"

I couldn't help the outburst, peering down at the Scroll I held in trembling hands... Well, _hand_, seeing as the augmented one, for the most part, lacked the capacity to do so, as it risked crushing the thing in its grip. I traced a finger across the screen to enlarge the image. Reika glanced at me nervously, no doubt unused to seeing me crack like this, her scarred mouth opening in a worried pout.

_"Ben, don't panic..."_

How could I not, however? All of this insanity: the Maidens, the shit show at the tournament, Ironwood breathing down my neck. And now... _Now_ here was Maxine Argus, walking down the streets of Vale with potentially one of the most _dangerous _people imaginable for someone like her.

"What am I lookin' at? Why the hell is _SHE _here; what is Max doing with _HER_!?"

Fortuna Marigold, the Bounty Huntress. The "Oncoming Storm." A woman who had come to the Badlands a stranger when it had still been the lawless blood-soaked wasteland ruled by violence and intimidation and bereft of refuge. The same woman who, in mere months, had shaped the social and political landscape of various enterprising individuals, such as myself and my father, by cutting off the heads, literally in some cases, of some of the most violent sociopaths and warlords the region had ever witnessed, in many ways proving herself worse than any of them.

_'Hell, you still can't say her name west of Spire Point without a few folks cringin', or lookin' over their shoulder.'_

Dad had been one of the lucky few she'd spared, finding him "spirited enough" to keep around. That had been before my time, though. Right around the time he'd met Mom, actually...

I passed the Scroll back, slumping against our dorm room wall, trying to massage the sudden ache pounding through my skull like a hammer.

_'One break... Just **ONE** break. Is that **so much** to ask for!?'_

I'd known she was in town, sure... But for this... At least this brought some new theories into the Ambrose debate, none of which were particularly comforting to think about.

"Do you know where they are now?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm now, lest I scare her further. Gotta keep up appearances, after all. "You still have a bead on them, don't you?"

The small woman nodded with an apologetic look on her face, gesturing out the window, finger pointing directly at the floating coliseum. Typical. Of _course_ they'd be there... Anything else might've actually been manageable.

_'No **way** am I tellin' Ironwood this... Best case scenario, Max gets drawn into the crossfire and arrested, same as Xiao Long. Worst case...'_

Dad had once brought me to one of her decade-old battlegrounds, where she'd reportedly wiped out _three_ whole war bands that had united to spill her blood... Or more accurately, what was left of it, as the once lush, dust filled valley was forever altered in her wake. Grimm and weather had stolen what was left of the bodies, but the smooth glassy craters still shimmered in the sunlight. Not to mention the molten slag of what had once been a cliff side, left no doubt as a reminder of what poor fate had befallen the poor bastards.

_"The cost of pickin' a fight you can't win," _he'd told me, meaning it to be remembered as a lesson. That image had stuck with me even, if little else, during that time.

_'You know, I'm not so surprised Ambrose and Briar turned out the way they had, now that I think 'bout it. Havin' to deal with a half insane, natural disaster as an instructor everyday like that... Can't have been too healthy.'_

_"So what do we do, now? We can't just sit here," _my partner stressed, shifting on the balls of her feet. _"Maxine is..."_

"Is Max alright? Is she hurt; did she seem to be there against her will?" I tried to make it seem as though it was friendly concern, and failed miserably, judging by the way her expression shifted into one of sympathy.

_'Get a hold of yourself, man!'_

The girl thought to herself for a moment, before shaking her head. _"I couldn't get too close, and still avoid her spotting me. Not that I would be surprised if she had, and didn't do a thing. Maxine is unharmed, as far as I could feel. Just scared and on edge."_

"Of course she is. She's reckless, not stupid." I breathed just a bit easier, glancing up at the flying stadium. "If Marigold still has her, then it means she's useful to her, somehow. Just need to find out why, and for how long..." Just because Ambrose said she wasn't involved with the Red Hand anymore, didn't mean I was willing to trust an ex-Trapper around a Faunus. Especially not _that_ Faunus... "...Follow the situation. Keep an eye out, but don't start anythin' up, unless ya _absolutely_ have to. No tellin' what someone like _that'd _do if she gets riled."

_"And what about you?" _she wondered, eyes narrowing in indignant confusion. _"She's our teammate, Ben! I thought you...?!"_

I held up a metallic finger to silence her, green eyes flashing dangerously before softening, an apology already on my lips along with a tired smile. "I know, Rei, I know. Which is why I need you keep an eye on things, while I figure out a better plan. Can't really trust myself not to try and pull somethin', if she..." I trailed off, but the implication still stood. If Fortuna harmed Max in even the smallest way, living legend or no, I couldn't trust myself to keep a straight head. At the Finals of one of the biggest, most publicized gatherings of Humanity on the planet, that couldn't happen.

_'When did things get so difficult?'_

Few months ago, all I had to worry about was homework, and the occasional Grimm.

_'Shit, I miss those days.'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

"Ah, Fullmark... Always forgetting to watch your back. Amateurish."

The blind man freed the long sword effortlessly with a light sigh, and a shocked cough from Glimmer, as she slumped to her knees and fell forward shivering, her Aura palpable as she tried her best to stem the bleeding.

That sword...

"Recognize it, do you?" Vergil held the blade aloft before him, running a long finger delicately over the length of the blade, savoring the sound as the material of his gloves slid along the silver tracing inscribed along the face.

"He's supposed to be dead..." Amys whispered, a touch of terror in her voice I hadn't heard before, as she stared at the duelist before her. "Briar killed him... Vergil Jett. Currently holds the distinction of the second highest confirmed kill count for enemy combatants, behind Edward Briar. Recently confirmed..." She was babbling data seemingly at random, some sort of stress response, no doubt.

The object of her fear paid her as little mind as one might regard a fly, instead admiring his new prize. "Truly a work of art, isn't it? To think these bumpkins desired only to place it in some codger's tomb to gather dust. Such a waste I could not allow. Not in good conscience, at any..."

_Storm Circuit _was in my hands in an instant, as I leapt over the wounded Glimmer, catching him, shockingly enough, by surprise at my sudden ferocity. I didn't even bother to shift it out of its baton form, merely extending one of its blades as I stabbed outward. Amys was right behind me, and the first to reach him, as she drew upon her Aura madly, the cloth around her arms striking like a flaming serpent from one hand, while a curved hidden blade sprouted from underneath the wrist of the other, all while her Semblance forced her presence from my mind.

It was unspoken practical necessity, mixed with a bit of raw emotion on my part, the need to strike fast and strike hard with all we had easily apparent to both of us. For a brief moment, we'd thought we had him then and there. Of course, the infiltrator's trick, while powerful in the right situation, seemingly wasn't much against someone who didn't depend on sight.

Shocked, but hardly dull, the Trapper was somehow still able to duck underneath the flaming cloth, and carve a deep furrow across its wielder's shoulder through her Aura, sending the young woman reeling back into my awareness, crying out in surprise and pain, her blood spurting across the interior of the lift, before meeting my own attack with his stolen weapon, right before my own could pierce his skull as I'd intended. Bastion-forged steel met its equal in the tempered long sword in a shower of stray sparks that fell around us and a ring that pierced our enhanced senses.

_'I really meant to, too... To end him...'_

I registered that fact with a dim sense of surprise, jaw aching from the sheer pressure of my gritted teeth grinding. Snarling indignantly, at the nerve, I pushed with all of my might, both Aura and all the strength my tempered musculature could draw, more than I had cause for in months.

It wasn't enough to break his guard, unfortunately, as the man pushed back in equal measure, setting _Circuit's _frame whining under the strain. But it was more than enough for my first blow to force him stumbling back from the lift, while the second follow-up sent him flying bodily down the hall. The man righted himself easily in midair to skid along the grilled flooring, coming to a rest in a neat crouch, before rising neatly to his feet.

"Oh ho, now _there_ was some fire!" Vergil laughed, the sound grating on my eardrums just to listen to it, if anything making me shake harder. "No fear, hesitation, and back in uniform, as well. Makes me wonder what might have happened if you'd shown the same drive in the Badlands all those weeks ago, rather than that wild abandon!"

He thumbed a tab on the side of the blade, the long sword folding in on itself until it was the length of his forearm, while his other hand moved to one of the sabers he still kept sheathed at his back, drawing it with a lazy spinning flourish, before taking a loose stance.

"I was afraid I'd miss the chance to welcome you back home personally. But before we get started... Where. Is. _Violette_?" That last part came out more as a growl than anything else, practically promising pain on those that heard it.

Frankly, I couldn't be bothered, instead glancing back at the wounded Amys, and the still prone Glimmer. The woman was miraculously still alive, though not for long, if the growing puddle of red dripping through the flooring was any indication. "Watch her." I looked away before she could acknowledge or deny the order, my focus instead fixed on the target in front of me, _Circuit's_ casing threatening to buckle under my grasp.

A simple enough command, though perhaps I should've had them run, or leave me. Still, I doubted they'd make it very far, especially since the blind man was wrong. Truth be told, I could hardly think at the moment. I was so afraid... But above all of that, even the fear of facing this man was nothing compared to the anger I felt. A wrathful rage so pure, that increased as I listed his various crimes in my head. Many of which I'd helped commit, if I was being honest. It merely added fuel to the fire.

His kidnapping of Reika in the Badlands, manipulating Ben into betraying his morals, and attacking his own friends. _Stealing Grandfather's_ _sword_, and using it to... Glimmer coughed again weakly, groaning as Amys attempted to help her, and, from the sounds of it, failing fast. So many acts of violence, and more, that could've been prevented if this man didn't exist. But the one that kept burning in my mind was that scar across her back. The one _HE_ caused.

_'Calm down, calm down... Huntsman... I'm a **Huntsman**!'_

With that affirmation in mind, I felt my grip on the weapon start to relax, the knots easing from my muscles, as a dull sort of calm swept over me, along with a sense of turbulent clarity. That's right... I was a Huntsman of Beacon Academy. Still, that didn't mean I couldn't beat him within an inch of his life for what he'd done.

Just the thought alone set a determined look across my face. Upon seeing it, though, Vergil merely shook his head with a disappointed sigh. "So close, too... A shame. I'll ask again. Where did that bitch take the Commander? _Answer me_!"

_'If he's alone, he must've sent the guardsmen away. He wants us for himself.'_

"No idea... Could've dropped him face first in the nearest volcano, for all I know." I held _Circuit_ out before me, both ends extending outward, their silver blades glinting in the florescent lights shining down from above. "You tried to kill her..."

"Hmm?... Whatever do you...!?"

I was on him in a heartbeat, low to the ground as I brought _Circuit _into a rising sweep, that was just held at bay by his offhand saber, the Trapper already striking outward with a thrust from his stolen blade, that came so close, it grazed the Aura coating my cheek. He tried to draw back, too, but I wasn't going to let him go easily. Splitting the staff into its connected twin daggers, I locked his weapons in place, turning this more into a physical struggle, rather than any sort of duel.

"Liz..." I grunted, muscles straining as I kept the silver edge in place inches from my face, with all the effort I could muster. "She was... ah, our _comrade_... She fought for _you_, but you don't even...!"

He shifted back as I broke the standoff, ducking under his swing as I made to trip him, only to receive a knee to the face for my trouble, that sent me stumbling back, eyes squinted barely able to fend off a quick stab that almost took my throat. Experience moving through pain was the only thing that allowed me to follow the flurry of blows, as the swordsman launched into a full head on assault, weapons sweeping gracefully through the air, striking as hard and fast as lightning, turning away each of my own attacks with one weapon only for the other to lash out, seemingly from all directions.

My body was barely able to keep up, my reassembled staff flitting about defensively, knocking away probing strike and lethal blow alike in equal measure. My muscles began to burn under the strain, forcing me to draw more an more upon my Aura and a well of endurance I knew wouldn't hold. My earlier fight with Corvus down below was catching up with me, weighing me down.

I didn't even have the opportunity to use my Semblance, my opponent wary to keep as minimal contact as he could. I, in turn, knew our brief standstills were much too dangerous to even consider lowering my barrier, just for the meager chance at damaging him. He was taunting me, building traps, his movements calculated to force me to move how he wanted, wearing me down.

Already, the hall was beginning to show the signs of passing, deep furrows and crisscrossing slash marks carving their way across the walls and parts of the walkway, all signs of near misses, while my armor sported several fresh cuts that had shorn through my Aura, and the inferior silver was like a hot knife through butter.

"Elizabeth was a _traitor_!" the blind man intoned over the clash of metal, slicing upward in an arcing strike so close, I could follow the shimmering afterimage trailing in its wake, and feel the void of air as it passed. "She made her choice. I merely acted as any loyal soldier would. Though I will admit to some... _satisfaction_ in the act." He punctuated each word with a step and a flourish, each one meant to push me back towards my companions. But there was something off about his movements.

Having the rare privilege of having fought the man many times before in training and in battle, it was easily apparent that he was slower than usual, his motions dragging his form off by degrees. Liz had mentioned how she'd dropped half a building on his head during their last encounter. And though he'd somehow survived, it seemed even he hadn't escaped entirely unscathed, as my eyes caught sight of recent patch jobs across the surface of his mask and armor, hairline cracks and gouges.

Fight defensive, and strike when he's weakest...

With a rush, I saw my chance and took it, sidestepping a hasty swipe from _Silver, _and closing the distance, hand racing for his throat. _'One quick charge. Just a second or two, and I can end this **NOW**!'_

So intent on exploiting this opening, I missed the subtle shift in his stance as his blade rose to meet mine in an instant, his chuckle distracting me just long enough for the pommel of his other weapon to drive into my sternum with a pulse of injected Aura, and put me against the wall, coughing as the air flowed in gasps from my bruised lungs. I couldn't move, despite the pain of the blow itself being more than manageable, the aftershock to my system was strange, like something foreign and hateful moving in my chest cavity, as my Aura fought to remove it. Nausea rose up in my stomach.

"A sloppy attempt, Joel. I thought I taught you better than this."

I stiffened, as I felt the slight grazing pressure as a sharp edge kissed the Aura protecting my neck, eyes traveling upward to see Vergil poised for the killing stroke, though his ego seemed unable to resist gloating one last time. He'd exaggerated his injuries, his movements still dulled, but now stood leagues above what they'd been before, the casual deadly grace that he'd seemingly lacked returning in full force. He took the saber from my throat, and replaced it in one of the scabbards at his back with a dull hiss, instead opting to raise my grandfather's sword, like some overdramatic executioner.

"If your enemy shows weakness, exploit it. If you show weakness, use it to your advantage." I watched as the sword came down, every muscle I had screaming to move, to attack, and/or to get away. My Semblance was useless on the non-conductive floor, pulsing impotently across my exposed skin.

_'Move... **MOVE**!'_

A cannon shot rang out through the corridor like a thunderclap, before the would-be executioner was thrown back down the hallway as a glowing orange shell shattered against his side. His greyish Aura shimmered as it repelled the round, but was unable to contain the force.

"Wha...?" I glanced around, eyes widening as I saw a now unmasked Glimmer crouched, her strange lance/spear split down the middle and propped up in one arm, with no small amount of help from her fellow Trapper.

* * *

**_-Glimmer Fullmark-_**

"Ha! Payback, bitch," I spat, letting _Summer Bloom's _smoking tip fall forward, grinning broadly, before launching into a series of wracking coughs as bloody phlegm spattered against my wrist. Amys' attempts to check me were stopped with a hefty shove.

A small part of me, the part reeling at the strange burning cold and lack of sensation pervading my gut, as each heartbeat pulsed precious vitae from my wounds, appreciated her concern. The warrior part ingrained after months of punishing conditioning at the hands of friend and foe alike, however, couldn't be bothered. I was still moving, and I would keep doing so until the job was done, regardless of injury.

_'Don't build 'em like me anymore, do they?' _It wasn't as if I actually felt the pain of it, anyway.

The Trapper program's training had stolen my fear and hesitation over what had to be done. The Red Hand's doctors had made me stronger and faster, even if the cost had been a bit more than intended, an error due in part to some synthesized steroid they were testing. They happened occasionally when the docs wanted to try something different. We knew the risks. And hell, a bit of damage to my nerve endings was well worth being able to tear those Fang bastards apart barehanded, and take a bullet without flinching.

_'Certainly coming in useful now.'_

Ambrose was still just sitting there, gaping with a stupid look on his face. Drama king... "G-get moving, idiot!"

Vergil wasn't done, not by a long shot. Already, the blind bastard was getting to his feet, tearing at his cracked and useless chest plate, snarling as his faceless visage glared at me menacingly, a look I returned with a blood smeared grin. The white-haired bastard didn't need to be told twice, snatching up his weapon, and scrambling over to where we stood... Well, where Claret stood. I was sort of swaying a bit, using my lance as a crutch.

"We don't have time for this."

The wannabe Huntsman had a point. We could make a stand here, and maybe even kill the bastard once and for all, but it would take time. Time we didn't have, judging by the sounds of thudding footsteps and shouts growing steadily closer. Reinforcements were on the way. Jas and the others had almost certainly reached the bird by now, and were probably swarmed with unwanted company trying to protect it. Their job was growing more and more difficult with every second.

_'And if the Storm Hawk goes, we don't...' _My little brother, wild as he was, would die fighting almost certainly... But he'd still be... Be... _'Getting harder... To think now... Shit... I-I...'_

I shook my head out fiercely in a desperate attempt to clear it, almost serving to throw myself off balance. But I tightened my grip on _Bloom's _haft, and bore it as I always had. _'We wouldn't get away. This lift can be stopped, unlike the one we came up on. We can't let him past..._'

A plan formed in my head, as I noticed a lever hanging off the wall... A desperate idea, even for my tastes, but one I was uniquely suited for at the moment.

"Didn't really feel like throwing myself... ah... at Atlas' mercy, anyway... No offense," I said randomly with a grimace, as my breath cut short, glancing at Joel, who looked back at me nonplussed, eyebrow raised. "Jas, though... He'll make a good soldier boy. Tell him... Tell him I'm sorry... He'll n-need to look out for Dad... f-from now on." It was getting harder and harder to see straight, but I could tell the man looked concern, obviously realizing what I had in mind.

"Glimmer, don't be... _No_!" He moved to block me, but I shoved him back towards the Third, my strength still as dependable as ever, with my Aura backing me up, though I was having trouble moving my left leg.

With a wet sounding laugh, and a grunt of effort, I lurched towards the hatch release, pulling it outward before the Huntsman could right himself. His shouting was cut off with a heavy clang, as a wrought steel hatch came crashing down, and sealed off his section from the hallway with a roar of an emergency siren, leaving me standing alone in the with the murderer in the now flashing red light.

_'Well... This is awkward.' _I chuckled despite myself, feeling suddenly cold as I drew upon my Aura, and tore the hatch release from the wall, not at all knowing if such a thing would help, but I doubted it would make things easier. Even that small amount of motion had taken more out of me than I was loathe to admit. _'It's alright... Don't need it for much longer... Just enough to...'_

"Denying me my prey... That was foolish, Miss Fullmark," the bastard's voice rasped through his distorter, the man managing to work himself to his feet shakily, shoulders heaving as he fought for breath through his cracked mask, before finally deciding to reach up and unclasp it, letting it fall to the floor. What was hidden underneath it was a bald head, and a handsome dark-skinned face. At least I think it had been, before something or someone had left most of it burned away. Pale, sightless eyes glared back at me, as his mouth drew back in a permanent rictus grin, much of his cheek gone the same way as the rest of him. "Very, very foolish, indeed..."

I felt a cold shiver down my spine completely unrelated to my injury, his pure voice little more than a dry rasp, like he'd inhaled too much smoke or something.

"What was foolish is taking that thing off... Fucking hell, you're just... Man, I'm sorry." I breathed, the cold shiver giving way to something almost like amusement. "Shit... No wonder you're the best. Could probably kill a Fang just by showing off that poker face."

"You won't be laughing long. You've merely delayed the inevitable."

"No, I delayed _you_. That's enough of a win in my book, Ugly." He snarled, starting a slow march. No pomp or flourishing motions for me, it seemed. Just the cold detachment of squashing something in his way.

_'Well, I'm not going down easy.'_

I looked inside myself, drawing my Aura more deeply than I ever had before, embracing it fully, as I felt the numbness in my limbs turn to strength. My disorientation turned to purpose.

_Bloom _was up, firing shot after bone jerking shot, before I'd even registered what I was doing, my body moving on practiced instinct at this point. Didn't do much, as the Trapper merely continuing forward with that fancy silver sword of his, catching each shell before it could hit him, neatly cutting the Dust-filled rounds in two like a scalpel, sending them impacting along the walls. I hadn't expected it to work twice, as that first shot merely caught him off guard since he'd thought me out of the fight.

_'Not yet, asshole!'_

I cut off the shooting when he was a few yards out; it was only serving to make him angrier at this point. I twisted the handle near my lance's blade, bringing the great weapon back into close combat mode, before I charged forward with a battle cry that tore my throat raw. I put all I had into it, ready to crush this little man before he could even think of hurting...

He ducked past my thrust effortlessly, bringing his weapon across my back through even the thick armor plating in a spray of arterial spray. I wouldn't fall though, merely snarling as I spun around, weapon sweeping out wildly, only for him to dodge again, this time slicing the tendon on my back leg, and putting me on one knee.

"Gah!... G-God dammit!"

_'**NOT YET**!'_

Gritting my teeth as the effort of moving my body increased tenfold, I swung the massive lance with all the strength I could muster. The swordsman merely batted the limp hit away effortlessly with the silver weapon, before using the saber to neatly snip through my wrist, slitting muscle and bone both, as the great weapon tumbled to the floor as all feeling left my fingers replaced by a dull burn. The most I'd felt in years.

"This is pathetic," he croaked, what was left of his lips turning into a solid frown that would've had a Grimm running for the hills. "Utterly _wasteful_."

"No... You kidding?..." My vision was blurring at the edges, my limbs felt like jelly... But still... "This... _THIS IS JUST GETTING **FUN**_!" I laughed maniacally, leaping forward, ready to drive my good hand in his ugly face.

_'Be safe, Jas... Sorry your big sister screwed up again...' _I thought wistfully, each footfall pounding in my ears as I ran, as a flash of silver raced forth to greet me. I could care less; I was ready to greet it with a smile.

_'I'm coming, Mom...'_

* * *

**_-Elizabeth Briar-_**

The first warning that something had gone terribly wrong was both Joel and Amys stumbling out of the lift, both looking like hell. The girl's skin was pale, and her right side was covered literally in blood. _Her _blood, judging from large slash across her shoulder still in the process of healing. Much of the girl's Aura seemed to be devoted to the task. The Huntsman didn't seem too badly injured; there were just a few blood streaks from hastily healed small cuts that had made it through his armor. His face, though...

"Joel, what the hell happened? Where's...?" I started, but Jasper beat me to it, tearing off his mask as he advanced on the Huntsman, his face an equal mix of worry and purest anger.

"Where is she? Where's my sister, Ambrose!?" he shouted, shoving Amys to the ground in his haste to snatch the white-haired Huntsman up by the next, my hands already drawing a Thorn to intervene. Amys crouched on the ground, glaring up at the giant, but Jasper couldn't be bothered. "_Answer me_!"

"...'nt make it," Joel choked out, his hand raised clutching at the mailed gauntlet trapping him, but strangely enough, he wasn't resisting. It would've been easy enough. For all his size, Jasper was more a brute than a fighter. Someone like Joel should've had no problem freeing himself. That he wasn't meant... "She didn't... ah... make it."

_'Oh no...'_

"What was that!? _Speak up_!" He made to squeeze harder, causing the Huntsman to literally fight for each breath now, his feet dangling. The Fullmark seemed unaware or uncaring, only making it more and more difficult on himself, likely already having deduced the answer.

"She said sorry... Sorry that you'd have to look after your father for her..." The words seemed to deflate the man for a moment, his grip loosening somewhat, before a fire seemed to kick back up, blazing hotter than before, tears stinging his eyes.

"What are you talking about!?... No one could've... What did you...!?"

_'Enough of this.'_

"Let him go," I growled, catching one of the pressure points in the larger man's wrist so he'd release my former partner's neck, though I had to duck a backswing from his maul in the process. "Hey, _calm down_!" I might as well have been talking to a wall. The young man's blood was up, and his grey eyes blazed like a barely contained storm, as he brought his weapon to bear on the coughing Trapper at his feet.

"You... You got her _killed_, _didn't you_!? What, did she say something offensive!? I thought you'd...!" Joel rubbed at his neck, glaring back up at him in grim acceptance, before a weak voice echoed from off to the side. Amys shambled between the pair, looking almost comical standing up to the giant.

"V-Vergil... It was _Vergil_. He caught us off guard, and injured her... She knew she wasn't walking out, and stayed behind to buy us time."

Vergil!? That bastard _survived_!? I'd seen a building collapse on him! How could he have possibly walked away from that!?

Of course, Jasper seemed to find it hard to believe as well, though the revelation did earn him a new target. "You _bitch_!" He kicked at Ambrose before looking at me, Aura palpable across his figure, as the head of his maul sparking dangerously. "You told us he was _dead_! You swore...!"

"I didn't swear on it, idiot! I made a guess...!"

"_And guessed **WRONG**_! Now, Glim's... She's...!"

We all jumped as a service hatch clanged open. Each of us, even injured Amys and downtrodden Joel, had our weapons out in moments, ready to tear apart the poor bastard who thought themselves clev... Then we realized who'd popped their head out like a gopher in an arcade game.

"Dai!?" I gaped, as the demolitionist put his hands up comically, swaying dangerously on what must've been a ladder leading down back into the great wall's interior. "Where the hell did you...!?"

"Downstairs fast. Very fast. We need to go. _NOW_!" He scrambled up, panting as he fumbled with the hard cases hanging off his waist, and a larger crate held underneath his arm, before checking his wrist screen seemingly as an afterthought. "They're booting up secondary sources, and rerouting the power. We don't have much time before the other guns can fire aga...!" He paused mid-sentence, examining us each in turn. His masked gaze lingered on Amys and Jasper, before continuing. "Glimmer?" he said simply, shaking his head as Jasper snarled, glancing back at his display, and then at one of the emergency lifts similar to the one the pair had used to get up here, one of those likely unaffected by the power outage. "No time. We need to go. They're coming up as we speak."

_'Tactful bastard, isn't he?'_

Joel shot me a worried look as we watched the young Trapper nearly sprint over to the Storm Hawk, grabbing my wrist, and pulling me along with surprising strength for one so thin, twitching incessantly the whole way. "Hey, ah! Lay off! I can walk, you little...!"

"Good, you can walk, yeah. Need you to fly. You think you can handle this thing?" I gaped at him as the hatch in the rear of the airship hissed open at his electronic command, the boy hauling me past twin rows of passenger seating to a single-person cockpit, nearly throwing me into the chair in his haste to make me sit down, while he stowed his crate carefully in an aft compartment. The way he did it was so carefully, I felt a thrill of dread wondering at the contents. "You can, right? Amys doesn't look like she can manage...!"

"Dai, what the hell's the matter with...!?"

"_No time_! Now, can you fly it!?"

Sighing in exasperation, I looked to the controls, a quick scan revealing that this thing was based off an Atlesian design similar to those standard in their modern light assault craft, albeit with some design quirks, as if the devious mind behind it had obviously tried to squeeze as much as he thought he could in an even smaller space then necessary. Fuel gauges, cabin pressure, reactor levels, emergency vomit bags... Wait, what the hell?

_'What the hell am I doing?'_

With that question in mind, I ran through a standard flight check, accelerated at the Third Gen's constant nagging, before keying up the engines, the craft humming as it rose a full meter off the ground at the slightest twitch of the controls.

_'Holy shi... Calm down. It didn't blow up, so that's a promising start. Girl's just got some kick in her.'_

I was about to call back, when a keening roar built on anger, pain, and horror split the air, managing to overcome even the engines. My head whipping around, as I caught sight of Joel struggling bodily to keep Jasper in check. And frankly, it was easy to see the cause.

A little less than a kilometer away, sprinting at the head of a trio of other dark armored figures, ran Vergil, in all his horrifying, unmasked glory, a silvery weapon I thought I might have recognized in one hand, and in the other... In the other there something was swaying by reddish-gold locks...

"_I'LL **KILL** **YOU**, YOU SON OF A BITCH!_... _LET ME GO_!_ LET ME GO_!" Jasper's head snapped back, catching Joel full in the face, but still he held on, the Trapper advancing a few lurching steps at a time in an attempt to reach the object of his hatred. "I need to... **_GLIMMEEEEER_**!"

A part of me wanted to call back and tell Joel just to let the man go if he was so inclined to get himself killed. But a moment, and a liberal application of electricity later, the brute crumpled limply into the Huntsman's arms. Amys aided him in hauling the unconscious Trapper aboard.

"Go, go, go! There's no time!" I didn't need the blithering Third's input on that count, seeing as rounds were already starting to ping off the hull. The boarding hatch shut with a whine, leaving the back of the airship in red tinged light, and my fellows doing their best to strap in. "**_GO_**!"

"_HANG ON_!" I punched it, meaning for us to safely soar out into the sky and out of harm's way.

Unfortunately for us, however, safety seemed to be the furthest qualifier for this death trap, as the Storm Hawk not so much soared as screaming forward, with enough force to send me into the thick cushioning of my chair, stomach lurching dangerously, while those in the back fared little better. Joel shouted obscenities at the top of his lungs, while Dai... He was laughing like a madman.

_'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, **OH CRAP**!' _I eased back on the throttle, the pressure in the cabin easing back into something harsh but manageable, as I breathed a steadying sigh of relief, before making a desperate grab for one of the bags on the side, and just managing to get it open before I emptied the contents of my stomach. _'Oh god... Blue gruel tastes even worse coming back up... How...'_

From the retching I heard behind me, I determined I'd been the only one lucky enough to find a bag, my mind instantly creating a dozen reasons to avoid looking back, though I had to deal with one little thing first, or I swore I was going to eject him from the aircraft. "Shut the _fuck_ up!" I roared, as Dai Jin's raucous laughter quickly petered off into a series of low chuckles, even as he did his best to keep his feet off the wet floor. "What the hell's so funny!?"

It was starting to set in now. We'd escaped... Well, most of us had anyway. I may have had my issues with the elder Fullmark, and had even wished her dead by my own hand probably a dozen times since I'd met up with her while bleeding and half dead in a Bastion sewer. Still, wishing and wanting were two very different things.

_'And from the sound of it, she actually tried to save us. Or at least her brother. She wasn't the selfish bitch she made herself out to be in the end...'_

"A-ah, just a minute," Dai gasped, ripping off his mask and smoothing back his lanky dark hair, checking his display yet again, before slumping back in his seat. "Oh boy, we beat it by a _minute_."

"Beat what by a... _SHIT_!" I cringed as a deafening boom echoed through the valley, my heart stopping in my chest, until I realized it wasn't our engine that had detonated, but something far behind us.

"No..." Joel's voice groaned weakly from the back, muffled by his hands, as he struggled to keep what was left of his stomach in his throat, though I could still sense the tension rising in his voice. "You... You _didn't_. Don't tell me you...!"

The young man sitting across from him merely chuckled awkwardly in response, whistling to himself.

Curious, I brought up the display from one of the aft cameras, one of the few that hadn't been ripped off by the force of our sudden departure, and blanched at what I saw. The wall was far behind us now. What was a few seconds ago a gleaming silver blot on the horizon was now wreathed in smoke from what must've been a dozen internal explosions. Not enough to bring the ancient structure down, mind you, but more than enough to leave a headache for those residing within it.

"Sorry..." he said to the cabin at large. Joel growled indignantly in his seat as sparks bounced all about, the hairs on the back of my neck and arms standing on end. "Couldn't resist."

**-END**

**_A/N: And so ends the Bastion Arc, and what I think is the most sentient deaths I've had (Shown at least) so far. Hope you enjoyed it because next up is a look at Ben's past before we go right into what's been happening around this time in Vale. A lot has and not all of it pleasant but hey if the show's getting darker then well...Feel free to hate Virgil by the way, you won't be the first._**

**_Anyway hope everyone's good where they are and I'll do my best to get the next one up soon, trying to keep a back log of at least two chapters just in case. Keeps me on the ball while also making sure there's not a huge delay if stuff comes up. - Mojo_**

**_P.S: Would also like to thank new reviewers falltree6 and fireflame789 for the kind words. Always glad to hear people are enjoying the story, keeps me motivated to try and do better. On the whole thank Da-Awesom-One for helping me out by proofreading and sprucing up the recent and past chapters, guy's a miracle worker._**


	69. Chapter 69

_**A/N: Here it is folks, enjoy. A bit less action heavy as that will be in Reika's but I thought that a bit appropriate as she can't really express what she's feeling or converse like the rest of them. Much thanks to Da-Awesom-One who's well on the way towards updating every chapter in this story and improving the things I've missed. **_

_**Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One.**_

MEMORIES OF AMBR - B

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_C'mon_, kid. Call, bet, 'er fold. Simple question, simple answer."

I blanched as Cornell leaned forward on his elbows, a gap-toothed grin on his lips as he stroked the dark fuzz he called a beard, eyeing the growing pot greedily. He almost made me gag on the latest ripe mixture of smoke and alcohol wafting off his breath, even with the generous wind flow provided by the oncoming storm.

"I, uh... I want to..."

"We don't have all day here. Pick one!"

True enough statement, I supposed. We'd only have about another hour or so before the next dust storm picked up, and we'd been forced to retreat back into the caves for the night. With Dust rationing in effect, finding proper illumination by that point would be almost impossible without cashing in a few favors

"Aw, lay of 'im, mate. You're the one who offered to show him the ropes in the first place, 'member? Rookies always get leeway in the Fool's Gambit, least the homegrown ones do."

The bandit snorted at that, spitting off the side of the edge of the wide ridge we were set up beside. We'd been lucky to find this spot, Dad and a few volunteers managing to clear the monsters out, at least for the moment, giving the rest of us the rare chance to relax. Cornell had broke out his weighted deck, while the rest of his lot "liberated" one of the ammo crates for a table and a few spirits.

"Ha! 'Leeway?' My Pa always said kids needed some pressure, if they're ever gonna be good for somethin'. Sides, the boy's gotta waste his allowance somehow. Might as well be in my pockets, eh lads!?" The bandit snatched up a bottle and raised it high, before downing it in one practiced motion. "Character building at its finest, I say."

I tried my best to ignore the overloud bandit, and the cheers that rose up around the crate at his words. I scrunchrd my little face up with nervous effort, as I stared at my cards, deliberating. Thing is, I couldn't help but flinch at the exasperated groan he let out, however, slumping back in his seat.

Thankfully, I at least had some moral support in the form of one of the others, a new addition to Dad's little family, judging by his age. Went by the name of Marrow, who, for some reason, was going by Cornell's little nickname of 'Skinny.' For whatever reason, the man seemed to enjoy assigning his silly little names to anyone in earshot. And what's worse, they all seemed to stick despite some people's best efforts.

_'__He just likes the excuse to call me 'Kid' or 'short stuff,' I reckon...'_

Skinny, who wasn't that thin in person quite honestly, shot the slovenly man a sharp glare, before clapping me on the shoulder with a calloused hand.

"Just take your time, Ben. No pressure. I can cover ya, if you'd want me to..." He frowned as I shook my head, giving him a broad smile, and making sure to show off the teeth, just like Mom had told me to. Mix that with a ratty leather jacket that practically swallowed me in its depths, and a bashful confidence only youth could provide, and I was a dangerous little package, at least where feelings were concerned. "Kid, what're you...?"

"Don't worry about me. Like ya said, he just wants to show me how it's done. Have to learn sometime, right?" His brows raised at that, but he still sighed and folded despite himself, answering my stunned gratitude with a thumbs up. He was nearly out, anyway, but it was still I nice gesture. Guy was due for some luck.

"_Ooh_, so the kid's gotten to ya, newbie?" Cornell chuckled darkly, Skinny's face brightening up with embarrassment as his senior chided him. The man shot his victim one last smirk, before turning back my way, eyebrow rising steadily. "So what's it gonna be? No issue in backin' out with what you got. A man's got to know when to cut and run."

_'__True. But not this time.'_

"I-I think I'll stay in, actually." I nodded to myself, gazing back at him resolutely. "In fact..." I pushed my small winnings forward towards the center, drawing every eye still present, along with a few onlookers. "All in. You game?" That got some whispered gasps, and more than a few chuckles from those present, though not Cornell, whose beady eyes narrowed with sudden doubt at the sudden challenge.

I did my best to keep my grin steady, though I could still feel the man examining my every move, noting every twitch, every breath. His misgivings faded quickly after a few moments, and soon enough the familiar smug expression was back in spades, as he pushed his winnings forward as well.

"Bold words. You might just have some of the Boss' spark yet, boy. Shame you also got his brains."

He then lowered his cards with a triumphant laugh, the rest of the table shooting me sympathetic glances, though most seemed relieved that they'd folded when they had, including Skinny. Cornell chuckled, hands reaching for the hefty pile in front of him, before I cleared my throat, the sound almost comical in comparison to when one of my parents did so. I ended up coughing into my oversized sleeve after the attempt. Rather lame, really. Either way it stopped him dead in his tracks, brows raised. To the whole group's surprise, their brows only rose higher as I showed off my own cards, a bashful unsure look building on my lips.

"Uh, I'm not sure, but is this better? Skinny?" I asked, putting in just the right amount of innocent naivety to make it convincing.

The newbie gulped in stunned disbelief, right along with the rest of them, looking between myself and Cornell, seemingly deciding whether to laugh or not. The man sitting across from me was looking at my hand suspiciously. It was to be expected, as he's been counting cards from a rigged deck this whole game.

My guess was he was trying to come to terms with the fact that either he screwed up royally, or...

"You _cheated_ me, boy!" He slammed his hands down on the crate hard, upsetting the scattered drink bottles, and sending men falling back, swearing with soaked fronts. The fat man didn't care, shoving a meaty finger in my face as I did my best to look like the scared little boy I was. "No way you managed...!"

"Who's cheating who, gentlemen?" The entire scene seemed to freeze in place, as a sickly sweet voice called out from above us. I followed the now pale faced man's dumb expression towards its source, where a deeply tanned woman in leathery slacks, a collared shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a brown vest stood on a large outcropping of sand blasted rock, thin light blonde braids whipping behind her head in the wind. "I believe I asked a question?" Her voice was muffled slightly by the green colored bandanna she wore over her mouth, but I could still make out the menace behind the words as easily as I could the sun.

She landed right before our little table a moment later, with enough force that her booted heel set cracks webbing through the stone around us, the move sending those few still around the table scrambling back, so that Cornell and I were quite alone. For the first time that day, I felt a cool bead of sweat drip down my brow.

"_Well_?"

"Ah, A-Abby girl, I-I thought you and the baby were still... H-how's she doin', by the way?" Cornell wiped at his sunburnt forehead nervously, looking as if he'd like nothing more than to sink in on himself. To his credit, he was doing a lot better than those poor fools who usually caught the ire of the Boss' wife. "Lil' Annie, I mean. Hope everything's...?"

"Just fine, thank you for asking. Annie's rather fond of you. Perhaps you'd like to go visit her and Ma? I'm sure they can keep you company."

"Ah, well I'd love to Ma'am, b-but me and the boys actually have some work we should be getting back to. Right, lads!?" He tried his best to keep the desperate plea out of his voice. He failed utterly, but it was a good attempt, I thought. At least his boys were supportive, nodding their assent as they scrambled to clear up. "I'll just, uh... _EEK_!" He let out a squeal as Abigail Carson grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and tossed him away before he could take the winnings, the portly man getting the message and running while he still had the chance.

The woman watched him and the others go, wiping her hand with a handkerchief she'd produced from inside her vest, before turning her blazing blue eyes on my cowering form, eyebrow raised at the scene before her. "What am I supposed to do with you?" she sighed after a moment, kneeling down to get on my level. "Just like your father. I _swear_, we need to find some better role models for you to hang around with... Sounds like you won, at least."

"Uh huh!" I jumped up on the seat, arms on my hips nodding proudly. "It was hard at first. Cornell called me a _cheater_!"

"And did you?" I blanched, shaking my head, looking away quickly once I realized my mistake. I could never fool her. _Never_. She always seemed to know what I was thinking. Wordlessly, she reached inside the pocket of my coat, drawing out a handful of face cards from a deck I'd scammed off one of the nicer guards in the last township we'd visited. He was nice guy. Bit daft though. "Ben..."

"He started it!" I pouted at the small smile playing across her lips. I could see why the other men thought she was pretty. She always seemed to shine when she smiled. At least to me anyway. "I'm sorry..."

"My little genius." She kissed my forehead, laughing as I pushed her away, sticking out my tongue in embarrassed disgust. "Just remember to let them win occasionally. I won't always be around to get you out of trouble."

I hugged her then, not wanting her to go anywhere.

It was hard sometimes, living out in the wastes. Food tasted bad at times, and we slept in caves on whatever was soft. Monsters prowled the night, attacking every so often. But I loved them all the same. We were a family, every single one of us. Momma, Dad, Ma, and the others, even Cornell. We were a _family_, sticking together when Annie was born, and laughing to keep the Grimm away. Things were hard, but I never wanted it to change. I told her as much.

* * *

_I was so stupid then... So naive... I didn't even notice her tears as she held me close to her chest..._

* * *

"Where's Momma?..." I asked the wreck of a man hunched over on the outcropping she'd only just stood on the day before, surrounded by empty bottles, even nursing another in his hand at that moment. He was glowing with what I realized must've been his Aura. "Dad...?"

_'__If it's showing...' _I'd only ever seen flashes of my parents', or some of the others' Aura after a bad fight, when the really nasty monsters showed up. When they were _hurt_.

"She's gone, Ben... She left..." The words were cold, sad, and angry. All of those emotions seemingly at once...

"Gone?... Well, when will she be back. Annie won't stop cryin'." You could hear the toddler from here, wailing her tiny lungs out since the middle of the night, much to everyone's discomfort, including my own. Dad hadn't slept much, judging from the rings under his eyes, his face pale and sunken. "Call her back."

"It's not that simple." His voice cracked, the bottle shaking in his grip, spilling the contents everywhere, turning the ground around him into a thick paste.

"Why not?... Tell me what's goin' on."

"Go back to Ma... Let her find something to keep you busy. Annie'll tire herself out, soon enough."

"Dad, what happened to...?"

"_BEN_!... _MARCH_!" The glass shattered in his grasp, the man swearing loudly as he tossed the shards off the ridge, as I ran, followed shortly by him calling out apologies after my name.

* * *

_He was hurting too...and I just pushed him away for so long..._

* * *

My knees and elbows hurt from where I'd scraped them when Cornell had half dragged, half thrown me into cover behind him. When Marrow's head had popped right in front of us, and sudden wet warmth struck my face. He'd been terrified. I could smell it in the sweat practically coating him, mixing with the coppery scent of what I realized must've been our friend's blood. It made me _scared_, more scared than when the monsters attacked.

He was screaming through the noise, words that would've had my mom feeding him to the Grimm, if she'd caught him spouting them around me, that were mixed in with desperate pleas for me to stay low and close to him. I obeyed, the sound of gunfire, and even a few explosions, cracking all around us. Men, including Dad, screamed at each other, pained cries coming out as some were hit by bullets or shrapnel. Some cries cut off, altogether.

I wanted to run, wanted to hide. But the second I'd tried, Cornell's meaty hand had me pinned against the rock we'd hidden behind, plumes of dust and sand exploding around us.

I'd hidden my face in his rough spun shirt despite the smell. Miraculously enough, he'd let me. We'd stayed there until the shooting had ceased, just sitting there for a long while, as our friends, our _family_, tried to understand what was happening.

...Why Ma was screaming inside the cart where she and Annie had been hiding.

_'__**Why**!?'_

* * *

"It wasn't your fault, boy... _Ben_... Nothin' ya'll coulda done." I felt a hand on my shoulder, calloused and hesitant, unused to such soft gestures. But trying all the same. Cornell had felt it necessary to take over a lot of the day to day work since the attack, making sure men were fed and sheltered, and that the wounded were recovering, or at least comfortable...

_'__Not like the Boss can pull it these days...'_

"I know that..." I grimaced, little hands balling into fists as I did my best to fight the warm wetness threatening to spill over, as it had every night since... Since Annie... "_Why_?"

The fat man faltered slightly, glancing down and following my gaze with a nervous, if solemn tither in his voice. "People think we're criminals just for takin' back what was taken from us in the first place... We might say it's right, but other folks...?"

"I meant why didn't you cry?" I clarified blankly to Cornell, as he stood with me over the small grave, fresh with wildflowers scattered across its surface. Dad, in his moments of rare sobriety, had only ever set foot here for the funeral, requiring a few of the less wounded to drag him away afterwards when he'd relapsed, now painfully absent in the week since. "When they buried the others, Marrow and the rest of them... How come you just stood there like you are now?... How?..."

_'__How do you make it stop?' _I didn't voice the silent plea. But it was obvious enough to the old card player.

"It ain't nothing special... And it won't help with your sister. I can promise you that, Benny."

"P-please..." I was losing the battle for control, my eyes burning now. And it wasn't from the sand plumes, or the sunlight beating down and reflecting off the land.

He muttered something then, something about me being too smart for my own good, almost scary it was. A part of me was starting to believe him. "...You know why I called Marrow 'Skinny?'... It wasn't 'cause I thought it was funny, even if the poor bastard did look as if he needed a good meal or two in him constantly..."

"Why'd you do it then?"

"So if something like this happened... It wouldn't be a person we was buryin'. It'd be just 'Skinny,' and not Marrow, the kid who just wanted to get his mom's ring back from the Atlesians, or was always sneaking grub when ol' Ma wasn't lookin'... Just plain 'Skinny,' buried next to 'Twitch,' 'Capstone,' or 'Reek...' Just names and faces..."

"...Just names, huh?..."

"It won't help a damn for this, and even if it would, it's still your kid sister. She deserves rememberin'. A damn shame, if ever I..."

No. The "damn shame" was that we didn't see it coming sooner. That we didn't chase after Momma... after that _traitor_ Abigail Carson when she ran off. The men hid it from the Boss when he wasn't a complete mess, but were more than happy to whisper about it when he was attempting to drown himself in a bottle. How it had been too many Law Keepers for a simple lucky patrol, and how our route was secret even from them, for the most part. How the only ones that knew about it were the ones that had been here the longest, and could be trusted to both keep confidence, and die before giving our family up.

_'__But **SHE** knew, too...'_

Bill had nearly killed the last man to suggest it. Had even shouted himself hoarse at Ma when she'd merely hinted at it... But that didn't make the truth any less obvious. Hell, the man himself had practically admitted it to me himself last night, when I'd stumbled in on him weeping over some raggedy photograph, spouting how she was "trying to keep us safe."

The "_damn shame_" was that little Annie had to die, while that woman still breathed easy. Still breathed, at all.

The bandit saw me quivering, the tears forgotten for a brief moment, only to be replaced by a cold stare that had no place on the face of a five-year-old boy. "Kid, you alright?... If you need a minute, I'll be right over here."

He wouldn't leave me alone, not really, anyway. The whole crew took it upon themselves to watch me, wanting to make sure I didn't try something stupid. Even as he walked back towards the train of sand collared vehicles below, I could still feel him watching out for threats, be it Grimm or me trying to make a run for it.

"Thanks... Shifty..." The newly dubbed man almost tripped despite his careful gait, glancing back at me with a look that was both shocked and regretful, as I sunk down on my knees and wept over the small soul for what I swore would be the last time.

* * *

"Reika, this is my son, Benjamin. Ben, this is Reika Murasaki. She'll be..."

The drunk trailed on while I stared daggers at the... I thought it might've been a girl, judging by the hastily sewn together dress she was wearing. Not exactly Ma's finest, work since she'd been on a bit of crunch. But honestly, I could've been looking at some sort of crazed animal from the way her raven black hair covered her face almost entirely, blank violet eyes looking at me warily, as if sizing me up, either as a threat or as a meal.

Of course, I was hardly an expert on what other children my age, or around it, her being so small that even that was hard to place accurately, were supposed to look like. My only experience being with some of the kids that I'd see whenever I could convince Shifty to take me with him on supply run to the various settlements dotting the harsh region. They were just how you'd expect: a kid born in a place like this would be, aggressive, hardy...

_'__Nothing like whatever she is, that's for sure.'_

We'd picked her up a few days ago as we skirted along the edges of Vale's Wilderness. A bit out of the way for us, but the weather had forced us to detour around the Screaming Wastes, as to avoid getting our skin sloughed off by razor sharp sand storms. Gamboge, or Starbuck, as I referred to him after a character in one of the books I'd pawned off a trader, had caught sight of the small child during his morning coffee brewing ritual. She was stumbling from this weird forest within chute-like trees, with a pack of Grimm on her heels. A few minutes, and dead Grimm later, courtesy of Dad, who was lucky enough to be sober at the time, had seen the frightened girl into Ma's tender care.

Personally, I avoided her like some other members of our little family, though my reasoning was a bit more personal than something stupid like "bad omens," or whatever superstitious garbage old Lockjaw liked to spout off in his spare time.

"...so I thought it would be a good idea if you two could be friends. I mean, it can't hurt to hang around with someone your own..!" He was silenced as I stepped forward, leaning down to look the girl in the eye, satisfied to see her slink back on the balls of her feet nervously.

"I hear she can't talk."

"Ah, um.. Yes, not that anyone's heard, but, given what she's probably gone through, it's not..."

"How'd you know her name, then, if she can't say nothin'?"

I glanced up at the man who was fidgeting now, seemingly regretting his rash decision. Good. "We, ah... Ma, I mean, found it sewn into the lining of the clothes she was wearin'. Not sure if that's actually her name, but she seems to be answering to it al..._Don't_!"

He started forward as I reached out impetuously, and plucked up a long lank of hair hanging over the left side of her face, that had looked just a bit _too_ out of place to be accidental. I instantly recoiled shortly after, as I noticed the nasty bit of freshly treated, if still inflamed, scarring tugging at her cheek and lip, just visible beneath some light bandaging.

"Ugh... _AH_!" Dad socked the back of my head, but not before Reika's eyes shimmered, her hands leaping to her hair to try and cover the injury. "What was that fo...?!"

"Apologize. _Now_." He made to grab my shoulder, but I knocked the limb away, skirting back a few steps, throwing up dust and glaring between the two of them. "_Ben_!"

"If you're gonna try and replace _Annie_, you could've at least chosen a better lookin' stand in!" With that I spun on my heel and ran, ignoring the shouts of annoyance rising up, as I made myself as much of a nuisance running away as I could.

The girl found me a few hours later, red eyed though, looking like she'd at least tried to wash up. I'd been sitting tucked away on the outskirts of camp, glaring off toward the horizon, where I knew her grave lay just a few leagues away.

It was a little ritual I did, though these days it seemed more like I was just trying to remember why I was so angry, than any actual grieving.

We didn't speak to each other. Her for obvious reasons, and me because I couldn't trust myself not to break down and apologize.

Like I heard some of the boys saying after a Grimm attack had lost us a quarter of our number: _"Showin' real weakness never helps. Out here, weakness would just get ya **killed**."_

* * *

"Oh, for fu... Stop _followin_' me, you little... Go bother Ma for once! _SHE_ actually likes having you around!"

I snapped the worn book shut with a snarl, and lifted the flap of my shady little refuge in the back of the supply rover to find the little runt standing outside in the open air like a statue, looking at me impassively with that same blank, scarred face.

_'__How the hell does she keep finding me!?'_

It didn't matter where I tried to go. From the recently cleared caves our people sometimes stashed supplies in while we made camp, to a cabinet in the Boss' personal trailer, the ever silent girl always somehow seemed to find me. All of my personal little hideaways, the places where I'd go to think and deal with the occasional headaches that had been popping up now and again, ruined in the span of a single month.

"..."

"Did Ma put you up to this? The Boss?"

The twinge in the corner of her eye at the mention of Bill Carson said all I needed to know. For someone who couldn't talk or say much more than the occasional grunt, she was surprisingly easy to read, utterly hopeless at poker whenever Ma allowed her to play, and so seemingly vulnerable, she'd convinced the rest of the camp she was this darling little angel, rather than the stalkerish, little Beowolf in sheep's clothing she really was.

"..." She pointed to herself then at me, eyes narrowing. The meaning was clear enough.

"For the last time, I. Don't. _Like_. _YOU_!" I leapt down from the truck, and shoved her away when she made to follow me. "Leave me alone, freak!" She hesitated, her eyes watering over, and I took the opportunity to make my escape, hoping maybe I'd finally gotten the point across.

_'__Not likely. Girl's as stubborn as a damned **Deathstalker**.'_

I didn't need her, didn't need a friend or some kind of surrogate sister. I'd seen how the whole camp reacted to her now, how Ma did. Dad... dressed up another girl in old clothes they'd "found" stashed away somewhere, as if I didn't know exactly where they'd come from, and who they were meant for. They wanted to have a substitute, a way they could forget. Well I wouldn't, that was for damn sure.

I'd barely gotten a few steps outside of camp when the headache started up again, my hand rising to my forehead on reflex, though it seemed... _slower_, almost like I was dragging it through water. It only lasted a few seconds, however, before the limb bounced off my forehead painfully, as if suddenly speeding up again, and putting me on the floor of the dust covered plateau, staring up at the blazing hot orb in the sky, feeling as if I'd just run a marathon across the whole of the Badlands and back.

They were happening more frequently now, and whatever it was, it was getting worse.

_'__What the hell is happening to me?'_

* * *

_'__It can't hurt me, it can't hurt me, there's **NOTHIN'** there,' _I told myself again and again, unsure if I was actually saying the words, or merely thinking them, as I sat in the darkness, cold and alone.

_'__At least I **think** I'm alone.'_

The cavern had been deserted when I'd hidden in here like a sulking idiot, trying to dodge chores and my little stalker. I'd checked thoroughly for all the usual signs of habitation usually left by wild animals, or something a might bit more sinister, and had found nothing recent.

_'__Of course, I hadn't been expectin' a **cave in** then, so what do I know?' _I was lucky to have been huddled towards the back of the cave when the shaking had started, bracing myself as my only exit was buried in rubble. Perhaps due to the mountain above splintering, maybe?

For all I knew, a new cavern could've opened up in the chaos, and monsters of all shapes and sizes could be shifting around as we speak, my mind racing through the possibilities as every shifting stone, every crunch of dirt that was a monster intent on blood. Rationally, I knew it was silly, but of course, when was the imagination ever rational?

I was getting thirsty now, having lapped up what little remained in my canteen a few hours ago. A bad call on my part, and a stupid error to make. I'd be fine, though. The gang would be looking high and low for me; Dad would be tearing his hair out shouting orders... But would they really know to search the steppes? I'd come out this far trying to get away from the lot of 'em... And now...

"Someone... _Anyone_! P-please!... Please..." My voice, hoarse from disuse, petered off with a whine, as it merely reverberated throughout the cavern. I didn't have the strength to shift that kind of rubble, and in the dark, I was only more likely to hurt myself, than accomplish anything particularly useful.

_'__I'm gonna die down here...' _I realized as the minutes ticked by, and the scratching ache in my throat grew stronger and more pronounced. _'Alone... In the dark...'_

Death wasn't a new concept to me, having seen more than a few people ripped apart by a lucky Grimm, shot up or killed on heists, or who'd simply fallen prey to the menagerie of hazards the environment itself provided. Annie, Skinny... Only a pair of names on a long list I had, until today, held myself apart from.

_'__I'd always thought it'd be fast... Wanted it to be fast, at least... But this...' _Getting shot in the back, or crushed under a speeding train weren't exactly prime ways I'd consider checking out, but when the alternative was slowly wasting away in some cave... _'If I don't choke to death, first... Air's gettin' tight...'_

"Please... I don't want to die! I can't die!... Not yet!" I clutched at my ears as the shout echoed once again, taunting me... "Anyone!? Can anyone hear me! _Hello_!?" It was a vain hope, born out of desperation and an attempt to do something, anything, rather than just sit there and think about the worms making a home in my skull. I didn't expect anyone to respond. It was impossible in my mind...

So when a sudden dull thump shook the cavern, with enough force to set debris falling from the ceiling around me, I leapt up, immediately losing my balance in the darkness, as the sound was followed by more blows, each one sounding closer than the last.

_'__No... That's not...!?'_

I skirted away from the noise once I realized the sound was real, and not a figment born from lack of oxygen. Whatever it was, a monster at least the size of a Deathstalker by the sounds of it, carved its way towards me impossibly, through several feet of displaced stone.

I expected a lot of things, chief of which being that I'd managed to piss my way into some demon of destruction's little hideaway. What I didn't expect was the blinding flash, as light spilled into the cavern, forcing me to flinch away, trying to peer through teared up eyes.

Reika stood highlighted by the sun, heaving ragged breaths in tattered clothes, positively glowing with a sort of purplish energy. Exactly the same kind that my parents had used.

_'__Aura... The kid can use **Aura**!?'_

Something about hers was different, though. Even at the most desperate of times, my father's had barely been more than a light shimmer outlining his body. Hers burned like a blaze.

"R-_Reika_?... How did you...?" I tried to get up, but stumbled due to cramped muscles. Thankfully, she was there in an instant, holding me up and guiding me out into the air. Brilliant, clean, indescribable air!

I took it all in in greedy gulps, growing steadily more aware of the stunned ring of onlookers encircling the front of the cave in, Dad chief among them. All of them stared at the small girl supporting me with something akin to shock and incredulity. Not that I could much blame them.

"I... I think you might have some explainin' to do." I laughed despite myself, the girl not exactly sharing the humor, as she dropped me unceremoniously to the dusty ground, leaving me with one more burning question.

_'__Why'd she do it? Go so far to save, after everything I've...?'_

* * *

"C'mon, Boss, let go! I was gonna do it in just a minute! I just needed...!?" I struggled against the man's vice-like grip, doing my best to resist the pull of his arm, but failing, as he dragged me across the campsite, much to the amusement of everyone watching. "_DAD_!"

The Bandit leader just laughed, sweeping a hand through his dust filled hair, but keeping his pace, if anything tugging me even more sharply. "You've been eyein' her like a Creep for the last hour. Women like initiative and honesty, especially when the man knows he's made a right ass of himself."

"Hypocrite!" A voice from the side shouted, followed by an audible gulp and more laughter, as the elder Carson shot him a glare. "P-practice what you p-preach, Boss! Women don't appreciate liars, either!"

"Like you would know, Sherwood! Closest you've gotten to a woman was your sister's boot when she ran you out!" Shifty wrapped an arm around the unfortunate man's shoulder, chuckling as he tried to escape the stench on reflex. "And I doubt you'd know honesty if it bit you on the... Gah, hey! Ah!" He was cut off as Ma, beautiful red headed vixen she was, dragged him off kicking and shouting by the ear. "A-avenge me, lads! Carry on my story so cruelly silenced... Gah, watch it, you old...!"

"I might be old, but not as old as that garbage you've been readin', _Phineas Cornell_!"

_'__Wait... '**Phineas**?' Oh, I am **never** gonna let him hear the end of... Oh **c'mon**!' _I swore loudly, my father managing to bat the marbles out of my hand before I could toss them at his feet. "Lay off!"

"Not until I hear you." We drew upon the edge of the fire pit, where the guest of honor was seated, looking truthfully as if she'd like nothing more than to blend back into the crowd. Least we had that in common. She probably didn't like how the firelight highlighted the scars, making them stand out in even greater relief. "Now Reika, I believe Ben, here, has something he'd like to say to you. Don't you, son?" His hands, honed from years of pickpocketing, gun slinging, and the like, clapped on my shoulders with enough speed to stop me from bolting, and enough force to root me in place, and set my knees shaking.

She looked between the two of us with a suspicious glimmer in those violet eyes, the same that I'd seen glowing only hours before in the dim light. Thankfully, they weren't now, which probably meant she wasn't going to tear me apart limb from limb. At least not yet, anyway. She'd been more than happy to show off for Dad and Ma, however, lifting near impossible loads, jumping incredible heights... The men had made quite a game of it, especially when she'd juggled those stones around like rubber balls, one difficult for even the biggest men to carry.

The bandit boss said it came with an abundance of Aura, though even he was surprised by what she could pull off.

_'__Yeah, I think rippin' his son from a miniature cave in qualifies as 'strange.''_

"_DON'T YOU, SON_?" Bill said with more force this time, my neck nodding before I could stop myself, grimacing as the small girl stared at me in that blank way she did sometimes, as if she could tell what I was thinking before I could.

_'__Read all you like, short stuff. He ain't lyin'...' _I seethed, clearing my throat as I did my best to regain my dignity, or at least as much as I could hope to get back with this lot cackling behind me.

"Ahem, Reika..." The girl in question cocked her head, a few thick strands of dark hair falling into her face like a curtain, her eyes peeking out. The whole look was almost sickeningly adorable. "I'll be the first to say I haven't exactly been _fair_ to you."

"That's sugarcoatin' it," Dad murmured from overhead, wheezing as I elbowed him in the stomach.

"I've been difficult, and have insulted you for no good reason..."

"And...?"

"And nasty..."

"_And_... _Oof_!" He winced, clutching at his foot as I stamped down hard with a steel heeled boot, while at the same time Reika, surprisingly enough, tried to push him away. The end result was her unleashing her full untrained strength on the man while he was off balance, sending him flying, much to the amusement of all including the two of us, once she realized he convinced her he was alright.

I clapped my hands together to get her attention, bowing my head to her in a way that had her looking at me as if I'd just gone insane. "And I blamed you for somethin' you didn't do... That I'm sure _no one_ meant to do. It was stupid, childish, and... And..."

She was smiling now, laughing silently to herself it looked like, her shoulders quivering as she did her best to hold it in. "..." I watched her dumbstruck for a few moments, mouth agape.

"...And you look really cute when you smile." Suddenly, I was on the ground next to Dad, clutching at my chest gingerly, as the jeering crowd had another laugh at my expense. "Ah... Was it something I said!?"

"Your first rejection... I-I'm so proud..." Bill groaned weakly, obviously finding the laughter contagious. Hell, I was doing it to now, even though it had me swearing with every wheezing breath. "Women are beautiful, mysterious creatures, my boy. Every one of 'em. Knowin' how they think is like trying to..."

"D-Dad, I get it. Now can someone call Ma back!? I-I think she broke a rib..."

* * *

_'__Dammit, where are they!?'_

I watched through the scope of my new Huntsman grade sniper rifle, a miracle of Kingdom military engineering put together from stolen bits of tech, and modified extensively by various members of our little family as a reward for finally managing to hold my Aura, bitch that it was, for longer than a few seconds. Other forms of congratulations had been proposed, mostly involving a fair bit of drinking and company of a feminine persuasion, hastily, and harshly, vetoed by Ma. The weapon had been a compromise, a sort of coming of age tradition in the Badlands. After all, one couldn't call themselves an adult if they couldn't defend themselves and their own.

Now I'm sat up on this ridgeline, with a nice view of William "Bill" Carson being marched to the gallows, beaten, bruised, and manacled, in the middle of a crowd of jeering bastards, who probably never struggled a day in their lives, judging him for doing what he could for the little man, and the dour workers and laborers there to honor a local hero, who'd finally run afoul of fate. My palms itched, thumbing the trigger as I had every day since that heist had gone south and news of his capture had reached us.

"Gonna all be okay, kid. Old Bill's gotten outta _way_ worse than this without a scratch!"

_'Yeah fucking right...'_ I seethed, parroting Shifty's words back at him through gritted teeth before snarling as the man himself jabbed me between the ribs. "Ah! This is _bullshit_! Let's just...!"

"Use that big head of yours, kid. Pipsqueak and the rest of 'em are still gettin' into place. We got a good plan..." he tried to reassure me, not quite able to hide the doubt on his lined face even as he said it. He was getting old.

I wasn't having it. Not now. "A plan that should've gone off by now! They've got Schnee goons riling up the crowd, slowin' things down. They _know_ we're here!"

"Bill wouldn't want a riot to happen, and get innocent people hurt in the crossfire. Even if was to save his own neck, or..."

I tuned him out as the burly guards flanking him picked the stumbling Bandit off the ground, practically tossing him up on the deck, where a man in a thick pressed suit stood, reading off his many crimes from the looks of it, looking like a pyro in a Dust shop. The urge to put an explosive tipped round in his skull was maddening, made more so as the headaches started up again after being dormant for so long.

_'__C'mon, Reika... **C'MON**!' _My mind was racing, running through the fast fragmenting plan, wishing I could've micro managed the whole damn thing to the letter. _'Behind my back, thinkin' I'm fragile... **IDIOTS**!'_

The ache was like a nail being driven between my eyes, my vision blurring as spots of green began to show up at the corners, distorting colors.

They were putting the noose around his neck, the man giving one last sour grin and a spit in his captor's face... _'Do something'...'_

A shot rang out, and hope rose as the man about to pull the lever collapsed, screaming as he clutched at the stump where his hand had been. Shouts and a burst of motion rang out, as the crowd panicked, and what could only have been Reika sent soldiers flying bodily through the air in her haste to reach her leader...

She looked like a monster plucked from a storybook, that terrifying mask she'd taken to wearing more and more often peeking out from behind her hair, creating the visage of a snarling beast.

_'I hate that fuckin' mask.'_

Another thing I could've stopped, but now... Now it was useful.

_'__Faster! Get him out of... Watch it!'_ I was so distracted by the Law Keepers, both of whom were glowing with Aura as they converged on the girl. That, and the dozen other firefights breaking out through the town square.

"Focus, kid! Aw, _shit_!"

In the chaos, the suit had made a leap for the lever before I could pull the trigger, Shifty putting him down a moment too late with a crack of his own rifle, the big bastard's body crashing to the floor, dropping through the trap door that had fallen out from under Dad.

_'**NO**!'_

I was heedless of the warning Shifty called out, vaguely aware of the man ducking as the space around us was pockmarked with returning fire, the soldiers having picked out our sniper's nest. I didn't care. It would've taken monumental luck for one of those shots to get much closer than they were now in that panic. Besides, I was too wrapped up in watching the swaying rope and my father's jerking body to notice such minor details, his Aura having kept his neck from snapping, but was slowly giving way under the force of gravity. The pounding in my skull only grew...

One breath later and I was trying to line up a shot on the swaying rope, mind racing through a dozen split second calculations over distance and wind speed, knowing there just wasn't enough time to... Time to... The headache vanished, suddenly, and I began to notice with wide eyes that the world was slowing. I turned my head a fraction, and saw shifty old Cornell in the middle of falling back, a bullet having caught him in the meat of his shoulder, a swear forming on his lips... Dust and rubble danced in slow clouds before my eyes slowly budding into a dozen shapes and patterns... as well as the rope holding Dad creaking ans swaying in my goggles scope...

On instinct, I pushed my fledgling Aura to the limit, just as Dad had shown me weeks before, my hands a blur as I adjusted, exhaled and fired, watching the swirling round cut through the air, and then the rope, in a long fluid motion.

_'__Beautiful...'_

It was the one word I could think of that was accurate enough to describe the feeling of seeing Dad on the ground, gasping for breath, with Reika sprinting over towards him, firing her own weapon at her pursuers, both mercifully alive. I moved towards the others, firing shot after shot, expending my ammunition in seconds, as enemy after enemy fell like puppets with their strings cut. And at the end of it all...

"H-holy _shit_, kid! H-how did you...?" the fat man breathed in disbelief, as he watched our people make their escape, blending into the crowd while the Law Keepers tried to keep order. "That was... Kid?"

I didn't hear him, already having emptied my stomach, as I clutched my rifle's torn out firing pin in a death grip, snapped off and fire-blackened from the sheer reload speed, and passed out before my head had even slumped to the sands.

* * *

"Damned Atlesians," I growled, sighting down the scope my goggles provided, as a smirking man in a white suit, flanked by a pair of armed mechs, held out small slip of paper, waving it like a treat before the elderly couple standing in the doorway of the small farmstead. A farmstead, and many others like it as recently discovered, that was currently sitting on top of one of the largest Dust veins in a region, slated to become the next big outpost of the SDC. "Bastards couldn't force 'em to sell, so they bought it out from under 'em."

The representatives of the northernmost Kingdom were as cold as the blizzards that wracked their region, and as oppressive as well. They took what they wanted through political and monetary means where they could, and little better than armed robbery when forced. Coming from someone who pinched supply trains for a living, that was saying something.

They'd always been an issue to the less fortunate of the Badlands, scooping up generations of old plots of land, occasionally hiring the displaced families if it suited them for near slave prices, all the while setting up these flimsy excuses for CCT towers for the PR, that barely covered enough distance to reach someone in the next settlement over, if you were lucky and the weather was good. This Dust vein, however, and others like it...

"I'm gonna put a stop to this... One day." Reika gave me a sullen look, but, as expected, said nothing, even in our little hand talk. Rare thing, too. We'd just managed sentences, and once we'd discovered a way for the girl to "talk," well... Let's just say now that the only issue was getting her to stop, jabbing or otherwise beating me into the ground when I didn't pay attention. Not now, though. "They don't have any _right_."

Problem was they did, at least where politics were concerned.

I could fight, I suppose, take out this group. But what then? The old farmer and her husband would either be taken in for having some connection to outlaws, and lose their land, _OR_ blamed for the incident, be imprisoned brutally in some prison camp, _AND_lose their land. The problem with having a tactical mind was that you imagined all the things that could possibly go wrong, as much as you do when they go right.

Robbing trains and giving back what we could was nice and all, admirable in itself, but we couldn't give people their homes, their land, and everything that the outsiders had taken out from under them, while our "leaders" enjoyed the profits.

I couldn't help this couple now... But one day...

* * *

"One day, I swear I'm gonna fix things... No idea how, yet, but I know liftin' trains ain't really cuttin' it. Not that I don't enjoy the life; it's thrillin' enough." I reclined back on the raggedy bed, taking another draw from the cig, eyebrow rising at the same rate as the red headed beauty's trousers as she did up her belt. "Soooo...Dalia, where do you see yourself in..."

"It's _Cherry_, actually," she shot over her shoulder with a small giggle through her ringlet curls, knowing this song and dance already, all casual between us, just how I liked it. "Dalia was last week, remember? Vacuoan, the one with the cuffs?" Her rosey lips spread into a hearty smirk, as I lolled my head against the rough wood wall, unable to hide the blush. "Pretend to forget all you like. Long as you remember the good bits, I don't really mind much."

I shrugged, rolling my right shoulder which still burned somewhat from last night. _'Dad's gonna kill me... A tattoo. Not that he has any right to complain.' _I'd spent six months thinking up the emblem: a cross hairs with a cracked deputy star at the center. Damn right I'm was gonna wear it proudly.

"In my defense, she wanted to play sheriffs and outlaws. I was just playin' along."

"_Suuuure_ you were."

She finished buttoning up her frilly shirt and leather vest, both now sporting a few extra tears I couldn't help but be proud of, before sitting herself down in front of the cracked mirror sat atop the desk, messing around with a few paints she put on her face for the day. I'd learned more than a few tidbits about women throughout the years, at least enough to know when I should shut up and enjoy the view.

So I sat there pondering the morning away in peaceful repose. Wasn't often I got to enjoy myself like this. Usually my days were taken up by schedules, plans, charts and the like, now that dear old Dad was letting me take the reins a bit more when it came to running things. The "rewards of age," he called it.

Like I said, mornings where I wasn't having to shout some lazy sod out of his bunk, and kick ten more into gear were rare, and I intended to enjoy every minute of it, especially with a firebrand like this one around for the sort of company. Only one an old friend could provide.

_'__Who would've thought knobby kneed Cherry would grow up into such a...' _The girl in question saw me looking, and had me on the ropes with but a wink. _'Well...How did I miss this jewel?' _Personal matters, I recalled. Something about her dad, though that had been years ago back when we'd last passed through these parts. _'Gotta make up for lost time, I think. Gentlemanly thing to do in this situation.'_

We'd already done quite a bit of that, I think, even before making our way out to this secluded little hideaway. If only I could see the look on the Mayor's face when he woke up to find what we scrawled in his study. Amazing the lack of security these days.

"So you wanna change things? Like the Atlesians? Good luck," she finally spoke up, as I crawled out of bed, searching the room for bits of clothes tossed about in the "struggle." "You realize they have an _army_, right? And money. And clout with the Kingdoms, who you may have noticed don't like our lot very much. Least that's what my old man says. We're better off just joining up with 'em."

"He's a Dust miner, right? Your dad I mean. Not that I'm judgin', of course. It's an honest living, after all. We all take what we can get."

"Obviously." She glanced at me, before sticking her tongue out teasingly. "And no, he's not some miner. Poor bastards."

I nodded along, starting to feel genuinely curious, or it might just've been my palms tingling again, putting me on edge. "Security guard, then?"

"Something like that..."

"Ooh, _mysterious_."

"If only..." She spun back around in her seat, and peered at her Scroll as it buzzed. A fancy thing, probably from her father, now that I thought about it. Her eyes lit up as she jumped to her feet, startling me. "You have to go, now!"

"Wha...?" Suddenly the pleasant atmosphere was rent by the sound of horns blaring, and engines roaring. As such, I did the only thing any sensible man would do, and hit the deck. Meanwhile, Cherry worked her way over to the window and peered out, an exasperated look on her face.

"He put a tracker on my... Guh! Damn it, Daddy!"

"_Daddy_!?" Yay. The _one_ thing all men fear after a pleasant night with a girl. Her dad. "The hell is...?! Who!?" I pulled myself to the window with a blanket clutched around my waist. Not the most dignified appearance, but hey, you can't plan your way out of a situation until you know you're actually in one. Judging by the posse of rough dressed individuals clutching weapons, riding spike covered means of transport, it was quite safe to say I was. Especially after I got a look at the red haired man in modified Atlesian battle dress leading them.

"_CARSON_!"

"Your name wouldn't happy to be Cherry _Rouge_, would it?" I sighed in defeated acceptance, the sigh turning into something of a whine when I saw her nod, her hands covering her face. "And your Dad's..."

"Rouge the Ravager: famed outlaw, and now enforcer for the Schnee Dust Company. Yep." Also famed for crimes against the Kingdom and its people, raiding several of its prominent shipping routes, and a man who's basically sworn to take my father's head in on a spike. Can't forget that.

_'__And I... And his daughter... Welp, least I know why she didn't let me play at her place.' _I could salvage this. It wasn't impossible. He just seemed to think I'd kidnapped her or something sinister. Easy mistake to make, right?

Right?

"_RELEASE MY DAUGHTER_,_ CARSON_! _I HAVE WORD YOU'RE IN THERE_! _IF YOU'VE HARMED ONE HAIR ON HER HEAD_...!"

"Doesn't let you get out much, does he?" The glare she shot me could've sent a Razorback running for the hills. "Okay... We can fix this. Just gotta explain that everything was of your own free... Wait what're you...?" I paused as she pecked my cheek, before sprinting to the door as fast as her legs could carry her.

Although, she did seem a bit tender... _NOT NOW_!

"_C-CHERRY_! _GIRL, ARE YOU_...!?" Wow, he does _not_ stop _screaming_, though he did at least have his men lower their weapons. That had to be promising. "_DID HE_...?"

Now she just needs to explain how this is all one big...

"Oh, Daddy...!" She ran into his open arms, sobbing... Why is she sobbing? She shouldn't be sobbing...that wasn't the plan. "I'm _so_ glad you're here! T-That man... That _beast_! The _things_ he made me do! Made me kiss him, and... a-and... Where he wanted me to...I can't..." She buried her face in his chest, angling it so that her father and his men couldn't see her face.

It was really very well done when one looked at it objectively, her makeup applied just so to create easy paths for tears to fall and stand out on her face, but still looking dignified like Daddy's little girl should be, the hysterics and waterworks just enough to get him mad. Not too hard, I'm guessing, but not enough to provoke suspicion her way. Still, they saw a girl crying. I saw her face glance back in a mix of apologetic smugness, even a wink.

At the moment I didn't really know whether to be hurt by the betrayal, or impressed by the performance, having basically guaranteed herself taking none of the blame of this, and appeal to her father all in one. Still a bitch move, yeah, but I would probably have done the same in her shoes, so only a few hard feelings.

"_OH_, _BABY GIRL_! _I'M HERE NOW_. _YOU'RE SAFE_... _CARSON_! _PREPARE YOURSELF_!"

I popped my head from the window, determined to still make a go of it, and put off the inevitable for at least a bit longer if I could. I realized, only a few moments after I had, that I was still very much in a compromising position, clothing-wise.

_'__Too late now.'_

"Rouge, is that you!? How've you been lately? I heard about the deal with Atlas, but-" My tirade was met with the simultaneous clack, as over a dozen guns took aim at once, all pointed for my skull, "O-okay, alright!... Now, you might be thinkin', 'I should shoot this young man without hearin' his side of the story.' But I promise, if you just be patient and listen for a moment, the answer might surprise y- _SON OF A BITCH_!" I leapt away from the window just before it was ripped to shreds in a hail of Dust tipped lethality, crawling across the floor, all the while struggling to do up my pants, as bullets continued to wiz overhead.

_'__This is karma for something, isn't it?...' _I wondered, waiting for a momentary lapse in gunfire to snatch up my poncho and goggles, and leap out the back window. I crouched over glass shards, Aura keeping off the worse as I made for cover, trying my best to think small. _'Still, don't regret it, though.'_

And like an angel come to answer my prayers, screams rose up from the assembled posse, polka music playing in the background, and the shooting abating just long enough for something metal, and loud as hell, to crash through what remained of the shack, leaving me stunned but unharmed, as a small figure, driving what looked to be a stolen land rover, lowered her hood and offered her hand, eyes exasperated as they peered down at me. Exasperated, but not surprised.

"Reika, I could kiss you!"

Ater getting my poncho and goggles hastily, I dived at her, only to receive a punch in the gut, as I was unceremoniously picked up and shoved into the back seat upside down, the girl gesturing to the state of my dress, before roaring out, leaving the stunned mercenaries in the Dust before they could even think to follow. We still doubled around for almost an hour, just to make sure we lost them. No shame in being too careful, after all.

"So... I can explain this," I started, but the girl held up a hand, massaging her temples in worn out acceptance, and motioning to a satchel stuffed underneath her seat, which I found to be burgeoning with new clothes... Well not "new," but you get the idea. "You're the best, Pipsqueak. Y'know that?"

_"__Damn right."_

I snorted at the bluntness, and soon enough, I could see her shoulders shaking as well, a sign of her usual silent laughter.

_"So the job's still on?" _I signed, as I struggled into the shirt she'd provided, while doing my best to avoid a mouthful of dust. _"All good to go?"_

She nodded, a note of concern flitting across her eyes as she gazed back at the path ahead, veering suddenly to avoid a Deathstalker peering out from its den just ahead of us. _"I don't like it. Not telling Bill, going behind his back... It isn't right." _She flashed back, her discomfort obvious at a glance, at least to me anyway. It wasn't the first time she'd voiced such concerns, but I couldn't back down. Not now.

_'__If my contact's right, the tech on that train'll be worth a **fortune**... And the tracking number on those crates'll lead to one **Abigail Carson**...' _It wasn't much, but it was a trail. A slip up after years of false ends and failed attempts, to close the distance and get the bitch in my sights. _'She thinks the Atlesians can keep her double-crossin' hide safe? Well... We'll just have to see about that.'_

* * *

Pressure. Rending metal. A blazing heat searing across flesh...

I gasped awake, lungs clawing for air, reaching for breath that was coming in small fits and bursts between wracking coughs that tasted like smoke and ash. Then my hearing returned, a ringing buzzing dulled by something wet, that trickled down the sides of my head, fading into the crackling background... Almost like a campfire.

Everything hurt. My ribs, my legs, even my skin... Though for some reason, I couldn't quite feel anything on my right. If anything, it felt lighter, lighter than it ever had before.

My sight came last, my eyes flickering open to find my right one tinged red, as blood trickled down my brow, staining my vision. I was lying in a pit of scrap, which was all that remained of the engine block of the train, the Dust Engine. I remembered something going wrong, a worker trying to fight me off. We wrestled, he fired, I screamed... And then light, as I reached up drawing upon my Aura. Probably the only reason I'm still alive.

_'__R-Reika... **Reika**!'_

Thought of my partner lost in all this sprang to the forefront, as my synapses fired off in a burst of motion, my torso rising, only to fall back at the herculean effort. Whatever I'd done had upset the delicate balance of the wreckage, as the floor fell out from under me, sending me tumbling down the pile, with only grunts of pain to mark my passing, only to lie in a heap at the bottom near a trickling stream, that had miraculously survived against all odds.

My throat burned red hot. I was so thirsty. I reached out to try and drag myself forward, only to find... Nothing. I glanced down, and where once had been my right arm, there was now only a mangled stump, hanging limply from barely holding sinew, blackened and burned like meat.

"W-w-what the... What _the_ _FUCK_!?... _GAH_!" I threw up, despite myself, falling to my side as my whole body shook and spasmed.

Reika was there the next moment... Or maybe much later? The sky had changed color. Perhaps I passed out.

She looked like hell, burnt hair hanging around her face, clothes in ruins, and a horrified look across her now unmasked face, that I didn't need to be an expert to know was for me. It didn't suit her, and in my delirium, I asked her why.

_'__**Why**?'_

* * *

"...The hell's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Ironwood seemed taken aback. With good reason, probably, as I doubt the General of what was arguably the greatest military force on the surface of Remnant was used to such an... _informal_ reply after introducing himself. Not like a man like James Ironwood should've expected much better, given the circumstances.

Reika stood looking like a barely muzzled guard dog on my right, violet eyes glaring at the Atlesian, as if expecting him to attack, or call in his goons any moment. One hand was curled into a tight fist, while the other had a firm grip on my... what was _left_ of my shoulder. Still had to get used to that.

The last few days since regaining consciousness had been difficult, to say the least. My whole body felt the loss of the limb acutely with every passing second. I'd still catch myself expecting to reach for something on my right, only to realize the stupidity of the act shortly after. My innate balance was warped to hell, making the scant few steps I'd managed to take outside of this damned bed since then awkward and unsteady. The worst, however, by far, was the phantom pains. The strange, burning twinge of sensation I would get from nothing, playing with my subconscious like a drunk on a fiddle. All in all, it sucked, and I couldn't help but lash out at the first thing that gave me cause to, especially if they were almost literally asking for it.

"Your father has come forward, rather admirably, I might add, and has come to an agreement that both myself, and Atlas' chief officials, find acceptable."

"I'm crippled, not dumb! I understood that bit," I said with a sharp twang that I hadn't meant to give, not really, anyway. I almost immediately regretted it, once I saw my partner's eyes twitch beneath the surgical mask she wore. "I-I meant what does that mean for him; for us? I take it you have some plan, or we'd both be in cuffs right now."

It was stupid and self-depreciative, but the snarky part of my mind wondered how that would even work from now on, given... well. The wound burned, setting a cold sweat down the back of my neck. _'It's like it's still there...'_

Reika flashed a few warning signs my way, fingers twitching subtly so that Ironwood wouldn't make it out, but standing out like a familiar, and comforting, beacon to my eyes.

_"__Say the word and I'll move. Do it?" _And she probably would too, I expected, attack one of the leaders of an entire Kingdom at one whispered word, or covert gesture. I appreciated that loyalty, though I wouldn't ask that of her. Not yet, anyway. The Atlesian lab coats already knew what they had in her, the reason for this conversation I guessed, though I had to be sure. _"**Do it**!?"_

I shook my head, making the message look as if I meant it for him, though he did seem to catch that her demeanor had relaxed somewhat soon afterwards.

_'__She doesn't look ready to rip his head off anymore, at least... That's somethin'.'_

"William Carson has placed himself in my custody, and will lend his expertise as an Indentured Huntsman, performing tasks for the benefit of the Four Kingdoms and their citizens for the foreseeable future. Better than what he might find in unaffiliated custody, I expect." He smiled at me, as if I was supposed to be thanking him for even bothering. Damned Atlesian power trip... "In return, we will not pursue his associates. As for both yourself and Miss Murasaki here, well... You're both admitted criminals, with a rather sordid history, judging by your reputation. However, given your unique situation, and Carson's testimony, it is clear that you were both coerced from a young age, and knew little alternative... In the views of the law and those in power, I mean." He added quickly, as the look on both our faces darkened, making it clear he didn't share the rather insulting opinion. "In light of this, I have arranged that, rather than place you in confinement, you will instead be enrolled within a combat school, and trained to protect others against the Grimm. With what we've heard and witnessed so far, you should be more than capable of making the cut."

He paused, noting the stunned look we both shared with some measure of amusement. "W-woah, kay, slow down a minute there." I cleared my throat, which was suddenly a bit too dry for comfort, gesturing to Reika and then to myself. "You want _us_ to be Huntsman? Slayers of Grimm, heroes of the innocent, government sanctioned... I mean Reika, maybe. But you _do_ realize I'm missin' an _arm_, right? At best, I'm a good looking chew toy."

_"__This is dogshit..." _my partner's hands spelled out shakily, her hands trembling despite herself. Personally, I was more than inclined to agree with her on that one. There had to be a catch.

"Despite what you might think, your injury is hardly limiting in this day and age." He nodded to my stump, something close to empathy flickering in his eyes for a moment. Just a moment, though. He likely thought the slip went unnoticed. Not to me. "It's only a detriment if you allow it to be. In time, it may just become a source of strength."

"Yeah... Sure," I humored him, though something about the way he said it did strike something deep down in me. A glimmer of hope, maybe? "Point still stands, though. We're not exactly what you'd call 'Huntsman material.'"

Huntsmen and Huntresses were supposed to be the pinnacle of mankind's hope to beat back the darkness. The best of us serving a noble cause, which was utter Kingdom childhood fantasy shit, seeing as I'd met a few rogues and scoundrels here and there that had once ascribed to the profession, and they were hardly what you'd call "heroic." Hardly even worthy of being called "decent" half the time.

Ironwood just chuckled, as if it were the simplest thing in the world to understand. Frankly, it was starting to get on my already frayed nerves. "You'll find I believe in not wasting potential when I see it," he said, clasping his hands behind his back, and straightening to his full impressive height. "Huntsman come from all walks of life. Some of the best I've known found their start in humble beginnings, and went on to serve with distinction. Circumstance may have forged a path, but you have the choice to choose other roads. Four years, training, learning, and then you're both free to choose what happens next. Within reason, of course."

So basically, we get free reign to choose a career, but one whiff of criminal intent, and he and his goons sweep the carpet out from under us. Amazing how much simpler things would be if people just said what they meant, rather than beating around the bush. Typical politics, I supposed.

"So our Boss is stuck runnin' errands, and we get to play academics?"

"You're a smart young man. You must be able to see this is far better than the alternative. I'm offering you both a chance. A chance to be something greater; to make a lasting difference in the world."

_'__Like your lot?'_

I refrained from retorting that one, glancing at Reika one last time for that almost imperceptible nod of hers, before turning back to the General, forcing myself to sit up in the bed, which was harder than you might think with the shift in weight and balance. I managed it, though, making sure I was somewhat dignified in my hospital robe, shit eating grin and all.

"Alright, General... We accept your generous terms of surrender..." Good. Just witty enough to get the point across and put a slight frown in his eye without being too stand offish. Didn't stop him from jumping the gun, though.

"Excellent. I already have two available spots in Atlas Academies' coming semester ready and waiting-"

"On the condition that _we_ get to choose the school," I interjected, Reika's mouth curling into a smile beneath the fabric mask at my words, all the while Ironwood's plummeted like a bombshell. "Atlas'... not really our style, I think. Too heavy handed on the military indoctrination thing, from what I've heard. Mistral's nice, but once you've seen the artwork, the rest of it's sort of just swamps, and old history. So I guess Haven's out."

The General was stewing, a vein pulsing at the base of his neck and beneath the strip of iron over his eye, the sight of which was more satisfying in some sick way than I could ever truly describe.

_'__That one's for you, Dad.'_

"A-alright then... I suppose it's between Vacuo's Shade and Vale's Beacon, then? I do have a connection with..." He paused as I motioned to Reika with a quick hand sign, the girl cocking her head slightly, before pulling a lien chit from her robe she must've picked up from one of the staff. Ironwood's eyes widened in alarm at that, seeing as we weren't supposed to have anything that might be used as a weapon.

She then tossed it to me, me having little trouble catching it with my left... _only_ hand. I gave the worn faces a once over, tossing it around a bit in my hand, before grinning at the General cheekily. "I'm thinking Heads for Vale, and Tails for Vacuo. Sound good?" Reika nodded, the outline of a smile easily visible behind her mask, as I tossed the coin up in the air with a flick of my finger, my eyes flashing green as I followed it all the way on its path downward...

_'__Man, the possibilities...'_

-END

**-CODEX-**

**Fool's Gambit – **A popular blanket term for various card games played in the Frontier Region, known as the "Badlands" to its inhabitants, that in ways boldly represents the lifestyle and values beholden of a culture that thrives in such adverse conditions. Many tourists, however, are unaware of this game at a glance, seeing it little more than a slightly more jovial standard game of Poker, or even something as simple as Go Hunt. The rules of such games are much the same as their Kingdom counterparts, except it is considered disrespectful to follow the rules. To clarify, it is actually promoted for players to try and cheat, or misdirect, their opponents.

The goal is to win, as always, but to be seen as doing it fairly, ironically enough, with discovered deceptions immediately called out and punished, in accordance of house rules, which tend to vary in severity. The practice has sparked a popular myth surrounding the luck of Badland residents, and is meant to act as a means of teaching valuable skills and to provide income from their inevitable victims, making it quite popular as a first means of finance for enterprising children in large settlements.

**(Excerpt from ****_Without Honor and Proud: A Gentleman's Guide to the Expanse, _****a guidebook that enjoyed early popularity in Atlas, but was soon boycotted by protesting locals as "baseless and untrue," and was taken down. Author and respected explorer Giles Amaranth has since fallen into bankruptcy after many extended trips to the region, and was unable to be reached for comment.)**

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Phineas "Shifty" Cornell - Jim Cummings

"Skinny" Marrow - Tom Kenny

Sherwood - Dee Bradley Baker

Ma - Grey DeLisle

Cherry Rouge - Kira Vincent Davis

Rouge the Ravager - Jeff Bennett

**_A/N: Free to answer any questions if people have them, next chapter will hopefully be out soon._**


	70. Chapter 70

**_Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One_**

DESPERATE TIMES

**_-Sonia Bordeaux-_**

_"_So, it's true, then? Everything you've just told me. _All_ of it? Answer me!"

The disheveled older woman cowering before me let out a shrill squeak of fright once, before burying her face in the plush carpet lining her office as I stood over her, snarling with an expression of... anger, pain, regret? So many emotions all at once, and all the while the sharp pain pulsing through my head only continued to grow, beating its way further into my skull with every passing moment, as it had since that woman had put me on the path to real answers.

_'Cinder... She hadn't been lying. Everyone else __**has**__! I've been so blind!' _I gasped as another throbbing pulse almost had me passing out, as a sickening wave of nausea come over me. It would pass, as soon as I let loose the floodgates again.

"P-please! N-no more..." she mumbled, sobbing almost incoherently into the floor, unable or unwilling to meet my gaze for fear of what might happen. The coward. "I-it was... W-we never meant for it to... We only wanted to help..."

_'Help me? Or help __**themselves**__? Help __**her**__!?'_

Mindless blabbering and more excuses. Excuses that soon cut off sharply with a keening whine through gritted teeth as I drew upon my Aura, and... and I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I could feel the pressure on my mind alleviate as my Semblance, my "gift," interacted with her Aura as it had with others countless times before in the course of my training, but never this intimately... Never this brutally.

I could feel the surface of her thoughts brush against my own, change her perception, and have her see what I desired more than the mere reflections and shadows they'd been before. I could even make her do what I wanted, if I tried hard enough. It always hurt if I went too far, though. Hurt both me and whoever it was I was attempting to perceive. My grasp of control was still too fresh, too heavy handed, like performing delicate surgery with a hammer.

_'But it's growing stronger.__** I'm**__ growing stronger...'_

If I chose to, as I had for this woman, this "doctor" who had thought to hide my mother's fate from me. The process could be... unpleasant. I took the pain I'd been feeling, and shared it with her with a bit of visual incentive from the depths of one of Maxine's darker paintings, the woman's back arching as she squirmed on the floor like a suffocating fish, mouth gaping silent screams I was sure not to let her utter aloud.

When I'd first realized this strange new phenomenon, I thought I was going mad. That I was beginning to hear voices at the corner of my conscious mind, and notice people acting strangely around me, doing what I wanted as if unconsciously. Well... suffice it to say I'd been hesitant, once I'd realized what it truly was, terrified even, of sharing it with my cousin.

Not just because of what I was afraid she might do with the information, but what I would be admitting to myself as well. Admitting my Semblance, that an integral part of myself, could run rampant like hers.

That I could lose control like that, all another unwanted change in my life since waking in that hospital, was just another thing I was ill-equipped to handle.

_'__**I **__was the strong one. __**I **__was supposed to be able to keep control of myself. __**I**__ was supposed to be the example...'_

I tried my best to hide it in the beginning, beating down my Aura whenever it started to act out of turn, and trying to avoid others when the voices started.

I knew, somehow, that the wretched woman had told me all that she'd known. Everything she'd been instructed to do. The story she was supposed to tell.. it was all flowing clearly to the forefront of my mind, as if the thoughts were my own. I just wanted to hear her say it. _That_ would make it all real.

_'She lied to me... Maxi __**lied**__ to me... And she got that bastard Ozpin to help her do it!'_

* * *

**(Hours Earlier)**

"M-Mother is... She can't... This isn't..." My hands shook, threatening to drop the Scroll my fellow Mistralan, this Cinder woman, had handed me. My voice wavered as I scanned through the article displayed across the screen again and again, desperately trying to find some sign that this was some sick joke.

**_"Famed painter, and avid public supporter for issues concerning Faunus rights Carmen Bordeaux has been hospitalized following her discovery in her estate, and remains unresponsive. The exact cause is unknown, but insiders have confirmed that the widower had been 'less lively' since the unfortunate accident that had befallen her only daughter..."_**

The date on the article caught my eye, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest. "This... This article was released months ago! Why hasn't...?" This wasn't the only one. The article linked to well over a dozen others.

Why hasn't anyone told me? Why hadn't _Maxine _told me!?

Ever since I'd been cleared to leave with my cousin, I'd tried to call home using the numbers Maxine and the headmaster had provided to let Mother know I was okay, only to be told she was feeling ill, and unable to answer, or that she was away. Carmen Bordeaux was an old-fashioned woman, never having bothered with her own personal Scroll. A fact I'd cursed for days, while Maxine had uncharacteristically tried to play peacemaker.

_'I thought it was merely guilt... But what if... No. No, that can't be. She wouldn't...'_

"You have my sympathies, Miss Bordeaux," Cinder said, actually sounding like she'd meant it, too... Something about her just felt strangely familiar, almost like... "I know what it's like to have something taken from you. To have my confidence betrayed by those close to me. It's... difficult to describe in...!"

"_STOP IT_!"

She paused as I slammed the Scroll on the table, cerulean Aura flaring vibrantly, with enough force to shatter the screen and draw some wary onlookers' eyes, eyes that only seconds later seemed to glaze over. I could hardly be bothered, however. At the moment, I was too focused on the suddenly, all-too alert Huntress who had flinched back in her seat, though more out of guarded reflex rather than any sense fear.

_'I'd be shocked if someone like this, with such an inner confidence, could even feel such an emotion...'_

"P-lease just... Just stop..." I felt my legs threaten to give way, hating myself for the sudden wish I had for my cane to be in hand. The feeling of weakness, of dependency. Before what strength I had could fail me, I felt warm hands take hold of mine, guiding me gently into her own seat, one I collapsed into ungracefully despite my best efforts. My whole body shivered with a sudden chill, my head pounding as my Aura... My Aura burned ice cold... The whispers...

_'N-not now! __**Please**__ not now!' _I wrenched my hand from her grip, reaching for the pocket of my jacket, and drawing the pills the doctors had prescribed, only for them to be knocked with a forceful slap from the woman, spilling the bright blue tablets across the ground.

"H-hey! What are you...!?

"You don't need those."

Cinder's words, and the determination behind them, swept over me like a calming breeze, as she took my hand in hers yet again, more firmly this time. The pressure behind my forehead eased as I looked up to find her examining me like one of Max's art pieces. What drew my attention was one amber colored eye seemingly flickering more so than the other, like an open flame.

Her hands were glowing as well, as her Aura interacted with mine, the feeling so familiar to my own, almost akin to a long lost cousin. Perhaps a sister...

"To be able to read the flow of Aura in others like an open book, perhaps even author pages of your own after a fashion..." she breathed with an air of excited curiosity, gazing back behind her at the subdued crowd. My own heart hammered as I noticed their blank expressions for the first time. "Breathe, Sonia. Just breathe. Remember that you have control."

"I... I..." I shut my mouth at her sudden stern glare, and did as she commanded, breathing in deeply, and taking the reins of my Aura yet again, feeling both triumphant and exhausted all at once as I let it slip away. The effect was immediate. Everyone who had been standing still as statues seemed to come back to life. They were confused, but seemingly unaware or uncaring that anything had been amiss at all. "I've never..."

"That's good, dear. Very good." Cinder released her hold on my hands, a small part of me already missing the warm balm that her Aura had seemed to provide me. Already, I could feel the beginnings of another ache building behind my eyes, promising to grow. "An excellent start."

I looked to her and then at my hands, cursing the shakes than ran through them. Cinder still looked at me with some interest, and, of course, I was no fool. "What do you want?" I said blithely, gripping my knees in my hands to steady them and regain some semblance of composure. "Who are you? You never said..."

"But I did." The ebony haired woman stood up and sat atop the edge of the table, crossing one leg over the other, smiling a small crooked grin that made the air warm around us. "I am someone who wishes to see the rule of tyrants and selfish fools, who cling to power while building cages for those that rightly deserve to stand above them, people like you, Sonia, come to an end. I and those I represent have been interested in your... _potential _for quite some time."

"And.. And who might 'those you represent' be?" The question was wary, and shaky, as well, though I tried to hide it as best I could, using the lessons Mother had drilled into me since I could walk.

_"Back straight, face forward, eyes set..."_

_'My Mother is laying in a hospital room like some corpse, just like I was... Did Maxi... Did she...!? No... No, don't think like that. She couldn't have...'_

The Huntress frowned, putting a finger to her lip, as if pondering how best to proceed forward. "That is... a difficult question to answer. And perhaps, one day, I can. Suffice it to say, we merely wish the best for Remnant, _all _of Remnant. We know what it is like to be betrayed, and left to sit in the shadows, while others..."

"Look, I don't know what you think you know, but my cousin, the Headmaster, t-they must've had their reasons..."

"Reasons not to tell a young girl about the fate of her own mother? Leaving her in the dark, confused and alone, without anyone to turn to? What's worse _lying_ to her? These aren't the actions of those seeking to protect, but to _control. _Tell me, your cousin, Maxine Argus, seems to have gone on to make quite a success of herself since your little "accident," hasn't she? A place at a prestigious combat academy, a team of loyal friends, the opportunity to show herself to the world in something like the Vytal Festival, living your dreams... And then you wake up, and suddenly she realizes she likes the attention."

"That's not... She's never...!"

But hasn't she?... Max had played the role of concerned family member in the beginning, but it was easy to see something had changed between us. A strange distance...

_'Trusting bandits and murderers... She's never been so open, even when we were in training together. She'd never kept secrets. Not from me. What if I was holding her back? What if... What if she was jealous of me?' _Question after question raced through my mind. Some were easily pushed away. Others, however... _'She says that it was an accident... but what if it __**wasn't**__? And to leave Mother alone... To abandon her, when she should've been at her side.'_

"Your cousin has experienced your true power first hand, yes? A gift that could help Mankind, but instead is dulled on Ozpin's orders, out of fear." Her eyes drifted to the tablets, narrowing with marked disgust. "And all the while, Maxine benefits by keeping you under her thumb."

"You don't understand, those are for my headaches. They're supposed to help..."

"They dull your emotions, in turn dulling your Aura's strength." A casual wave set a dozen burning across the ground like fire crackers. "Which consequently diminishes your strength, influencing your ability to heal, and even worse your control." She nodded towards my hands, which even now were shaking uncontrollably. "If you need proof..."

I wanted to laugh in her face, or better yet hit her with all the meager force I could muster... But her words made sense. Painful, all too real sense.

To lie about my mother, to hide her condition from me, was terrible enough, but to actively keep me from regaining a part of myself that she herself had stolen...

* * *

**(Present) – Vale General Hospital**

Cinder and I had spoken well into the night. Sections of her plans, tidbits of what she intended to do, and my role if I chose to participate.

I'd been frightened. Rightly so, as any loyal citizen should be. But even more so... I had been intrigued.

One merely had to look up at the sky to see where the current leadership's mind was focused on. Control through force, power through order, ideals so far removed from the ideals of individualism and expression I'd attributed to what the Kingdoms _should_stand for. The red woman was merely trying to bring about change through the only effective avenue she could. And that she'd come so far, that she could even conceive of it, was incredible enough in itself.

More importantly, it was a chance to be needed again. A chance to distinguish myself at last. Of course, I'd still been weak, then. What would I possibly be able to do with a body barely able to jog without doubling over? With an arm that could barely wield a weapon? With Aura I could hardly muster at will, let alone control?

But my benefactor had again provided an answer in the form of a small box filled with crimson patches. _"To aid in my recovery," _she'd said, before bidding me farewell, and disappearing into the night, leaving me alone to ponder my next moves in solemn silence... Well, aside from the constant inane whispering that only grew louder and louder.

It had taken me most of the day, sitting in Beacon's gardens overlooking the celebrations in the fairgrounds, and staring at that little box, thinking on the queen's words, before I made my decision, and placed one of the strange patches on my arm. The effects had been immediate... and rather excruciating.

I could still recall with terrifying clarity the searing burn roaring across my flesh, the spikes tearing through my veins as whatever chemicals contained within were released into my system, causing me to tumble from the grassy knoll I'd been seated into some thorny brambles, below unable to scream without fear of emptying my stomach, and breathing through agony laden gasps.

The effects had lasted for roughly a minute, and in that time, I'd been sure that I'd been duped, tricked into allowing some poison into my system. Snarling Cinder's, Maxi's, even the headmaster's names like curses, I seethed as my anger grew and grew, my very blood boiling until... until the pain had simply ceased to be, replaced by a feeling of serenity I couldn't quite fathom, until that too had faded, leaving me practically in tears at its absence.

It took some time before I was able to fully come back to myself, and free myself from the mess of thorns and branches. But when I did, I found myself almost literally ablaze with Aura. The exhaustion that had plagued my limbs was nonexistent, months of recovery coalesced and completed in seconds. My heart pounded as the world showed itself in greater detail than I'd ever seen before, every sensation blooming at the gentle caress of the Autumn wind, the rustle of a thousand blades of grass nudging my fingertips. Even better, the pressure that had been building in my skull was but an afterthought, and the whispers from without that had plagued me now mere background noise, easy to ignore.

Beyond the even physical joys, what I most felt keenly was a sense of clarity I clearly and purposefully couldn't quite explain. It was as if I knew what I had to do, and knew I had the tools to do so, so I did, simple as that. Before, I may have considered a direct march into Beacon General a bit too bold, reckless even. But I had a goal in mind, and I would not be denied...

"So **_why_ **did you do it? Give me drugs to stunt my recovery, trick me into thinking you were _helping _me, that my own mother was ignoring my attempts to contact her. Why?" I asked, kneeling down in front of the writing doctor, placing a finger on her temple, stilling her torment and leaving her gasping for breath in wheezing sobs, a grin spreading reflexively across my face at the pleasant tingling working its way down my spine.

_'Why does this feel good? It shouldn't feel like this, should it?' _I wondered idly, before dismissing the notion as another sharp trill of pleasure worked its way through my extremities. A part of me hardly seemed to care about whatever this inane woman was babbling about, a part I had to school back in to control. _'Back straight, face forward, eyes set…'_

"W-we received reports from the Headmaster regarding the condition of your Aura, t-the effect it had on your cousin prior to you... t-to you waking up. He thought it would be best to...!" She squeaked as I let out a snarl of purest rage, sharp and bestial, my fingers twitching dangerously across her brow, leaving small red lines.

"That _wasn't_ his decision to make!" And with that I silenced her with another delving probe, as my Aura pierced hers and suppressed it with barely a twitch of my brow, the woman going still with but a final pitiful whimper, and now stared dully with half glazed eyes as I got to my feet, dusting off my hastily assembled combat gear. Hardly up to the standards I'd wanted to convey, but it would have to do.

_'Similar to how I remember, back when I led Team SBLE... Wait, I never... When did I...?' _Again, I forced the away the afterthought, staring down at the Chief of Staff, before "dismissing" her as well, her eyes rolling back in their sockets as she slumped to the plush floor noiselessly, convulsing somewhat before lying still.

I likely could've done far worse. Of course, _that_ wouldn't have been proper from for a true Huntress such as myself. If I'd accomplished what I'd intended, she would awaken with no memory of what had occurred feeling, right as rain. Well... maybe not _right, _but that was far less than she'd deserved in my opinion _"Liars never prosper..." _as Mother was so fond of saying. It was a mercy.

_'Mercy...'_

For some inane reason, the very notion of the word put a smile on my lips, and an itch at the back of my conscious awareness, as I marched back into the main hall with a spring in my step, as doctors and patients passed me by in blissful ignorance, making sure to remember to shut the door behind me, whistling a little Mistralan tune as I went. I'd had her call her secretary, and clear her schedule for the rest of the evening, but one couldn't be too careful.

I certainly hadn't been in the last few hours, clearly evident by the duo of Faunus White Fang sympathizers that had thought to take advantage of the young Human woman walking through the backstreets in the evening. I hadn't careful then, and I was sure someone must've found them by now.

_'Back straight, face forward, eyes set, with a smile on your face... Now where'd you get to, Maxi? I have __**so much**__ I want talk with you about.'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

I sneezed, the sound swallowed up by the crowded space, and only further souring my mood as I lost what small lead I had.

"...'Follow the scent,' she says. 'Have fun,' she says..." I grumbled while scratching my ears, before adjusting the hood of the scratchy, overlarge Vytal Festival tourist sweatshirt the madwoman had snatched for me as part of my "disguise," sniffing at the fragrant air of thousands crowding the halls and seats of the coliseum, while doing my best to avoid gagging. "...Like I can track anything in this... Watch it, asshole!"

I snapped as a sudden swell in the crowd, more a mosh pit at this point, in their attempts to watch the Finals from the viewing screens overhead, almost barreled me over, forcing me to keep a hand on my head to make sure my face stayed for the most part covered, and out of view of any security cameras.

_'Screw this...' _I seethed inwardly while I pushed, and punched more than once, my way through the throng of bodies into the open air of the stadium, where thankfully all it took was a flash of my Scroll. How Marigold had come across it, I shivered to wonder.

It only took a moment and a cursory glance at the Beacon emblem showing up next to my school I.D. for the Atlas Trooper posted on security to wave me through into the thankfully, more crowd-controlled air of the stadium proper, where I could breath, almost, and stretch my limbs a bit.

A marked sigh of relief left my lips after minutes of crushing, sweaty, panting claustrophobia with those super fans back there, and almost two hours of scrambling through dusty maintenance ducts and service areas in the floating structures underbelly just to work our way to this point.

_'Why? Why the hell did we have to go through all that trouble, 'flying in,' if I could've just used my Scroll in the first place, and spared myself the heart attack?'_

* * *

**(Approximately 1 Hour Earlier)**

"Because then I wouldn't be able tag along and keep an eye on ya, Sweetie. Discretion is _key_ in this business, and you never know who might be watching."

Marigold waved a hand I could just barely make out in the dim flickering light the flame in her other outstretched palm was letting off, highlighting her dark face in the shadowy expanse of the drainage pipe we'd found after hours of tunnel crawling, hunched over in near darkness.

"Where's the sense of adventure in kids today? Traveling through the shadowy depths of the most famous Kingdom icon floating across the face of Remnant, forging our watery way forward through...!"

"Is this even water?" I gasped, trying to hold my nose as I felt my boots, soon to be former as I fully intended to burn them afterwards if I could, sink into the fowl smelling wet muck lining the bottom of the pipe with an audible squelch, as a sour scent curled my nostrils. "O-oh god, I don't think it's water..."

"Huh?" The eccentric former Huntress raised her foot, and examined a thigh-length boot of ruined leather with a dismissive casualness that made me want to scream. "Well... that's unfortunate. Moving on."

And with that, she just kept on walking, even skipping for a section along the wall, coat flowing all about like some brightly colored dancer, while I just plodded along behind her, doing my best to avoid any deeper pits or potholes after a misstep had had me submerged a fork back. I had been under for a few good seconds, and had thrown up then and there after Marigold had pulled me up, followed by cursing her on the spot, not even caring what she did in response.

Fortunately for her, she had used her Dust tricks to form an icicle on the ceiling above me, and used Fire Dust to make it melt, rinsing me with cold, yet fresh water that, for the most part, removed most of the stink off of me at the moment, at least to her dull human senses. To me, I still smelled a bit like crap and every breath had me wanting to gag.

Making sure to avoid those dips were a difficult task, seeing as at best the 'water' was already nearly up to my knees and soaking through the bottom jeans with a slimy coolness that had my spine shivering, and my ears pressed to my skull. '_Just gonna keep calling this shit 'water,' at this point.'_

"We couldn't gone the normal way, without all this trouble? Would that've been _so _hard?" I mean, I could barely stomach those flying death machines at the best of times, the mere thought that the only thing keeping me alive was an all too fallible engine, and maniacs like Redgrave, was enough to set my teeth chattering. But this woman was in a class all her own... "What would we have done if your little trick hadn't worked?"

"Fallen, I expect. That was the first time I've tried _Phoenix Down_ at that height, or for that long. My teacher always said she'd designed it more for quick bursts than actual flight, but I've always wanted to try..." I blocked her out before she could finish, afraid I might just bring this whole place crashing down in a rage if I listened any further. But still she rattled on, as if she were discussing some new diet that had worked while something tugged at my senses. Fresh air... or _fresher _air. "...and I was afraid the air might've been a maybe a hair too thin, but it all worked... _A-HA_! Here we go!"

I looked up from my stupor just in time to avoid running into her broad back, as the bounty hunter ceased suddenly, holding up her smoldering hand to outline a thick metal grate that led into what looked to be an unused, and, according to the various chemical smells and trace scents, thankfully unoccupied storage closet.

"And here I was starting to think we might've taken a wrong turn at the fork you fell in a few kilometers back," she grinned, even as I scowled. Always a few words too many with this nutcase, it seemed. Still, at least we'd finally be getting out of this cesspit, which was relief enough. "Watch your head. This could get a bit _heated_," she warned with a toothy smirk at the pun, the flame in her hand seeming to coalesce itself onto the tip of her finger into a thin, if white hot stream that I could feel like an oven even from where I stood.

Humming idly to herself, she went to work, searing her fire's way through the thick metal in seconds, leaving only blackened lumps and superheated droplets hissing into the muck beneath, or glancing harmlessly off her Aura like rain. It really was incredible watching her work, even if everything else about the woman put me off like the plague. "You know I could've handled it, right?"

"Oh, of course Sweetie. Problem is you're just a _biiiiit_ too loud for this sort of delicate work, if your tantrum back there was any indication.

"How else would you react if you fell into murky, smelly water!?" I snapped, my anger from minutes ago returning again.

"You know, you could've gotten yourself out if it before I did, you know."

"I panicked! You tend to do what when you realize you're _submerged and surrounded by __**shit**_!"

"Aren't you a Huntress-in-training? Aren't ready to be ready to be covered in Grimm blood eventually? In fact, from what the old, mustached teacher of yours was saying during your first match, it seems that you already _were_."

"Grimm don't even spew blood!"

"Well whatever you were covered in in your first day, you were covered in it. It's part of the job of being a Huntsman," she retorted, as I internally cursed Professor Port's loud mouth. "Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining about that attitude of yours. Reckon it'll come in useful if the worst happens."

"The worst? What the hell does that...?!" My question was cut off by a surprised yelp and a dull groan, as the barrier fell in on itself, the former Trapper's flash having burnt the hunk of metal into a foul smelling iron steam, before glancing back at me sternly.

"I'm sure you'll be able to answer that for yourself. Now then, upsie-daisy." She leapt up out of sight in one smooth motion, clearing the lip easily. For a few moments I considered making a break for it, weighing my options. I had actually been considering diving into the muck again, if it meant she would lose sight of me, when her sickly sweet voice, laden with menace, called down from above. "_Coming_?..."

My mind essentially made up for me, I clambered up, careful to apply my Aura towards keeping the worst of the heat off as I struggled up, ignoring the helpful hand she'd offered as I swore and grumbled my way clear, before laying eagle-spread in the dark room. It was about half the size of our dorm, and lined with shelves containing various cleaners, solutions, anything one might need to handle the messes of Remnant's populace, along with a few boxes of what seemed like gift shop merchandise. From what I could tell, we'd crawled out of a small cistern, where one was expected to dump the mop water. The staff clearly was going to be a little put off by the hole we'd made.

To be perfectly honest though, I hardly cared. I was more relieved that I could finally stretch out and breathe without gagging. Even the sour tang of acid's better than the waste runoff I'd been inhaling. "I... I hate you..."

"Noted. Now get changed. No rest for the wicked, as they say." I raised my head to look at her in confusion, and received a face full of starch scented fabric and a spray container, muffling my retort. "Come on, chop chop. Our targets won't sit around just because you are."

Looking at the bottle, I looked at the words on the label... And growled when I saw what it said. "'Multi-purpose fabric softener... and pet-odor eliminator...' I fucking hate you..."

"Again. Fucking noted. Now hurry up. Your Aura'll get the toxins from that out," she responded as she was checking something on her Scroll... No, _my_ Scroll.

"Hey, where did you get... _Ack_!" A flying pair of jeans and a pink shirt I would rather have burned then be seen wearing caught me mid rant, the woman not even looking up as she keyed through my settings, though I thought I heard the ghost of a chuckle under her breath. "That's mine!"

"Yes. Yes it is. You know, you really should carry it with you more often. Doesn't do you any good just sitting in your room, after all," she lectured, nodding to herself, before tossing the delicate device towards me carelessly, necessitating the use of my Semblance to avoid having it bounce into the hole we'd just crawled out of. "Now strip. We've got a job to do."

"But...!" My face was burning red hot, though so was her hand now, twin lines of fire forming an intricate helix that wound around her arm like serpents. She might have been testing her abilities out, fine tuning her control as I'd seen Schnee do on occasion with her _Myrtenaster_. Still, the threat was clear.

"Do you actually need help putting on clothes, _Miss Argus_?..."

The dangerous shift in tone, and the way she crooned my name made it clear she'd gone full into mission mode, the change enough to wipe all the moisture from my throat, or at least that's what I hoped the reason was. _'Is the room getting warmer, or is that just me?...' _Either way, the message was clear, as my hands moved to get my jacket and shirt off once I was sure her attention was diverted elsewhere, pulling the stuffy hoodie, the scratchy material not exactly designed with Faunus comfort in mind.

"Just contact the number I provided if you get a bead on any of the targets. And do remember to keep that hood up. Can't have you modeling for the cameras while some people know you're with me. I'll know if you slack off. That, and finally..." I felt my ears twitch as a warm hand caressed them gently, the darkness splitting as the Huntress cracked the door into the main body of the Coliseum beyond. "...Don't try to scarper off. That would be... _unpleasant_ for both of us... Good luck!"

* * *

**(Present)**

_''Unpleasant for both of us...' Yeah, sure.' _I flinched as the crowd roared around me, as the announcers started going through the names and accomplishments of those competing in the Finals, starting with Miss Pyrrha Nikos herself. The crowd favorite to take it all, judging by the reaction she got. _'Damn it all, what am I supposed to do here?'_

Marigold had made it clear she was keeping an eye on me. How and what she would do if pressed, however, I didn't feel like testing.

I could make out one of the scents, or at least I thought I could. It was faint, masked by the unified musk of the crowd, but still present. Where, though?... Making my way through the stands one at a time was slow going, and dangerous in itself. My eyes were constantly on the lookout for someone who might recognize me, who might call me out. I sincerely doubted Rose and the rest of RWBY would be making an appearance, not after Xiao Long's little spectacle, though JNPR would be a pain.

Already, I'd had to make a quick getaway to avoid GLDN, the team AMBR had eliminated in the first round. Thankfully, the two Faunus twins were too busy howling their lungs out over one of the other Haven competitors to notice me skulking by, while their leader Galina was huddled up under the big guy's arm like a frightened child, visibly terrified of the crowd, but doing her best to show her support as well.

_'Was she always that skittish? Or that small?'_

From what I could recall, and that wasn't too hard, seeing as it had been a pretty telling experience, the woman had been an unstoppable juggernaut of confidence and personality when we'd fought... Well, "fight" might've been too generous to describe the beating she'd given me and the shrimp...

_'...Oh __**shit**__, Murasaki! Shit, shit, shit!' _The little runt could probably pick out my Aura, even through a crowd like this, as an afterthought. And if she was on the scent, it wouldn't be long before Carson came running into the frying pan, probably sporting that roguish grin of his and some dumb one liner. _'Ben, use that stupid spiky head of yours, and steer clear just this once! __**Please**__!'_

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"And I sez to 'im... Y'know what I sez to 'im?" I swayed dangerously, and would've certainly toppled over chuckling like an idiot if not for the exasperated Atlesian guard I'd so abruptly halted in the middle of the hallway. He grabbed me, and hauled my ass back up roughly. "I sez 'I think you're alright,' 'hic' 'buddy...' That's what I said! Haha!" I clambered forward, giving the man a tight hug before he shoved me off none too gently against the wall. "Oi, just havin' a bit o' fun 'ere! No need fer…!" I clamped my mouth shut with a squeak as the soldier loomed over me, putting that bulky armor of his to great use.

"Keep your 'fun' under control, sir, or maybe you'd like to spend the finals in the drunk tank, eh?" the guard threatened, grinning smugly as I shook my head out and raised my hands innocently, making sure to tack on a nervous smile for effect. "Thought not. Now then, carry on, and behave yourself!" I nodded gratefully as he spun on his heel and marched away muttering under his breath. "I swear, kids these days... Useless, you'd never see that sort of behavior back home…"

I waited until he'd been swallowed up by the crowd making its thundering way towards the main arena before peeling myself off the wall, straightening myself back into my usual dashing semblance of neatness before flipping the I.D. card I'd swiped off his belt between my fingers nimbly, a broad grin spreading across my face. "I know, right? Pickin' up so many bad habits, nowadays. Damn shame."

Ah well, that was his fault for believing such an obvious ploy in the first place. ''_And I sez to 'im...'' _Seriously, I hadn't even been trying with that cliché bit, and that accent. Not enough drunks in the Kingdoms for people to know the difference, I supposed.

_'Can't see 'em lastin' long in Atlas, anyway. Buncha fun-killin' snobs with sticks up their arses, they are. Well, I've had my fun, time to get to work.'_

I could trust Reika to track down Max, or at least keep track of her if nothing else. Her Semblance made the work almost child's play, and I was sure that despite her feelings over our Faunus teammate, she'd do what she could to keep her safe better than I ever could. Hell, she'd kept my ass out of the fire for years.

My job of keeping an eye on Fortuna's movements would be loads trickier, and probably leagues more dangerous, especially since I was intent on keeping Ironwood out of this.

_'Things are already bad enough on the border, after the stunt Blondie pulled. If the tournament gets delayed, and morale drops even further...' _Actually, I think I'd prefer not to think about that particular scenario. It included just a fair bit too many ravenous monsters and screaming civvies for my liking.

I moved along with the crowd, sidling up to the first restricted doorway I came across as casually I pleased, making sure to discreetly trip up a few of the other folks walking around, and start up a few fights, before slipping inside, as the guards moved to quell the troublemakers before things could get out of hand. I found myself in a massive, high ceiling service area, lined with doors which, from the looks of it, lead to the various electrical and maintenance posts responsible for keeping things up and running, including the main security room, which, if I was correct, and I usually was, should be only a few dozen feet from my current position.

The only hard part would be getting there unseen with security camera's spaced every so often down the hall, such as the one gently swaying towards me even now. Or it would've been if I hadn't made sure to bring along a secret weapon for just this situation.

_'Finally get to see if this damn thing's worth the lien...'_

Carefully edging my way so I remained just out of the camera's view, I reached inside one of the pouches at my belt and withdrew my Scroll, keying up a small, but useful, little addition to the standard software I'd picked up. One tap, two taps, and... I froze in place, tensed and ready to make a break for it if this went south, as my Scroll rapidly pulsed with a red light for a few moments, before flashing green. A similar light displayed itself underneath the camera's sensor, making me I breath a short sigh of relief at the lack of any alarms or bulky armored troopers looking to rush me.

_'Thank you, Mr. Butch Kozner.' _

The arms dealer was like an anarchist's toy shop, complete with express shipments for preferred customers. Frankly, it would've been a crime to report such a dedicated businessman, even if some of his clientele were... questionable in their life choices.

What mattered was that, despite his merchandise tending to be a smidge on the pricey side, he didn't cut corners like most dealers I'd met over the years. That was just fine by me, better a lighter wallet than a jammed rifle or faulty grappling line. Seeing as I'd experienced my fair share of both over the years, I was a firm believer in paying that little bit extra for quality, be it a crate of Dust-tipped custom shells, to the latest in cyber mayhem.

I frowned quizzically down at my Scroll, checking that the "Phantom Protocol" was still pulsing in a steady cadence as I made my way quickly down the corridor towards my goal. A less than legitimate little program, at least as far as I understood it with my limited technical knowledge, the Phantom operated by piggybacking off the CCT signal the cameras worked off of, which I was privy to thanks to a small partnering sensor I'd placed almost a half hour before in one of the public bathroom's ventilation ducts.

The effects _should_ have any camera operating in close proximity to the main signal, which, from the looks of it, my Scroll was broadcasting beautifully, to fall into short loop momentarily before resetting the feed. Time it right, and the effect should have it appear to any wandering eye as if the hall was still empty, at least for a minute or so.

More than enough time for me to sneak by, at any rate, without having to worry over where I was stepping. My destination was right ahead, though I couldn't help but feel a nagging sense of worry over the apparent lack of standing guardsmen, or at least patrols. Someone was getting lazy on the Atlesian side of things. Were the finals really that interesting?

_'Worry about that later,' _I told myself, drawing my snub-nosed pistol from the inner lining of my poncho as I set a metal hand on the door knob, taking a deep steadying breath, before wrapping a length of cloth. _'Go in there, knock out the pair of saps on duty before they see me, track down Marigold on the feeds... Easy; nothin' to it.'_

Certainly not my most solid plan of course, but when dealing with a force of nature one has to play things by the ear somewhat. Exactly what happened after that was still up in the air, much of it depending on whether or not Maxine was with the Bounty Huntress. If not, then I might be able to slow her down using some security doors or crowd control. At least until I could track down my teammate and get off this death trap. If the Faunus was with her... Well.

_'Long as Woody stays out of things. He's not exactly the best listener, or the subtlest...'_

Bad enough I was having to deal with this madwoman myself. Add in Ironwood or one of his trigger happy goons breathing down my neck, and this was almost certainly guaranteed to blow up in our faces. _Literally_...

My version of a best case scenario ended with Max, Reika, and my handsome mug safe and sound in our dorm room at the end of all this enjoying a glass of spirits I'd been saving under my bunk for a special occasion, preferably with Amity Colosseum still afloat, if possible. I could go either or. The novelty of the floating monument had sort of worn off for me, especially after Atlas had started billeting troops and overcharging for snacks.

_'__And they call us criminals?'_

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for action, before driving a metal shoulder into the door, sending it crashing off its hinges with a heavy clang, as I charged into the room pistol raised and ready to fire, trained eyes scanning the wall to wall for security cameras, glowing consoles, the knocked out Atlesian personnel...

_'Wait... __**what**__!?'_

I did a double take, and, sure enough, a pair of guards in Atlas-issue armor were slumped up against the wall furthest from the consoles, and the alarms no doubt, safely out of the way. Meanwhile, a tall feminine figure was presently sifting her way through the feeds at her leisure, or at least she had been before I'd gone and announced myself like an oncoming train. Her whistling trailing off awkwardly with a low pitch.

Dressed in a bright crimson coat, clothes that, for all their well-worn function, would've made a dandy's eyes water, all topped by wide brimmed hat, Fortuna Marigold, in the flesh, glanced over her shoulder in dim surprise, staring at me with one wide amber colored eye, the other closed by a thin scar running from her eyebrow to her lower jaw, which bore an exasperated frown. Not exactly the reaction I would've been hoping for.

_'Well... this expedites things quite a bit, doesn't it?'_

"Uhh..." I breathed, glancing from the guard to her, then at my pistol trying not to look like I was too surprised. Glad to know I can still be caught off guard.

"Well... Thanks for knocking, at least." She raised an eyebrow at the door lying beneath my feet, turning back to her work with a casual dismissal and a knowing grin that had my cheeks burning, despite every self-preserving nerve in my body screaming at me to leg it. "Took care of the guards already. Guessin' you and me had the same notion? Thought you had a partner to do all that for you, though?"

Despite the sudden quaking in my knees, I stood my ground, staring in solid determination as I slid a gloved metallic finger around the trigger of my pistol. "W-where..." I swallowed, gritting my teeth before continuing on, careful to keep my voice sounding determined this time even if the rest of me wasn't. "Where's my teammate? Is she safe?" Might've had a gun on her, for all the care the Huntress showed I might as well have been pointing a water pistol, an empty one at that.

"Guess you must have her looking around for the Pup, huh? Divide and distract... Not a bad strategy with a gift like hers, but once you know how to hide...!" She abruptly stopped talking after a Dust-tipped slug drilled its way into the console next to her, throwing up sparks, but thankfully no alarms. Not yet, anyway. The Trapper looked back at me again, grin vanishing as her features hardened at the sight of my pistol's barrel smoking. "Really?... I heard you were Bill's son, but even he would know when to cut and..."

"Maxine. _Where. Is. She_!?" I stressed, shifting the barrel subtly so that it was pointed directly at her now. "You've got three seconds to answer. Three..."

She let out what almost sounded like a groan as she stood up straight and turned to face me head-on. At least now she was deigning to give me her full attention. Why that felt like a bad thing, I could only assume that was so by going on the slowly cooling pool in my stomach. "Ben, is it? This doesn't have to end badly, now just..."

"_Two_..." My eyes narrowed, my jaw set as I willed her not to see the slight shiver of nerves echoing in my stance. Problem was I couldn't stop my foot from tapping some rapid rhythm of its own accord. She knew it, I knew it,

"You know I was at your folk's wedding. Maid of honor, and all that fancy shite. If anything, I actually helped set Bill and Abigail up in the first place so you owe...!"

I shot the hat off her head on reflex, and only then because she'd managed to duck her head at the last minute, otherwise it would've gone right between her eyes. As it stood, the stunned look on her face was almost comical, frozen in place as my Semblance urged itself to life and slowed her impressive reaction speed to a crawl. Target practice…

_'__**Really shouldn't**__ have brought that traitorous bitch up...'_

Another pull of the trigger sent a round crashing into her chest just above her heart. For one mad moment, I had thought the bullet seemingly pierced through her Aura. It wasn't to be, however, my heart skipping a beat once I realized that her body, or whatever strange reflection it was, seemed to dissolve like a mirage of shimmering Dust before my eyes.

A tap of feet behind me, and a brush of fabric on fabric was the only warning I had as my right arm was suddenly wrenched over my shoulder, twisted to the back of my neck in an arch by a vice like grip. My weapon clattered to the floor uselessly as I opened my hand reflexively by accident, an unconscious holdover from when the limb had been flesh and blood. The pain in the joint at my shoulder was almost enough to bring me to tears.

"Alrighty, Quickshot. Not a bad attempt. You certainly are Ol' Bill's, even if you take after your mama." a sickly sweet voice whispered in my ear as I felt myself being turned slowly on my heels, the Huntress marching me painfully out towards the open door and the hallway beyond. "In light of that, I'm gonna ignore the fact you ruined a perfectly good hat, and let you walk away today. Last chance. I suggest, for the puppy's sake, you take it. After all, and it'd be a shame to mess up that handsome face she's so fond of."

A lot of emotions were firing off in my head all at once. Anger, helplessness, worry, and fear, which was the strongest... It was clear that this woman was an entirely different breed of monster. Hell, I could feel the passive force of her Aura burning like a sun even through my gear, my own soul seemingly meager in comparison. It would've been smart to run now. To cut my losses, meet up with Reika, and clear out. Logically it made sense and the bandit in me would've leapt on it in a heartbeat.

Shame I couldn't quite help myself...

"Oh? You think I'm handsome?" I laughed cheekily, unable to resist taking in the look of honest surprise in the older woman's features as I cut off the flow of Aura to the cybernetic arm, and unhinged one of the delicate bearings with a quick Aura fueled hit to my collarbone, the whole limb going limp in her grasp. Without my own energy to power it, the work of technical art and mechanical finesse was no better than an overlarge paperweight, a very expensive and heavy paperweight at that.

"What did you just...!?"

I usually did a good job of concealing its nature under my clothes these days to avoid the stares. And hopefully... Yep, it seems Miss Marigold hadn't been expecting the sudden dead weight. And even though she realized it a moment too late, her grip had already loosened enough for the limb's joint to completely turn the full three-sixty degrees with only minor screeching in the gears and drag the surprised Huntress like a ragdoll in to face me, her eye wide as she saw the glint of metal rising up beneath my shirt sleeve.

"_Surprise!"_

With a gasp that was half discomfort, half effort, I flooded the arm with Aura just in time to deliver a crushing elbow to the Bounty Huntress' solar plexus, and sent her reeling back, before a back hand to the jaw put her on her ass, looking suitably surprised and pissed off as I swung my arm about like a club, denting the side of a panel by accident in my haste to regain some distance.

I wasn't able to focus too much on my small victory, however. My hand worked at the collar of my shirt to right the joint, so my arm wouldn't fall off or something worse. Just doing that small trick had left me gasping at the searing lack of feeling as my nerves burned, connected to servos and wires now sparking from moving in a way Red had never designed them too. At least I could move my fingers again, though my pinkie was a bit stiff, and my upper chest ached something fierce.

_'Ow, ow, ow, okay... Okay. Let's never pull that stunt again... Definitely not...'_

In one quick roll, my pistol was back in my good hand and at the ready, trained on the former Trapper as she stood up and dusted herself off, blowing a beaded lock of hair from her face, which now bore a nice swiftly healing bruise on her cheek, and a pulsing nerve just above her temple.

"Nice trick there..." she said. Just the sound of her voice was enough to make me almost regret every decision I'd made that had led me to this point... _Almost_. Knowing I had pulled one over on Lady Luck was nothing if not a confidence booster. Shame I wouldn't be around much longer to enjoy it, as a glowing red card appeared from the depths of her sleeve, which even now seemed to be glowing with a dull fiery Aura that I could feel from where I stood, sweat beading on my brow. "Now how about one of mine?"

_'Well, least I'll die with the last laugh. Hope Reika's havin' better luck than I am.'_

-END

**_A/N: Alright so some nastiness in this chapter especially on the part of Miss Sonia Bordeaux who came back with a vengeance this chapter and with some new abilities to boot. Basically if Max's Semblance is focused on influencing outward to the world, Sonia's is a bit more inward, allowing her to manipulate and read others through their Aura, basically an uber-charged version of the deceptions she could already pull off. Another good example to use would be Jean Grey I suppose, Max represents the cool telekinetic aspect while Sonia…you get the idea._**

**_She gets taken in by Cinder pretty easily, not just because of her own Aura resonating with the half of the Fall Maiden's power (though the two are connected in some ways though which will come back later) but because she's not exactly in the best mind at the moment, a few months in a coma only to find your cousin, who put you there, has basically stolen/lived every dream you've ever had, and who used to depend on you but not so much anymore. It's rough and AMBR hasn't exactly been very receptive to that, at least not for the most part. Add a dummied down version of the Butcher's Brew into the mix to reignite her Aura and you don't exactly have the most stable person at the moment. _**

**_Is she right and Max was involved in it as she says? Meh. Maybe not to the extent that Cinder's talking but she certainly wasn't completely false. Max did know about her Aunt and what her situation was._**

**_P.S: For those of you also in the know about one Butch Kozner, check out The White Mask courtesy of the Baz. Really picking up lately and as I've noted before pretty Freakin' awesome, basically the Deadpool of the RWBY Fan-verse in my opinion. _**


	71. Chapter 71

**_Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One_**

DESPERATE MEASURES

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

Something was wrong with my partner. _Very_ _wrong_. And it wasn't just just the current situation either.

Fortuna Marigold skulking around the Vytal Festival was a disaster waiting to happen certainly, without a doubt. I'd grown up hearing the stories around the campfire on those nights the older members of the crew had gotten chatty, and wanted to scare the new bloods, and knew a bit of what to expect. We both had.

Still, even knowing that, I'd have trusted for Ben to rise to the occasion, or at least use his head, even if it meant going to those Atlesian Imperialists for help.

_'But no. He had to go and make this personal...' _What's worse the boy didn't even seem aware of it, which was terrifying in and of itself.

Maxine Argus... I'd never cared for the Canine Faunus, and she'd been more than happy to return the favor, likely a holdover from our less than stellar introduction to one another during the Initiation in the Emerald Forest. Even after AMBR had formed, we'd never hidden our squabbling and petty feuds, which only compounded as we were expected, by decorum, to share a living space. Over time, even Joel had ceased bothering with trying to have us get along, happy enough we were each able to at least do our jobs together without ripping the other's head off.

Still, despite all that, we'd come together on some common points, a certain blonde sniper being the most prominent. Did they really think they were being subtle?

_'What he sees in her, I'll never know...'_

Of course, I'd long since given up trying to gauge Benjamin's preferences and whims over the years we'd been together, merely resigning myself to dealing with the inevitable fallout if necessary when either side lost interest, or some outside force intervened, first on Bill's orders and then because I genuinely thought my friend was trying to get himself killed with some of his more..._notable_ conquests. At least that was what I'd usually done, when the wounded party was some wealthy land owner's star struck heiress with illusions of marriage or even the occasional raider's daughter, those at least had been short and the Bandit had bounced back with his usual insufferable grace. That's what made this so damned difficult.

I could tell, using my Semblance and intuition born from years of being an observer, that deep down in her sadistic twisted little black heart, she cared about the former bandit. For all her talk about hormones whenever Joel and Yang shared a room together and Ben felt much the same in his own remarkably infuriating way, it was painfully obvious there was a strange tension, and ever since the school dance, the two had been... different.

Judging by their icy behavior toward the other during our flight over to the Badlands, I'd just assumed one or both of them had finally gone too far with the other, the two hardly able to look at each other without scowling. However, after that whole fiasco, and the awkward reunion that had followed, it had become painfully obvious that both my partner and the sadist had become _involved_ in some fashion. Not too hard to guess where that would've led being somewhat close to functioning adults.

_'He's worried. Scared, no matter how much he tries to hide it. This isn't about just rescuing a teammate.'_

No, this was something more... And it was going to get him killed if he wasn't careful.

I could feel her now, slinking about close by, a flash of carmine through the sea of light radiating through my _Sense_. At this range, I felt I might even be able to point her out. I could certainly feel a shadow of what she felt through her signature. A potent mix of frustration, anger, and... worry?

_'What the hell is she doing? I don't sense Fortuna anywhere nearby...' _Somehow, the woman was evading my Semblance. Either through trickery, or some other means, her once massive signature had faded away to join the sea of souls pulsing throughout the arena, almost as if she'd vanished. She wasn't gone by any means, more lurking like a great predator drifting in the waters just beneath the surface. _'Maybe if I just delve a bit further...'_

"Reika? Reika, are you feeling okay?" My eyes blinked open to find a silvery pair of eyes staring back at me, the redhead they belonged to having leaned in waving a hand in front of me. "You sort of... _left_ for a moment there. Do you know where Ben is?"

It took a few moments to come back to myself, and recognize Ruby had asked me a question. I always did when there was so many people in one place, so condensed. My Semblance could be a little overwhelming at the best of times, but this Vytal Festival business was ridiculous. A headache was already building a steady beat behind my skull. Especially nowadays when the sensation seemed almost as natural as hearing or seeing...

_"I can't seem to feel him close by," _I flashed in a few simple signs, making sure to slow myself down as her eyes struggled to make out the meaning behind the gestures, and doing my best to hide the lie. _"You're sure you need him?" _

Miss Rose had stumbled across me at the air bus docks, and had begged me to get a hold of Ben, saying that it was urgent she speak with him. What threw me off guard however was her obvious hesitation in explaining the reason, only revealing that it pertained to what had happened to her sister.

"Yes, I have to run something by him. Weiss and Blake aren't picking up, and General Ironwood and the Headmaster are too busy and won't listen! But…I don't know, I just feel like something isn't right. Something we're missing."

Ben had left earlier than I had and, for all I knew, found himself in a situation where calling him directly would've only endangered him. Thus, I found myself agreeing, despite my better judgment, to take the young Huntress with me and search for him myself. I couldn't well explain the dangers someone like Fortuna Marigold presented to an outsider with a few paltry hand motions, or our detail little problem with Maxine, even if Ben hadn't made me swear to keep it to myself. I could do my best to steer her as far away from the danger she presented as I could in the meantime, at least until my partner pulled off whatever little scheme he'd planned up.

Last I checked, the rogue should be well on the other side of the arena away from us. What his plan was, he hadn't deigned to share with me... _'He's been doing that a lot, lately.' _His feelings for the sadist, these strange "talks" with General Ironwood, somehow having the clout to walk openly amongst the Atlesians into the heart of their security yesterday... _'Ben... What did you do?'_

Of course I didn't want to go and outright accuse him, I'd done too much lying of my own to have that particular right. We were friends yes, but some level of trust had been shattered and the pieces far from fixed.

With a start, my train of thought was cut off, the red hooded girl began practically dragging me by the hand towards the arena proper, the heart of the excitement rippling through the crowd and my overclocked senses. It felt indescribable, all that emotion, all that positivity, with an underlying layer of worry and trepidation tainting the bedrock underneath.

"I mean you said that you felt something strange with Yang's match, didn't you? Something off?" I flinched at the desperate, pleading tone her voice took on. Her sister's match, and the painful aftermath, were obviously still fresh in her mind. No need to delve her Aura to figure that out, and, to my shame, I could only shrug.

True, there had been something _different_ about Miss Xiao Long's Aura during her fight with the Mistralan kickboxer, though 'off' or 'distorted' were perhaps the better words to describe it. Unfortunately for us, I had hardly been focused on it at the time, more interested in the visual spectacle for obvious reasons. It had just been a feeling, a nagging at the back of my mind.

I'd said as much to my partner, who seemed of a mind with Miss Rose. However, I couldn't truthfully say it meant anything more than shifting emotions in the heat of the moment influencing her Aura. Signatures were built and effected by emotions, after all, which could change how I perceived them. Ironwood's theory of overblown emotion, of her having seen something that wasn't there in the adrenaline craze of the moment, was unlikely... But certainly far from impossible. Those monster's AMBR had faced in those mine tunnels had been proof enough of that.

From how things were progressing, the only way to be sure would be to speak to Mercury when he was finished recovering back in... huh?

I stiffened about the same time as Ruby did, her eyes narrowing as she peered towards the other end of the stands, picking out a mint-haired, dark skinned girl with crimson eyes who was supposed to be in Mistral.

"Emerald's... _here_?" the Huntress whispered, her breath catching as the Haven student leaned forward, her vision drifting towards us. "Why would she still be...?"

I hardly noticed, this time pulling Ruby out of her line of sight back down the exit tunnel, depending more on my _Sense _than vision at this point to guide my way. Most of the audience members were still trickling in, though seemingly knew enough to get out of the way, and avoid being barreled aside in our haste.

"R-Reika? Where are you...!?"

I ignored her protests, intent on following once specific signature that had gone under my radar before. One I'd never thought to look for specifically given recent events. One who certainly _shouldn't _be here, but yet even now burned so close by, slick and muddy as oil, a liar's soul. Ruby quieted down as we neared a doorway suddenly wary, a brief glance marking it as one of the maintenance halls servicing the main stadium proper, suspiciously unguarded. The signature I was seeking burned within like a flare.

Miss Rose had calmed herself, nodding at me as we entered into a long concrete tunnel lined with steel doors and loose crates, ranging from souvenir merchandise to overpriced foodstuffs. I looked to the Huntress yet again, and, seeing her determination, strode forward alongside her, flexing my right hand, ready to bring out _Iron Blossom _at a moment's notice, while the echoing cry of thousands beat around us.

Some cynical part of me knew I would soon need it, or maybe it was just the read of emotions I was picking up. Arrogance in the extreme, amusement, bloodlust...

_"Alright. It is now time to begin the randomization process for our next fight." _Oobleck announced to the crowd to an uproar that shook the walls around us.

I heard him before he stepped out from a nearby intersecting tunnel, a low chuckle rumbling in his throat as our quarry looked us over, seeming markedly unimpressed.

"Mercury?" The Huntress was squinting, unable to quite believe her eyes at the grinning, and very much unharmed Haven student standing before us. All the "damage" to his limb was gone, vanished as if it had never been.

My hand tightened into a fist even as I saw the minor shift in his stance, the boy readying himself for the attack.

_"It looks like our first contender is… Penny Polendina from Atlas!" _Professor Port's voice carried on, Ruby stiffening while Mercury's smile only seemed to grow.

"What… What are you doing?" she asked, finally voicing the question that I could see burning in her eyes. The realization was already apparent, she just needed to hear it. "How are you... . Why did you... Why Yang!? What's going on?"

_"And her opponent will be... Pyrrha Nikos of Beacon!"_

For some reason, the redhead's face paled, her head lowering as her confusion was replaced with a look of dawning horror. "No..."

Mercury, on the other hand, seemed absolutely thrilled at her apparent suffering, raising a hand to his chin inquisitively, as well as an eyebrow. "Oooh, Polarity versus metal. That could be _bad_." The effect the strange words had on Ruby was immediate and violent, the girl reaching for her weapon, seemingly forgetting she had left it in her locker back at the school. Her eyes darted for the door, still enough to signal what was to come next, before looking back at the focus of my fury.

Mercury... what are you doing? You were hurt! Why...!? Uh... What's going on?"

The damned faker merely stretched that infuriating smirk of of his. For a brief moment, his eyes fell on my, which I returned with a heated glare.

"Fine. If you're not gonna tell me.." Ruby then made to move past him, but her merely side-stepped into her path. She did so again, with the other man repeating what he did before. His eyes were then on my arm, noticing that I was flexing my fingers roughly.

In the background, Oobleck's voice was heard from the Colosseum's speakers. _"Fighters, are you ready?" _The booming cheers of the crowd responded in kind.

_"Three!..."_

I could see Rose feet tense, instantly figuring out what she planned to do.

_"Two!..."_

Mercury's head dipped forward slightly, still smirking, and waiting in anticipation.

_"One!..."_

My own eyes were narrowed at him as I stopped flexing my fingers and instead clenched my gaunleted hand, my whole body tense and ready like a coiled Taijitsu waiting to strike.

_"BEGIN!"_

The kickboxer pounced as soon as Ruby spurred into in motion, more a scarlet blur than a visible figure. Unfortunately, he was still able to reach her with a shotgun-imbued charge before she could really get into motion, his leg rising to meet his unarmed prey. Thankfully, however, I was just as fast, inter-spacing myself between the two with a jump that left a crater where I'd been standing a moment before to block him. And unlike Ruby and her _Crescent Rose_, I had no such handicap, gauntleted fist meeting armored boot in a crash of force that echoed painfully through the hall, and was enough to send the hooded girl skittering on her smoking heels from pressure wave alone. Mercury actually seemed impressed, mouth opening to make some snide comment, no doubt. At least he had been before _Blossom's _true ability came into play.

_'__Push forward, shatter his defense, don't stop.'_

The Dust crystals overlaying the weapon sprang to life as it absorbed the crushing force of the kick, channeling it as I began my follow through in a whoosh as compressed air screamed from tiny flapping vents opening along the side of the weapon propelling me forward. My opponent was no rank amateur, however, and not one to be taken down so easily. By impressive instinct or foreknowledge of what was coming, he shifted his weight desperately in midair, and used the force of my counter to springboard himself off, a move that should've at least splintered the bones in his legs, but instead only sent him flailing backwards with a cry of shocked alarm.

Unfortunately, as I took a step forward to give chase, he flipped and fired off a series of rounds, the first two to arrest his momentum, the third to send him forward right at me yet again before I could recover.

_'__No time to react…!'_

"Ha! Nice try, short stuff!" he cried out in glee as his first kick met my forearm and blasted it aside with shotgun force, his next colliding headlong with my now open chest, and set me against the wall with enough force to leave cracks in the stone, gasping to push air through bruised lungs. "But better luck next time." He winked at me smugly before striding off out of the corridor, only somewhat limping with a weirdly metal twang of disjointed gears, almost like when Ben's arm locked. Ruby was at my side in an instant, worry etched on her face, but I waved her off, already struggling my way to my feet.

_'__No, have to…have to pursue…'_

Before either of us could realty think or come to terms with what just happened, a chorus of screams, not the excited cheers of before but something new, something darker, howled from outside and shook the arena. The small girl was already sprinting out after Mercury before I could stop her, intent on investigating what had just happened.

I wish I had managed to get a hold of her cloak before she raced off. My Semblance already granting me a decent enough insight of what had transpired a moment too late. The stands, once a sea of positive energy, were now a maelstrom of fear and dismay. The focus was obvious enough in itself.

Two great Auras representing both competitors, burning like great torches in the center of it all, had entered the arena.

Now, at the end of it all, there was only the one...

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"O-oh hell..." I breathed shakily in horrified fascination as I stared at the main arena view from my spot on the floor, the scene across a dozen screens throughout the room from just as many angles, all showing the same grisly scene in painstaking detail. My mind unable to really come to terms with the mad reality of what had just happened. For the first time in a long while, I had no witty retorts, no words to describe the situation, but... "Oh _fuckin' hell_...!"

Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Champion, the ever-humble warrior who, even in victory, had always proven herself kind and amicable to her opponents. She never boasted, never condescended... and had just literally torn her opponent limb from limb before thousands of eager viewers and the whole of Remnant besides.

In front of civilians, regular men, women, and children watching at home.

Sure, I was somewhat inured to it having grown up in a place where one bad step could see you dead in moments, either from ravenous beasts or the environment itself. But to see that kind of brutality play out here, in this kind of setting, was just...

Even Marigold seemed put off, having frozen before the flickering card that would finish me off could leave her hand, her one amber eye narrowing as she examined the scene with a cold frown. "Something's wrong." I had to force my gaze from the screen to stare at her askance, metallic fingers carving a furrow into the ground as I forced myself to my knees, breathing hard. "This isn't right."

"Well an innocent little girl just died live, so yeah, you could say something's...!" I coughed, clutching at my aching side until something about her expression gave me pause.

_'...Wait a minute.'_

I followed her line of sight towards one of the feeds that showed all of the gory little details close up, with a surprising lack of actual gore, and realized what she'd meant. Rather than the usual mess you'd expect after something so traumatic, it looked more like I'd spilled the contents of my arm out on a workbench, or the remnants of one of Psycho's training sessions against the drones, as a few stray sparks here and there spilled from the rends in what appeared to be a distinctly metallic chassis that made up the girls body.

_'Leave it to the killer to pick a little tidbit like that out right away in the face of all this.'_

Penny Polendina, the strange girl who'd risked her life to help us on the docks with Torchwick weeks before, who'd wanted so much to be a Huntress and save the world, had been a...She'd been...

"Those bastards actually pulled something like this!?" she snarled, glaring angrily at the screen pearly white teeth flashing. "They actually... No respect for..."

Her little tirade was cut short as the screens all cut out at once, replaced by a wall of black queen chess piece symbols on a crimson field, suffusing the room with a bloody glow that set my hair on end.

_'Shit. What __**now**__?'_

_"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident." _Marigold and I turned to face one another as a voice, low, melodic, and oozing with arrogant authority, bled over the speakers and, from what I could tell, the entire CCT network itself._ "This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both."_

Well, if the red flags weren't rising before they're certainly flapping now.

"This ain't your work, is it?" I asked, my voice almost comically casual despite the situation. Marigold shot me a glare that had my heart skipping a beat, and provided enough of an answer in itself. "Thought not. Just had to be sure." All the while the speaker was still droning on, the atmosphere growing heavier and heavier with each passing second.

_"They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil." _Pyrrha... Ah hell, I couldn't even imagine how she must be feeling right now. I was supposed to..._ "What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither."_

"She... She can't be serious!?" I gaped, the implications of her words, and their consequences, hitting me like a sledgehammer as I felt my Scroll buzzing furiously in my pocket. Ironwood, Reika, any one of them. The world was about to fall apart, and there was nothing anyone could do. "What _the hell_ does she think she's doin'!?"

"Startin' one hell of a fire, I expect," Fortuna intoned gently, sounding resigned to the inevitable. "This isn't gonna end well."

_"Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps, this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting Kingdom with armed forces."_

So, Ironwood was the scapegoat, then. He may have brought it upon himself, but still. To call him a tyrant... No, she was merely voicing the thoughts of Vale citizens, giving life to their worst fears. She had to know what she was doing...

_"Honestly? I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know that the existence of peace is fragile. And the leaders of our Kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you; the situation there is... equally undesirable."_

_"Our Kingdoms are at the brink of war, from within and without. Yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark to wonder. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?"_

It was brilliantly done oratory work, all things considered. Each word carried weight and purpose for the piece. Her attack discredited, diminished, hell, outright vilified the current leadership within the Kingdom of Vale in the eyes of its citizens, as well as the Huntsman and Huntresses themselves, all while destabilizing the already fragile bonds between the Kingdoms with her concluding question, forcing each soul who heard it to subconsciously choose a side, even if they weren't aware of it themselves. A broad statement one could ignore, but a question posed to every individual who heard it...

_'What the hell did she mean by 'war from within and without,' in that last bit?' _Certainly ominous, she talking about the Frontier, the Badlands?

The end results would speak for themselves in due course, I expect. Diminished morale, a near crippled command structure, and folks too wary of one another to mount a proper defense against what was really coming, spurred on by flapping black wings and ravenous appetite. A threat we got an early warning for, as red lights and alarms sang through the space around us. Screens popped to life, showing dozens, if not hundreds of red dots converging on our positions, swiftly joined by scattered radio transmissions from the borders, more fearful screams then actual reports, all indicating the same forgone conclusion.

The Creatures of Grimm were coming... And we were woefully unprepared to meet them.

I watched it all fall apart around me, eyes flickering from screen to screen, before I took a deep breath and let my beating heart settle, allowing my mind to process the situation, and do what I did best...

"So what are you doing, then?" Marigold asked as I turned wordlessly and began undoing the bindings on the pair of security personnel, thankfully both stirring weakly, and not dead like I'd feared. "'Cause if you want a trip off this thing, you better start running _now_, and hope that you beat the rush."

Tempting notion,. I'm not gonna lie and say it wasn't. It was one I might've acted on a few months back, before all this Beacon business...

_'When did I go and grow a sense of duty?'_

"You stayin'?" I asked standing back up, turning to face the woman with an easy grin brimming with false confidence, that hopefully overshadowed the cold lump growing in the pit of my stomach. "We could use all the help we can get. And, legally speakin', you're still a Huntress... I think. So... You game?"

The Dust magus stared at me wide eyed for a few awkward moments, before shrugging her shoulders, something close to amusement breaking out across her face. "You know what?.. Sure. Why not? Been a while since I got to play around with the beasties." I noticed her hands twist to reveal a small deck of cards shuffling in her hand, all flickering menacingly with barely the contained wrath of the elements. "Truce?"

Her excitement was strangely infectious, as a genuine grin of my own sprung to life as I ran through a last minute check of my pistol, sliding a fresh clip in with the satisfying click of a round in the chamber.

"Truce. Sorry 'bout the hat." I nodded, trying to ignore her sudden grimace at the reminder, giving the guards a sharp kick to spur them back into the land of the living, before hurrying out after Marigold's retreating form, ears already picking up the thunder of footsteps and cries of alarm echoing throughout the structure.

_'Somethin' tells me it's gonna be a __**long**__ night...'_

* * *

**_-Jacob Ambrose-_**

"This can't be happening; this _can't BE __**HAPPENING**__!" _I snarled, keying my Scroll up with all the relevant data, before shattering the thing against the wall for being too damn slow, startling the labs crew but only for a few stunned moments. Still, it was precious time wasted. I needed up to date information to draw any sort of conclusion, to make sense of what had transpired.

First the mess with Xiao Long, then my brother's sudden disappearance, as if _that _wasn't bad enough, and finally that message from our contacts in the Frontier had bled through the channels...

_'Grandfather...' _We may not have seen eye-to-eye on more than a few matters, but he had always been a man to respect. A man to idolize for his convictions. That he was now gone...

I felt my breath hitch in my chest, but fought down the tears. They wouldn't help the current hell of activity breaking out across the ship, as troopers scrambled to stations as calls went out in an attempt to organize against the horde that had been summoned in the wake of that transmission. Sedition on the airwaves, all of them across the face of Remnant, planted in the CCT system itself. How that was possible, I had no idea, and was hunched over the nearest terminal that wasn't filled by some panicking technician trying to learn more. But in the wake of losing the asset...

_'Penny... Her name was Penny...' _my mind added traitorously, causing me to pause in my rapid-fire typing at the thought of the little android. A young soul, one that had been so pleased with herself at finally finding friends outside the circle of scientists who regularly serviced her systems. The little girl who had so bravely dedicated herself to our goal of a Remnant free of Grimm, and safe for all of mankind.

Ripped apart in a horrific accident, an unfortunate complication of her weapons and her opponent's Semblance. Sheer bad luck that had undone years of dedicated research, and dashed our hopes so completely, we may as well have been inviting the Grimm to our doorstep.

_'Polarity... Damn it, if I had just gone with a non-magnetic design... But I had to consider density and the heat dispersal contained within her reactor's... If I'd just considered more options... The Professor had been right. She wasn't ready for this level of combat action... Too many variables. If I'd just listened to him, and curbed the General's protests, she'd still be...'_

So many alternatives, so many paths I could've gone, all attempts to distract myself from the single terrifying question. Had I been wrong, and Joel all too right? The thought alone was disquieting enough in itself, but if so... _'I might as well have murdered her with my own two hands.., Nikos was an inevitability waiting to happen; nothing more...' _But for her death to be used in this way, by some madwoman with illusions of grandeur and a nice voice, to endanger the lives of those she'd wanted nothing more than to protect...

"Allison!" My watch lit up as the small mote of crimson light rose from its holographic surface, the AI's voice filtering over the speakers, calm and collected as ever. _'Good, one of us has to be in this mess.'_

_"Yes, Dr. Ambrose? You have need...?"_

"Oh course I do; I want a trace on the signal that hijacked our frequencies. That voice had to come from somewhere. Run it through all known points! Public, private, I don't care; just find it! Dedicate a server or two, if you have to! Just do it!" A few more raised eyebrows and whispers came from my aids, balking when what we needed right now was action. Typical...

_"Dr. Ambrose... Jacob, that command is restricted by Citizen's Code of Ethics protocol number...!"_

"I'm well aware! Initiate override, Emergency Executive Powers, authorization One-One-Seven-Sierra-Crimson-Oh-One," I said, not bothering to look up from the stream of information as I listed off the requisite vocal commands that would grant me access to all sources of information, no matter their source, be it Scroll or public camera, in the name of Kingdom security and civilian welfare, without having to deal with petty legalities. "Forward the necessary paperwork to my inbox, and bounce all demands containing the words 'Demand' or 'Explanation' at every level. I don't have the luxury. Find her... Make it a kill order."

_"Acknowledged, sir. Running search now... Cross referencing vocal patterns... Triangulating signal spread... Subject located within Beacon Academy boundaries. Sending coordinates to assigned fire teams..."_

Beacon? What the hell would she be doing...!? No, no, don't focus on that now. Get to the Knight-Errant, sortie, and...

My impulsive thoughts were cut off by the sound of the door to the lab sliding open, followed by a sudden shout of alarm that was swiftly silenced with a wet gurgle. Turning, I saw one of the guards manning the door fall forward, clutching for a geyser fountaining from his neck that stained the pure white of the room red, his fellow soon following suit as a small woman with mismatched brown and pink hair wearing an officer's uniform strode into the lab, toting a bladed umbrella.

One of my aids tried to make a break for it, and earned a similar fate to the swiftly cooling troopers, as she slit him groin to sternum like a fish, gracefully dodging the viscera before coming to a halt, gazing at all of us assembled with similarly mismatched eyes with a smile that chilled me to the bone.

_'Oh shit...'_

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

_'No need to panic, huh!?... __**Bullshit**__!'_

It was pandemonium throughout the colosseum. The alert siren blared in an ear shattering whine, as the crowd screamed and practically ran over one another in their attempts to make a break for the airship docks when the Nevermore landed atop the arena's force field, cawing bloody murder.

To my ever mounting anger, I noticed more than a few combat academy uniforms mixed in with the fleeing populace. In fact, many were using their Aura as an edge to fight their way to the front, their enhanced reflexes granting a huge advantage over the mundane masses.

_'__**Cowards**__!'_

You'd think that this would be the situation to truly show your mettle, to prove you weren't just some poser trying to make Huntsman for the fame. Though, as much as I hated to admit it, a small part could understand and sympathize. A _very small_ part. Whoever that bitch over on the CCT network really was, her fancy little speech had certainly had the desired effect. The entire Arena was awash with panic, drawing the in the Creatures of Grimm like a magnet. My fingers itched for _Cerberus' _comforting weight...

_'Focus. Sustrai. Where the fuck is she?'_

Catching sight of the mint haired girl by chance had been a surprise, especially since by all the reports Marigold had shown me stated that she was supposed to be on her way back to Mistral with her injured teammate. Suspicious enough in itself, but seeing as she's been around the area where one of my targets was, I couldn't help but keep an eye fixed on her, even through that rollercoaster of a match and its nasty conclusion.

The girl had remained in her seat, with no cheering or fanfare over the course of the whole bout. She just had a look of intense focus on her face as she followed Nikos around the arena, right up until the end. That is, of course, until she'd noticed me staring, and made a break for it in the chaos that followed.

_'Funny, she was also the only one in the whole of the arena who wasn't surprised to see Polendina go down like that. Or by that bitch's speech...'_

I could smell her, even now, on the air as I fought my way past a sea of elbows and limbs from the surging throng, the smugness mixed with just a hint of sour anxiety and mint leaf calling to my senses growing further and further away.

_'Forget this!' _I growled fiercely, tapping into my Aura, and feeling the telltale rush of power coursing through me, as I pushed outwards with my Semblance as gently as I could, forcing, and in many cases, throwing the startled and terrified crowd aside bodily. Not a moment too soon, as a pair of frustrated crimson eyes glared at me wide eyed from the other end of the stands, before the girl was once again sprinting headlong for the nearest exit. _'Not happening, Bitch!'_

I'd tracked the scent. Now all that remained was to bring down my prey, and get some damn answers.

Sustrai was fast and nimble, weaving her way past those scattered audience members still remaining like a wraith. However, despite this, she made the mistake of hesitating, as the sheer mob of people surged back through the tunnel, accompanied by the wild baying and howls that I'd come to associate with Beowolves, though how it was possible for land-based Grimm to have found their way onto the floating monument, I had no idea.

_'There's a fucking Nevermore trying to pick its way through the barrier like a tin can just overhead! Today's not the day for sense!'_

Whatever was happening, it had given me just the opening I needed to close the distance, and I was intent on taking full advantage. Leaping atop the railing lining the stadium, I focused my Semblance on the slab of metal, feeling it shift underneath me jerkily, until the section I was perched on tore upwards with a mighty crash, sending me hurtling towards the little runner just as she was turning towards the noise, her crimson eyes widening in shock and alarm.

"_YOU'RE MINE_, _YOU_... Huh!?" The victorious smile died instantly as I collided with her, only to pass through her like some ghost, and kept going, barely able to right myself into a forward roll as to avoid snapping my own neck in the process, before landing hard, jarring my right shoulder painfully.

_'What the...!?'_

Scrambling to my feet whilst clutching at my aching limb, I frantically searched the surrounding area where she had stood only moments before, searching for any sign of the Haven student, tracking her scent faintly on the air so close by I could almost taste it... Some kind of Semblance? She'd been right there!

_'__**How**__!? How did she...!?'_

Unfortunately, my train of thought was cut off by an enormous electrical crackle, as the great barrier surrounding the Colosseum finally gave way under the sheer weight of the enormous Grimm. The monster landed in the middle of the arena in a storm of black feathers that rocketed outward from its body, flying like ebony black lances towards the stands in all directions. The very _occupied_ stands...

"_Shit_!"

I braced myself as one of the feathers crashed like a cannon shell mere feet away, throwing dust and debris about in a hail of shrapnel that pattered against my Aura like rain. Those nearby and many throughout the stadium, unfortunately, weren't all so lucky.

Dozens were injured, all terrified. And their fear was only drawing the beast's attention more and more, as it let loose another salvo of razor tipped death our way. My Semblance strained as it rippled through the stadium, and curved many of the massive missiles away from myself and the other audience members. Those who weren't screaming stared in dumb amazement, as the oncoming death seemingly turned away from them at the last moment.

The flying nightmare noticed the strange phenomenon all to acutely, and was displeased, cawing its soulless heart out as it made to take off and gain a vantage on us all from above, screeching as it suddenly found itself unable to move its wings. In fact, the aged Grimm was unable to move at all, its body held to the arena as if by the grasp of an unseen giant.

"_RUN_!" I screamed at my astonished onlookers, spurring them into action as they made their way towards the exits. Some of the braver souls stooping to aid the wounded which only seemed to make the damned Grimm angrier by the moment.

_'Not today, asshole!' _I seethed, holding both shaking arms outward towards the monstrous avian creature, teeth clenched and heart pounding and a line of sweat beading from my forehead, as I brought the full force of my Semblance to bear on the beast. The strain rippling through my Aura, my soul, was enormous, the world swimming as it writhed in my grip. _'N-not... going... t-to happen! So just... stay... __**DOWN**__!'_

The Nevermore screamed shrilly in agonized pain, as one of the delicate bones in its wings snapped, a cry that made my heart pulse faster, giving me the strength I needed to drive its head to the stadium floor hard, with enough force to shake the massive flying monument supporting it and send cracks webbing up its beak.

_'More... Just a bit __**MORE**__!'_

I hardly noticed the discomfort at this point, but I could still feel the strain pulling at the fringes of my awareness, grinning madly even as I reached out a hand to steady myself against one of the empty seats hair waving about as if gravity itself was beginning to fail, the backs of my ears pressed tight against my skull. It felt as if my whole body were on fire, burning up under the deluge of force I had to use just to keep this damned thing down. It was exhilarating, and awe inspiring, how one might feel while staring at the most exquisite pieces of art that caught the soul and let it fly...and it fucking hurt like hell too, couldn't forget that.

_'I held back a mountain! This... This is __**nothing!**__'_

Of course, that hadn't been a cake walk either. It was becoming all too clear one of us would give in the end. Either the Nevermore, and its growing list of fractures, or me through sheer attrition. I wasn't too confident it wasn't going to be me throwing in first, whether I wanted to or not.

Even injured as it was, the beast was fighting me every step of the way, and Nikos only sat there on her ass, right in front of it. "D-do something!"

It was useless. The girl was unresponsive, still staring at the sparking remains of her opponent. She wouldn't be of any help. I certainly hadn't back in the Badlands after bringing down that airship. That had been an unfortunate necessity, in the end. This, however... Hope came in the form of a crimson blur racing outwards from the stands like a bullet, spearing the fucker on the end of a borrowed sword, and thankfully drawing its attention long enough to give me a short reprieve. Unfortunately, it made me slack off for a few precious moments, thinking the worst had passed.

A sudden crash beside me, renewed screams, and the sudden acrid tang of Grimm flesh on the air so close caught me off guard, breaking my concentration, and opening me up to a swipe that collided heavily with my already strained Aura, and sent me smashing into a row of seats.

Gasping at both the sudden pain and mental shock of having my Semblance cut off so abruptly, I was pretty much helpless, as what I realized was a Griffon, a twisted hybrid with the wings, beaked face of a predatory bird, and the sleek furred, muscle ridden body of a lion. It was my first time actually seeing one outside of textbooks, and was actually very similar to the Chimera AMBR had bested so long ago back during our Initiation, if smaller, though it still looked to be bigger than many others of its kind.

_'An Alpha... Fuck me.'_

Of course, size and class didn't matter shit if I was just going to sit around and let myself get eaten. With a snarl, I urged myself into a crouch, shoving aside what remained of the front row in an attempt to get to my feet, only for a sudden bout of dizziness to overtake me, and set me on the ground before the monster, my Aura reeling at the slightest touch. Carmine colored wisps sprang to life, and faded instantly in short lived bursts as I tried my best to regain control, only for it to slip away maddeningly.

_'No, not now! Not now!' _I bit my lip, tasting the warm trickle of blood, and sudden sharp twinge of pain. _'Work, damn it! __**Work**__!'_

The Griffon examined me like a slab of meat, a low growl permeating the air as it stalked forward, only stopping when it loomed overhead, making sure to cast me in its shadow. I wasn't certain if Grimm could feel emotion like we do, but I was certain, if it were possible, this bastard would have a shit-eating grin etched across that ugly beak it sported. I glared back up at it defiantly with a low growl in my throat, making sure the bastard didn't get the satisfaction of seeing me shiver like some frightened puppy dog.

"What are you waiting for!? _Come on_!" I hoisted myself up on shaking knees, panting as I reached out again, feeling the edges of control yet again. I would need only a few seconds before I could smash this thing into oblivion yet again, if I pushed myself. However, these were seconds I wasn't sure I had. _"Come at me you son of a bitch!"_

With a howling screech that was born of half anger, half triumph, the Griffon reared back on its hind legs, talons glinting in the moonlight. I breathed deep and low, closing my eyes despite myself, as the scent of cracked masonry, sweat and fear, gunpowder and apples...huh?

**"****_GET AWAY FROM HER_**,**_ YOU OVERGROWN BUZZARD!"_**

My eyes shot open wide as a slim figure leapt from the level above where we stood, in a blur of tattered worn green and straw blonde hair, colliding with the Griffon head on. Before the Grimm could do more than squawk in startled confusion, it was choked off by a silver arm wrapped tightly around its neck in a crushing hold. The rogue then used his free arm to shove a snub-nosed pistol snugly into the crook of its neck, and fired once, twice, three times, pulping the massive beast's throat into foul smelling wet chunks along the ground, a fair bit splattering me in the face, only to dissolve seconds later with an acrid tang.

_'Ben!?'_

The monster's cries bled off into a croaking gurgle as its strength left it, the massive bulk swaying dangerously to the startled surprise of its rider, who was forced to leap off quickly to avoid falling off the side of the stands along with it, scrambling about the rubble strewn ground as the swiftly decaying beast went over the edge, and tumbled into the few dozen feet towards the floor of the colosseum with a meaty crunch. The Huntsman lowered his goggles and watched it tumbling the whole way down, panting and smiling with an adrenaline fueled vindictive glee and relief I'd never seen before.

It was surprising... And not wholly unattractive.

"Thinkin'…hah…I'll just leave the Grimm wrestlin' to Ambrose from now on...holy...holy hell." the former bandit spoke up breathlessly, talking more to himself as he used a mechanical hand to brush the gravel from his disheveled hair and clothes. It didn't help much. He straightened up with a grunt, and a crack from one of his joints. "...Little too up close and personal for my... Uh..." He gave a small hiccup, his words trailing off awkwardly as he noticed me staring, until he finally seemed to pull himself together, and smiled with that damned crooked smirk of his. "Hey."

"Hey," I said back, returning it with one of my own before taking a step forward. Or, more accurately, fell forward when my legs fell out from underneath me, forcing the blonde to have to move quickly, making me land in his chest rather than eating dirt. His arms moved to support me with a flicker of worry in his eyes.

_'Were they always that green?'_

It wasn't the most pleasant place, when I thought about it, the both of us smelling faintly of sweat, Grimm guts, and lung clogging dust, with the screeches of Grimm near and close by filling the skies... And strangely, I was able to ignore all of that as he drew me to him, our lips meeting in the middle for a brief moment, a taste that tickled at my senses and, shockingly enough, set his cheeks burning...

"I think I'm done waitin'... You?" he asked hesitantly, his trademark confidence shaking just a tad, before I groaned over-dramatically, and gave the smart ass my answer, one that left no room for doubt in his mind, as we fell into each other hungrily, my hands in his hair, his scent filling my mind as the cold metal of his arm braced against my back.

It was thrilling, it was perfect... And it was over all too soon as the tapping of a boot on stone broke us from our little reverie. Ben pulled away first, and inclined his head, the stupid easy grin he wore fading into a nervous chuckle at the sight of his partner standing only a few feet away with her arms crossed, glaring at the pair of us with look that could've split steel. Ironic, and just a bit ominous, as a section of the guardrail right behind us snapped apart like a twig.

Of course, that might've just been me. Better a lifeless chunk of metal to ease my Semblance back into my care, than my diminutive teammate, as much as I sincerely wanted to for her ruining the moment as she had.

"H-Hey, Reika..." the bandit started weakly, doing his best to sound normal, and failing miserably in the face of her withering stare. "T-this is... exactly what it looks like, actually." I almost jumped as his hand, his flesh and blood one, found my arm and squeezed tightly. "Took me long enough, huh?"

It didn't appease the little demon completely, not judging by her scent, at least. But she did let out what could've been the silent equivalent of an accepting sigh, before motioning over our shoulders, the ghost of a taunting smirk on her lips.

_'What the... Oh no...'_

I felt my face redden as we glanced back to see the last wisps of the Nevermore fade away into nothingness, as a crowd made up of the assembled teams JNPR, SSSN, CVFY, ABRN, FNKI, and GLDN stared back at us awkwardly, with a number of different reactions playing out. Most were shuffling about blushing, and doing their best to avoid meeting our eyes in some failing attempt at politeness, while others, like Wukong, Adel, and that Larka bitch were outright snickering. Hell, then you had Valkyrie and Scarlatina, who were caught somewhere between clapping her hands cheerfully and, in the Faunus' case, snapping off a few dozen pics with her camera for one of her damn photo albums.

_'If I find even one shot of Ben below the waist in her next one, I'm hunting rabbits; I swear to...'_

"Ahem... _What the__** fuck**__ are you lot looking at, huh_!?" I called out at them menacingly, even as Ben asked them jokingly if they wanted an encore, earning my ire for ruining the effect I was going for, even if it did feel nice in some strange annoying sort of way. Didn't stop me from leaving him nursing a sore arm for the dumb quip, but I did give him a playful peck and a whisper in his ear that had him leaping to his feet with a smile from ear to ear, hence more giggling from the less formal of the Huntsmen assembled.

_'Great. Already embarrassing the hell out of me... God, I just asked for this, didn't I?'_

On the plus side, at least the Nevermore was dead, and the civilians still standing had cleared out from the looks of it. Bad news, renewed caws cried out from above, as more of the Griffons, dozens of them, formed a ragged ring along the lip of the colosseum's upper layer far above us, with more still circling, barely visible but for flashes of motion in the night sky.

The effect was immediate, as the leaders leapt into action, calling out orders for their teams to form up to meet the onslaught. Ben took the reins of what was left of AMBR with some small hesitance, as Murasaki got into place silently as ever, looking at me fingers flashing, one sliding across her neck.

_"If you hurt him, I'll end you..." _Or something to that effect. Didn't take much to figure that out.

"Hell of a first date, don't ya think?" Ben chuckled dryly, his beeping Scroll in one hand and his pistol in the other, pressing his back against me as if seeking reassurance. "Would've preferred somethin' cozier myself, with _a lot_ less Grimm. Or are you more for the club scene? Art gallery?"

"Shut up, Carson," I sighed, drawing my own Scroll, feeling the call of violence thrill through me with renewed vigor, more strongly than before. I wanted to show off, I wanted to hunt, and I wanted to drag the poor sod behind me along for the ride. There was no more fear of what might happen... Time to enjoy the moment. "Just try to keep up, and watch my back. Then we can talk."

"My pleasure, babe. You only ever have to as... _Ah_, hey!?" he scowled after I elbowed him in the side from behind, eliciting the sweetest little grunt of pain, and ruining his attempted romantic cool guy act. "What was that for?"

"Don't push it," I told him plainly, ears twitching in excitement as I felt rather than saw a few stray stones begin to hover off the ground of their own accord. "Time and a place for a cute nickname. And think of a better nickname than '_Babe_,' will ya!?"

"Yeah, yeah... So demandin'," He sighed dramatically, raising his goggles into place with a chuckle. "So is this what Psycho feels like with Blondie around? Weird..."

"You get used to it, kid! Trust me, it grows on ya!"

Every eye turned towards the main entrance to the stadium, where three distinct figures had just strode out onto the field: Port, who hefted his blunder-axe over one shoulder, looking about at the assembled Grimm like a woodsman might a forest ripe for the hewing, Oobleck, who sipped from his thermos once, before telescoping it into a torch-like club with a flick of his wrist, and Marigold, who led the way between them, looking positively giddy with anticipation.

Even from my place in the stands, I could feel the weight of danger that the assembled trio exuded in spades, and it seemed I wasn't the only one either. Every Faunus instinctively did too, many shifting on their feet anxiously in some ingrained fight or flight instinct.

Just because a natural disaster might solve a few problems didn't mean you had to feel comfortable with it passing so close by.

"So, then..." The Huntress spread her arms theatrically, as Dust, both ice and fire, began to coalesce in a shimmering mist on both palms, thoroughly unnerving even the instructors, who seemed to be having second thoughts about their little arrangement. "...who's ready for the fun to start?"

_-END_

**_A/N: And the Battle of Beacon is officially begun with a bang, gonna start winding off of canon at least from AMBR's perspective in the next few chapters, especially in Ben and Maxine's cases, by the by I guess their sort of official now so good for them._**

**_Another fun bit, and pain in the ass at times, is Reika's semblance. I'm pretty much going with that it can track a long way and is scary accurate, but it can also be overwhelming and leave her out of it for a bit. Developing it has sort of taken a back seat given the other's more immediately interesting abilities but I've got to nerf this one at some point just like the others._**

**_She could sense Mercury from the get go, but unless she was specifically looking for him which she only did at the end he'd just be lost in the background noise of everyone else in the audience._**

_**Though this does give Ruby a reason to run into Mercury that doesn't just seem like dumb luck.**_


	72. Chapter 72

_**A/N: Sorry bout that all, Had a first Draft in place, this is the right one. My bad.**_

**_Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One_**

S.A.N.D

**_-Cinder Fall-_**

_'It really is beautiful...' _I thought to myself as I gazed out at the sea from my perch, enjoying the smell of smoke on the salty air and the of flickering light of dozens of fires, both close by within the fairgrounds and even those shimmering in faraway Vale off in the distance, all wonderfully highlighted in pale the moonlight. _'...The fires of change burning away the rot. The end of an old regime.'_

The screams, sirens, and baying of monsters soured the atmosphere a bit, but I couldn't quite complain with the results.

Everything would be changed by the time the sun rose in the horizon tomorrow. It would be the beginning of a new age, and I had been the one to set it all into motion. Now all I needed to do was ease the burning hunger gnawing in the depths of my soul, the echoing ache that only grew with each passing second as I neared my my own part to play in this ultimate goal.

_'I can feel her fading life even now... Where are you hiding her Ozpin? Where...?'_

"Someone seems to be enjoying themselves. Is it the view?"

My wistful smile fell as I regarded my silent seated companion in my vigil, the muffled words the first the Faunus had spoken since he'd rendezvoused with me over an hour before. He'd been so silent and still, aside from the occasional involuntary tick or spasm that seemed to plague him every few minutes, the light rustle of his hair, or the rattling of his light chain vest, that I had honestly almost forgotten his presence entirely. Almost...

"Even you must admit, Commander, it is quite a spectacular sight to behold. History itself is in the making." I bristled at the man's non-committal shrug of his tattooed shoulders so obviously meant to appease, the ragged and torn canine ears atop his head twitching every so often as he stared out from that gaudy mask of his. Perhaps a change of subject was in order. "I take it your people are in position, and ready to act?" The shift back to business didn't seem to faze him. Little ever did in my brief experience with the beast.

When he wasn't ripping poor fools apart of course…

"They'll do their part. Shouldn't be any doubt on that front. Orders can't get much simpler than 'rampage' to a Blood Hound. Better to just set them loose, and let nature take its course." His dry chuckle was enough to put the hairs on the back of my neck on end, and set my palm itching in nervous irritation. How it was this man, this _animal_, managed to get under my skin so easily vexed me to no end. Perhaps it was the fact he, unlike so many others, didn't fear me.

_'He rarely seems to feel at all these days.'_

It was impossible to completely ignore the menace the beast-man exuded in just his presence alone. The sheer air of violence... In fact, it was almost took one's breath away. Conan Argus was hardly the most intimidating creature I'd met in my admittedly storied life, though he was certainly one of the most volatile, even amongst his fellows in that charnel pit the White Fang called a special forces unit.

_'A useful piece, but not one to use lightly. One that also must be appeased...'_

I was interrupted in my musing by a sudden, and very aggressive, jerk of the head from the Faunus, followed by the sounds of rabid footfalls racing up the stairs, the scratching of armored boots on stone. Within seconds, a half dozen Atlesian troopers crashed through the doorway leading below, and fanned in a loose half circle around myself and my companion, cutting off our escape in their minds. Their leader, at least I assumed it was judging from the haughtiness in his tone, dared to raise his voice as if he and his men actually had a chance of stopping either one of us.

It was so amusing, I didn't even bother turning around for fear I might burst out laughing.

_"DON'T MOVE, BOTH OF YOU! HANDS IN THE AIR, **NOW**!" _Aw, how cute. He thought he was being threatening. I couldn't help the smile spreading across my face as I felt the heat rise in my breast, the hunger stirring yet again... _"I SAID HAND'S IN THE AIR! BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE KINGDOM OF ATLAS, AND THE UNIFIED COUNCIL!"_

Alright, now the shouting was starting to irritate me. I wasn't the only one either, as a dull, sickly crimson glow issued from Conan's tattoos, the stone cracking and flaking beneath his palms, only to dissolve in a flash of tiny sparks in a radiant display of destructive intent.

"And if we _don't_ comply?... If, say, we don't recognize such authority... what will you do then, little soldier boy?" My hand twitched, a flicker of fire flickering to life in the palm of my hand while a low rattling growl echoed from the Blood Hound's throat. Nervous rustles rose up from some of the soldiers as their weapons drifted between us. "...Well?"

I could almost hear the vein popping outward in the man's skull at the words. The thought exciting me to no end. _"OPEN FI...!"_

I spun around in a graceful pirouette, somewhat surprised Argus wasn't doing something similar and instead sitting in his angry stupor, for my part, my hand already rising to melt any reactionary fire and teach these fools the errors of their insolence, only to pause. My eyes narrowed at the sight of every trooper seemingly frozen where they stood... Well, not completely. Their helmetless leader was proof enough of that, as his pupils moved about frantically. But otherwise, they were trapped in their own bodies.

_'Interesting.' _I straightened up regally, stepping with lightly tinkering footfalls to where their overloud commander stood, eyes bulging out of their sockets as I raised a tender hand to his bare face, making sure the heat it released just barely grazed his meager Aura. _'I expected fast results, but this is just...'_

The Faunus' growling only intensified as their jailor stepped from the same doorway the strike team had exited from, a grin on her face and a tune on her lips as she strode calmly past her victims with what seemed eerily similar to a skip in her step, before coming to a sudden halt, staring between the two of us inquisitively. She focused for a moment longer on the Blood Hound, before her eyes widened in surprise when the Faunus discarded the mask with a series of short clicks, as glassy crimson eyes replaced by his natural bloodshot reddish brown.

"U-Uncle?" the girl whispered, emotion tinging her voice, though what exactly those emotions were was difficult to determine. "So... Lady Cinder wasn't lying, then." Such respect and manners, even in her state. She really was from wealth. "N-No lies?"

"Evidently not... Depends on what lines she's fed you though."

"I will never lie to you Sonia; I give you my word on that," I said delicately, inserting myself between them, and trying to suppress the urge to burn the blunt murderer to the bone. Thankfully I'd managed to hold myself in check, and even shared a warm smile with both parties. "Conan and those he commands have been of invaluable assistance to me in the last few months. It is my hope they will prove the same to you. _Won't they_?"

I glared back at the Faunus, the temperature rising a couple degrees. For his part, the man merely shrugged yet again, keeping his eyes fixed on the young girl, or focused on something beyond her.

That was a problem with addicts: they become less reliable with time.

Discovering the estranged relationship lying right under my nose had been a miraculous stroke of luck, one I fully intended to reward Emerald for after our mission was accomplished. Introducing this fact to Bordeaux, however, had been the most delicate part. One wrong move, and we could have a situation as bad as last night's debacle with the man's daughter had been on our hands. Perhaps even worse.

Thankfully, the girl had chosen to remain merely skeptical rather than hostile. Of course, this moment of meeting was the most crucial, especially given her new _alterations_.

"I hope you were able to find the answers you were looking for, yes?" I trailed on, making sure to engage the girl again. Building trust would be crucial to keeping her under thumb as much as anything, given her lack of structure. She would latch onto the closest thing to a friend she has, the people she believes still care. "I was worried when you didn't answer my calls."

"Y-yes! Sorry I'm late, my lady..." She curtsied with a beaming smile, almost losing her footing as a sudden shudder overcame her, her voice shaking as much as her hand did. I couldn't help but notice it twitching towards one of the pockets in the vest she wore over her chest piece. "M-my errand took a bit longer than I... than I..." Her eyes glazed over for a moment, her smile shrinking into a look of minor confusion. Conan's teeth grinding was audible from behind me.

"It's quite alright, Sonia; it's not trouble at all," I said lowering my voice to a more calming tone, making sure to examine her reactions thoroughly. _'Intriguing...' _The drug had worked, then, perhaps even better than I hoped, if the men under her sway were any indication, all completely rendered immobile at her will.

Miss Bordeaux had certainly changed a great deal since I had last seen her, and not just in that she now wore more fitting combat-rated clothing tailored to her specific whims. The shaking, frightened young woman maintaining only the barest air of dignity about her that I'd seen only hours before had been utterly replaced by the cool, confident swell of power, that showed no sign of hesitation or distress.

A marked improvement, certainly, though I couldn't help but notice the few loose strands of hair hanging in front of her face, the mad fervor burning in her eye, or the slight twitch she couldn't help or even seem to notice in her right hand. What she had regained in strength, she had obviously lost some small measure of poise. An acceptable sacrifice.

Conan had noticed the strange shift too, as well as the crimson patch adorning her wrist. The Dog Faunus on his feet so fast, Sonia's hand drifted instinctively to her side, as a flicker of surprise crossing her features at the absence of weight as her mind caught up with itself.

From what I could recall, she was something of a swordswoman. Well trained by all accounts, though, unfortunately, there hadn't been enough time to provide her with a suitable weapon. Nor would I have even if I'd had the chance, given the dangers of her harming herself by accident, drug or no. Potent as it was, this _Butcher's Brew _was hardly the most reliable means of control, even at such minor doses the patches provided.

"You didn't say you'd...! Who gave... Falkner!? When I get my hands on that...!"

I held up a hand to stay the mad dog's yipping, instead choosing to keep the focus on Sonia, certain she'd prefer it that way regardless. "I see you've been enjoying my gift."

Her eyes widened questionably, before she appeared to notice the patch, an ecstatic smile building as she pressed her fingers gently to its crimson surface. "It's... It's _wonderful_..." she said wistfully, her eyes glazing briefly, before control seemed to reassert itself with a twitch of her eyebrow. "I-I mean it hurt so much at first, but then I felt this... this _surge of power _I never knew I had before. After I put the second on, the voices didn't even..."

"This is _your_ power, Sonia. It always was. The patches merely brought it to bear," I overrode her, a twinge of worry blossoming at the grimace Argus was giving her. I hadn't expected her to require more than one; Falkner had been clear of her expectations before providing it to me. "You must be careful, though. Very careful in future that it does not become a crutch."

"Oh, o-of course, Cinder, my lady! No need to trouble yourself." Her smile faltered for a second. A wary sense of danger pulled at my senses as she tried to read my Aura, then felt better of it. That momentary brush frightened me more than I'd like to admit though, my will struggling to resist the urge to burn her to ash at that very moment for the insolence. "You said something else when we spoke... Before I left, you mentioned I would lead others in building a new world. Does... does that mean I'll have my own team?"

I was caught off guard by the sheer want and desire hidden behind the question. All for such a simple request. Perhaps this would be easier than I'd first thought.

"Yes, my dear. You will have a team. Skilled individuals who, under your leadership, will aid me, aid _us_, in ridding the world of tyrants and liars like Ozpin and Ironwood, as well as the rigid authority of the Councils and their Kingdoms."

Sonia was positively beaming now, her mind likely racing as I built a scene for her imagination to enjoy. "When will I get to meet them? Will they be... will they be strong, and brave, and...!"

"All in good time. I'm already taking care of it as we speak. Don't you worry your pretty head about it. Merely enjoy yourself to your heart's content, and do _exactly _as we discussed."

_'...I'll need to watch her more carefully in the future,' _I decided as the girl nodded, suddenly becoming distracted by her imprisoned troopers, giggling even as a nerve twitched at the corner of her mouth. Sonia and the nature of her unique Aura presented a number of interesting possibilities, more so if I could get the cousin as well, even if she would be more Conan's than mine in the end.

Echoes of the Spring Maiden's power sung through both young women, reflecting itself in those around them. How and why was irrelevant. They were useful. Dangerous until I'd attained the true power I sought, but useful nonetheless.

"See it, too?..." I turned my head upwards to glance at Conan's face, his anger seemingly having given way to brutal acceptance. "You'll want to curb her doubling up soon as you can... It'll slow the degradation down considerably. Falkner may have forgotten to add that fact that the drug wasn't designed with human physiology in mind. The effects even of so small a dose will be unpredictable, especially with a body like hers... Her mother was a strong woman, indeed, though the Bordeaux weren't exactly known for their constitution. If that carried..."

"It was a necessary risk, Commander; if you'd seen her yesterday, you would understand. A wretched little creature living in a dream, and scared to wake up." My blazing eyes narrowed when I saw her "playing" with her food, cupping her hands to the squad leader's jaw, his mouth gaping with silent screams at her joyful behest, the sight sending a shiver of distaste through even my stomach. The Blood Hound merely looked on unperturbed. "She's the only one that can help you get what you want, remember that. Her safety and sanity are your concerns as well."

"I'm well aware." the Faunus man nodded, replacing his mask before striding towards his niece with an air of a man approaching a wild animal. Perhaps, in a way, he was. "You should remember something as well: the Butcher **_always_** takes it's due... One way or another." His ears twitched at that, the man suddenly talking under his breath, seemingly to himself, and referencing someone named... "Sophie?..." No, no he was holding an actual conversation...

With that, I promptly took my leave from the scene before their little get-together could draw any Grimm to the scene. The squad's screaming was no longer silent as I made my way down the steps into the building proper, drawing my Scroll. The memory of that girl making contact with my mind, even for an instant, was still all too fresh.

My power would soon far outstrip hers. I was as certain of that as I was of the hunger now burning a hole in my very being. But until then, I would endeavor to keep my promises, and avoid drawing the little monster's wrath. Or the Commander's, for that matter.

_'At least for now...'_

* * *

**_-Roman Torchwick-_**

_'Finally. Took them long enough.'_

I shook my head with an audible sigh of relief as I heard the locking mechanisms of my cell door shifting and clicking for the first time in what had felt like ages. Ages of sitting with nothing but my shadow and my talkative neighbor to keep me company. Swapping stories with the young Trapper had broken the monotony, to be sure. Always nice to find a like-minded soul. But I'd soon come to realize there was nothing like being able to stand up straight without having to stoop one's neck.

_'Nothing like lockup to make you appreciate the simple things in life...'_

"Sounds like someone's throwing one hell of a party..." Capaneus' muffled voice rang out from the right of my cell, voice tinged with malicious satisfaction, and a hint of proper deference that didn't quite fit with his tone. "...Friends of yours? Here to get you out, right? And..." He realized it, too. That things were all about to change, and the next few moments... Well, I'd be the one holding the winning hand in just a bit.

Least I hoped so...

"Just a friend, if I'm not mistaken. If not, just play it cool, kid, and let me do all the talking." The Trapper let out an affirmative huff, or at least what I thought was affirmative. Kid had a bit of an attitude problem at times. A lot of arrogance, and an insufferable need to be right. Best he learns to curb it now and prove himself.

It was only by grace that I'd made myself indispensable that I could afford to even expect a rescue, even if it was a bit later than I'd thought.

After the monumental screw up at Mountain Glenn, I'd expected a few changes in the timetable. The show had to go on, of course; the Queen wasn't the type to give up so easily. But with how many people we lost to those kid's meddling, I'd admitted to a bit of anxiety over my situation. Thoughts of spending weeks in this glorified broom closet were bad enough, but the possibility of this lasting months, or even years...

The screams and shouts pervading the ship had been music to my ears in comparison to the daily monotony of military life. Only so many times could a man can hear the words "Yes, Sir!" without wanting to bash his head against the wall.

I straightened up into a seated position as the door hissed open to reveal my lovely bodyguard in all her mismatched glory, wearing a spotless Atlesian officer's uniform, and sporting a bulky sack slung over one tiny shoulder. Bit of a contrast to the bloodbath she'd made of the bridge. The coppery tinge in the recycled air didn't exactly make for the most pleasant first taste of freedom, but anything was better than stewing in my own seat at this point. Ventilation in these cells was awful.

_'The glorious Atlesian army. Finest military force on the face of Remnant, yet can't spring for a simple air conditioner...'_

"Well... It's about time." The little sadist shot me a sour look, but lightened up once she caught a glimpse of my trademark smirk. What could I say? The ladies loved it, not my fault.

I got to my feet and walked from the cell, careful to avoid the body laid out in front of it, before stretching for the first time in what felt like forever, hissing in pleasure at the popping joints in my back. With a flourish, I held out a hand and took _Melodic Cudgel_, snatching the bowler hat she'd placed on top of it, before flipping it onto the air theatrically, letting it land and roll down my arm, and placing it on my head comfortably, feeling absolutely giddy in fact.

_'Ah, to be complete again...' _I rolled my shoulders before a loud knocking sound of flesh on metal made me spin on my heel to face the closet-like cell sitting directly next to mine, fingers drumming on the head of my cane in time with the knocks. _'Oh, right. Almost forgot…'_

"Hey! Hey, Torchwick, what's the holdup,!? Get me outta here!" The rate and volume of the banging only intensified after a few seconds of silence on my part. The door was actually shaking now. "Oh c'mon, man!"

I raised a surprised brow as Neo made to move to unlock that door as well, raising my cane to block her. "Nuh, uh, uh! We don't reward rudeness. Kid's gotta learn the hard way." The girl let out a silent frustrated sigh, before pulling her Scroll from the pocket of her uniform, and flashing the screen my way. I bent down to read it, and instantly gritted my teeth at both the words and the Black Queen chess piece embossed above them. "Son of a... She seriously wants us to...!?" I spat venomously, rapping the cane against the door sharply, before propping it back on my shoulder, still making sure to hold her back for just a moment more. "You want out? We'll let you out... _After _we have a little chat on what's gonna happen when we do."

"_Seriously_!?" the prisoner called out indignant, growling like an animal under his breath. "Dick move, Roman! We talked about this; we had a deal...!"

"First off, that's '_Torchwick_' to you. Or 'sir.' Or 'boss.' Trust me, that's a lot more leeway than most goons get, so be grateful," I cut him off with a kick to the door that sent shivers up my spine, but seemed to have the desired effect of shutting his ranting up. "Second, it seems your situation has changed a bit, as in I'm not the only one that thinks you're worth something anymore. The 'deal' changed with it."

_'Just like her to snatch up the most valuable jewels for herself... Typical.'_

"Oh?" he shot back, unable to keep the air of smugness out of his voice. "So let me guess: your boss wants the big, bad Trapper all to themselves, and you..." Another kick to the door followed that, along a low pitched growl of pain on his end. Funny thing I'd learned about Trappers over the last few weeks was that they were cocky bastards... with _really sensitive_ ears. "Shit, shit, _SHIT_...!"

I kneaded my freshly aching skull, scowling before sharing a glance with Neo. Of course she was enjoying every moment of this. _'Why you little...'_ "Really? Antagonize the one person able to get your dumb ass free _and_ offering you a job all in one? Did you start off this stupid, or did the Trappers have something to do with that?"

"Y-you...!?" Man, my leg was really starting to hurt from all this door kicking. I'll give the Atlesians credit for one thing: they make their doors sturdy.

"Trick question! I don't give damn!" Was I too antagonizing for someone who held the fate of a potentially dangerous, murderous, would-be-ally?. Maybe. But if the kid was smart, he'd wise up and appreciate his situation. That witch didn't need tools that wouldn't follow orders. Hell, in a way, I was probably saving his life. "And neither does your new boss, who you _will treat like royalty_ when I let you out, because she'll expect nothing less. Try to run, or kill us when we let you out, and she won't care what you were. You'll be just as dead at the end of it. Trust me."

Bit of an ironic phrase for me, but hey, as long as he got the memo. I noticed the Scroll in my bodyguard's hand start to buzz, and nodded towards the door.

"She'll explain the rest, I'm sure. Little tip_: be polite_."

"Wait wha…!?"

With a whining hiss, Neo opened the door, and tossed both the satchel and the Scroll within into the cell, before slamming the door shut again with a silent chuckle. "..."

"He needs a bit of work, yeah. Like a younger, less handsome, angrier version of me. Who snores, let me tell you." I gestured to my ear with a frown, trying to listen in on how our prospect's conversation was going. It took a few minutes, a fair bit of shouting, few impotent demands, some hums of approval, and topped by stunned silence... Standard fair during anyone's first contact with our beautiful benefactor, if the stories I heard from Taurus were anything to go by.

"So... How's the boyfriend? Still crazy, violent, and treating you well, I hope?" I asked the mismatched girl in an attempt at small talk.

Her hesitant response was cut off when the door swung open after a few final murmurs from within to reveal my first real glimpse at my partner in captivity. The face behind the voice, as it were, and I had to begrudgingly admit I was impressed, even after seeing the pictures taken before he was put away weeks ago.

Imprisonment hadn't put much of a dent in the olive-skinned, musclebound killing machine within, who was now clad in steel-toed boots, tan-colored fatigues, similarly colored suspenders with a harness meant to carry something at his back, a tight-fitting, short-sleeved, plain black shirt, except for a tan, ornate cracked spiral design adorning one sleeve that stretched across his broad chest, and highlighted arms that looked like they could bend steel and gloved hands that could crunch iron. Hazel-colored eyes glared out at me vehemently from behind lank brown hair that had grown out and necessitated a loose ponytail hanging to the small of his back to keep out of his face, with what was left falling loosely about his chin. On his arm he wore some sort of dull bronze colored arm guard that ran up his forearm that he was in the process of tightening with a series of dull clicks and straps, twisting the limb experimentally.

All in all, I was really glad to see the smile on his face as he walked out. At least until his head twitched to the side with more speed than anyone that large had a right to possess, the strange decoration on his arm extending in moments to become a wide shield, one hand shoving me in the chest hard while the other snatched my cane away like a toy. Neo had her umbrella up in an instant, but would be far too late if he tried to do anything. However, as I stumbled back over the console, I heard a sharp crack ring through the confined space. My last glimpse before I fell out of view was that of the Trapper sidestepping, spinning my cane with economical grace in his hand, before launching it like a javelin towards the direction of the gunshot, eliciting a wet gurgling sigh I picked up before I hit the ground, and my head smacked against the floor with enough force to crack through my unfocused Aura, and send white spots racing across my vision.

I think I might've blacked out for a second there, actually, 'cause next thing I knew, I was in a crumbled heap, feeling like I'd just been knocked around by a Boarbatusk, and staring up at Neo's concerned face. A relieved smile was building on her features when she saw my eyes blinking. "W-what the hell...!?" A wet crunch sounded through the room, the sound of bones shifting and crunching under extreme force, before Capaneus was there too, with a bloodstained, slightly bent _Melodic Cudgel _held in hand, and an apologetic grin splayed across his thin features. "You...!?"

The little bastard shrugged as a coughing fit took hold, Neo hastening to get me to my feet. There, I could finally make out the shape of what looked to be the ship's captain laying limply against the wall, with a bloody hole where his heart used to be, pistol held at his side and a grimace of agonized pain, held in rictus from his combined wounds and the suddenness of death.

"Sorry about that. Didn't mean to push that hard, but it's been awhile since I've had to control myself," he laughed, motioning to the corpse and then at Neo, who was scowling, looking like she wanted nothing more than to stab the boy and forget her own embarrassment. "Your pretty friend knows how to play around. Problem was he did too. Tried to get a shot off at ya until I..." He trailed off as I held out a hand, the boy hesitating, before handing me back the weapon. Glancing down at the mess he'd made, I got off Neo's supportive shoulder, picked up my hat, and took a few shaky steps past him to wipe the blood off on the dead man's already stained uniform with an annoyed growl. "Uh... Boss?"

"Good looking out, kid. Sorry to see that witch take you. You would've gone far working with me." I didn't need to turn around to know that the boy was grinning ear to ear. Neo's heel tapping out an annoyed cadence was proof enough of that. No, I had better and more important things to worry about.

_'Payback time, Ironwood.'_

I regained my composure, holding the cane underarm as I strode to the console, flanked by the two faithful... well, semi-faithful in one case, killers, as I drew upon the main firing controls for the ship, practically shaking now at the prospect of my fantasies coming to life before my eyes. Minus the swarm of Grimm flying about around us, of course. They always seemed to sour the mood. With the swagger I was famous for, I began earning my ways around the controls.

_'Hope you like fireworks, General. 'Cause I'm filling the whole damn sky tonight.'_

* * *

**_-Natalie Corbell-_**

_'This can't be happening... This isn't... This **isn't** what I wanted at all!'_

I paled, tears burning behind my glasses as image after horrific image of Grimm terrorizing innocent civilians, troopers being ripped apart wholesale, buildings I recognized going up in smoke or falling in on themselves and likely their occupants. And the screaming... All if it flashed and roared across my screen in rapid succession, as my fingers typed away in a staccato mad scramble, trying to handle a dozen things at once.

_'No, no, no, no, no, **NO**!_' This was my fault. _All of it._

It had been my program that allowed Cinder to as good as murder that girl. It was murder, no matter what she'd been in the end. It had also been what had projected her message, and sent the entire Kingdom spiraling into bedlam, with Grimm knocking at the gates. My stomach was reeling, a cold pit chilling me to the bone.

_'I just wanted change... Peace... Freedom for everyone…'_

"Nat, how's it looking on the CCT network? We need to establish... Nat, you listening!?"

Leah poked her fluffy-eared head out from the mess of wires and blocks dominating the server room, sweating through her crimson dress shirt, face red, and looking as ragged as I felt. She could tell, too, spitting angrily as she delved back into her work, doing her best to grab everything important, and incriminating, before we evacuated along with the rest of the club. Junior and his men prepped a means of getting the lot of us, scared civilians included, to one of the public bunkers even now. The club itself was large, of course, but multiple showings by certain Huntresses had proven it was less than defensible, especially with dozens of terrified guests drawing the monsters to this place like a dinner bell.

Junior had put me in charge of coordinating and relaying any new information, and Leah had self-appointed herself to watch me, stuck between making sure I didn't stumble headlong into a full blown panic attack, and scream at security whenever I sighted something new. In reality, I suspected she was there to guard against me doing something stupid, the White Fang in her too paranoid to trust me in a situation like this despite our friendly dalliances. It was nice to imagine she genuinely cared right now, though. Who knows? Maybe she did...

"Damn it all! That bitch was supposed to warn us, before she... Damn it, c'mon! Delete already!" The Fox Faunus slammed a manicured fist against one of the server shelves, denting it in her anger, before reaching for the communications bead in her ear. "Say again, Doorman!? I repeat, say again!... Damn it! Rooftop, support the front! From the sounds of it, we've got another flock of Griffons incoming!... I don't care where you find ammo, they need help _now_! Nat, give me numbers!"

"R-right!"

I keyed in a few commands, pulled up a view of the club front, and suppressed a shudder. Bodies were everywhere. Civilians, and many of our own guys, while those left breathing struggled with trying to hold the door against four of the monsters. We had numbers, but, unfortunately, what weapons we could find were hardly rated for this kind of combat. Dust rounds were in short supply on all fronts after the first few waves, the standard bullets barely making a dent in the Grimm and their thick hides.

"Four of them, closing in!" I felt a trail of wet warmth fall down my face as one of the boys screamed shrilly, falling back disemboweled by a monstrous talon. Too late for him. Focus on the living.

"Shit! Malachite, get to the front now!... I don't care who I think I am, or which one of you goes, just get over there and hold them back! Junior will be back in a bit, so let's make sure we're still here when he does!"

She didn't mention the fact that Junior might not be coming at all. For all we knew, the club owner and info broker might be dead. Or hell, he might've just dug in and left us here... No, don't think like that! I shook my head, shouting more directions for Leah as an afterthought, while Miltia and Melanie tore into the encroaching Grimm like scythes reaping wheat. They were our saving grace, and likely the lone reason we'd lasted as long as we had. They couldn't be everywhere, though...

_'No! We can do this! And I have to help too!' _I wiped my eyes on the sleeve of my black and silver button up, straightening the blue and silver tie that Junior had once said I looked so nice in with one hand, and smoothing out my pleated skirt with the other.

I had a home here. I had to do my best to defend it. I was an analyst for the Red Hand, I've seen way worse than...

"Repeat that again, Back Door? Didn't quite catch that... Did you just say we have a survivor fighting off Grimm coming this way?... Is he a Huntsman?" I saw her eyes widen in terror, and knew I had to get a look for myself. I brought up the appropriate camera showing the back streets behind the club itself... What I saw drove everything else from my mind, my throat going dry as I struggled to form words. To warn them. "Back Door, what the hell's going on!?"

Our goons were positioned there behind what cars they could drag into place, weapons trained on the sight of a lone, dark-haired man, more a boy, wearing nothing more than cargo shorts and a ragged, long-sleeved, deep green thermal shirt, with his hands and feet bare. He laughed maniacally as he jerked and twisted more on instinct than actual techniques, Grimm after Grimm falling under the wild swings of a thick metal club covered in stains.

It didn't matter that they were twice, or even three times his size, and outnumbered him ten to one. His madness seemingly drew those in the surrounding area towards him like a glistening beacon. And yet Edward Briar broke them like glass. Be it with his weapon, his bare hands, and in one case even his teeth, he killed them all without one of them even coming close. His glowing green eyes soon found the camera I was looking through, burning with a sick malice.

_'Oh god, oh god, **OH GOD**!'_

"G-get them out of there! _Now_!" I whispered, turning my head to glance back at Leah, who was staring stock still at the boy's image. She knew as well as I did what would happen. She'd seen the footage during Duo's little rampage amongst the White Fang when he'd been captured. The damage he could inflict. "Leah, please...!"

"No. He was captured. I thought those Blood Hound maniacs killed him already...!"

In a perfect world, I suppose. But I guess it was just another small detail the Queen hadn't deigned fit to share with her peons. "Well, he's right there! Get them out of there!"

"But if he's here, then he must be after..." She faltered in the face of the determined look I gave her, her hand rising to the bead with one final grimace my way. "Back Door, fall back... Yeah, I know what I just said! _Fall back_! That man is not a friendly! I repeat, **_not _**a friendly! Get out of there!" I could see the confused reactions on their faces, the leader struggling with the decision of whether or not to listen to her.

Eddy... _Duo_ made the decision for them. With a look of purest glee on his youthful features he charged forward in short bursts of rapid jerking movement like a twisted marionette as he tore into their ranks like a storm of crimson vitae and terrified screams. Bullets bounced off his Aura like spit wads, swords and other improvised tools were turned away or destroyed with nary a thought and a swing of his club. Their deaths were ugly, and Leah and I sat there like statues through every brutal second of it, until only the madman was left standing. His club tapped against his leg idly in one bloody hand, while he held what was left of a man's spine in the other, like some ghoulish puppeteer.

_"Na-ta-**lie**!" _his voice, cheery and sing song, echoed eerily through the speakers as he found the camera again, causing me to stiffen. My breath froze at the sight of the murderer waving his weapon enthusiastically, sending flecks of something I'd rather not think about against the view screen. "_Come out, come out, wherever you aaaaaaaare!... I know you're in there!" _He waited a few seconds, before tapping at the steel-wrought back door with the head of his club, leaving a deep red stain against the metal._"Look, this'll be easier if you just stop hiding and come out... Less fun, but she told me I had to hurry!"_

_'...Cinder's betrayed me. Told this psycho where I lived. That's the only... **AH**!?_

So focused on his smiling face was I that I let out a shrill shriek of alarm as a strong hand clamped down on my shoulder and pulled me to my feet none too gently, Leah already dragging me towards the door as I tried to struggle. "W-What are you…!?"

"We need to get out of here." The agent turned to look at the screen for a moment, her eyes lingering on the corpses he was standing on, before biting her lip so hard she drew blood. "_You _need to get out of here."

"But we can't just...!" I thought of everyone. The twins, Junior, all of those people huddled terrified out of their minds. We couldn't just leave them, but it seemed Leah had already made up her mind, and I was in no position to stop her. The only thing I was able to do was reach for _Chance, _snatching the heavy pistol and holstering it at my waist while she tugged with the strength Faunus were so well known for.

"_Now_!" We'd made it to the door before a nail-biting shriek of metal on metal made Leah double over, clutching her ears. The Trapper had taken to carving a deep furrow against the door in his impatience. "Everyone still standing, we have a Huntsman at the door! I repeat a Huntsman at the door... No, not her! _Worse!"_

_"Alright, if you insist. Just like in the stories..."_ Duo's voice called out again winding up his club like a baseball bat, doing a few practice swings that lightly tapped the metal in a steady beat that pulsed in my eardrums. _"'And the Beowolf huuuuffed... And he puuuuffed... **AND HE BLEW THE HOUSE**...!" _His words were drowned out as final swing impacted against the steel door with enough force to shatter it like glass and shake the entire building, cutting off power to the feed, and blowing out the speakers with the racket it made.

Fire alarm claxons sprang to life all around us. Leah swore like a sailor as she dragged me bodily with her out the door, and tore down the hall past stunned and panicked party goers and goons alike. Many called out at us asking for updates, but all went ignored in the Faunus' haste to clear the building. We could hear the berserker barreling his way through all opposition, cackling and roaring in his pleasure at the club's petty attempts to hold him at bay.

"Leah!... Leah, stop!" I tugged my friend back away from the path she was taking, yelping as the Faunus nearly tugged my arm off in her rush to move on. "We can't lead him through there; the people...!"

If we continued along this way, it would take us to the front of the club through the main dance floor, which was currently occupied by dozens of innocents, whose lives would almost certainly be forfeit if the former Trapper found them at this point.

I may have lost all right to call myself a Huntress, but I could still at least try and spare as many lives as I could, the harsh reality settling in even if my roommate refused to believe it.

_'Why not, it'd be a perfect distraction...Dammit Joel!' _The big idiot had gotten to me, how could I let this...!?

"Damn it... _DAMN IT! _C'mon!"_ s_he snarled, taking us at a full sprint down the hall with a bit of Aura-enhanced speed that had my lungs burning from the exertion of keeping up with her. Turns out the lifestyle of a programmer/hacker doesn't lend itself to rapid escapes. "We should be clear if we can just...!"

A sudden shaking crash from up ahead cut her off as something... no... _someone_ crashed bodily through the thin walls, and landed before us, barely stirring on the ground amidst the rubble and plaster, moaning in terror at the large blood-covered figure stepping through the newly made partition after him.

Briar was just as I recalled from the few scant encounters we'd had during my time as an analyst for the Hand. And even now, months later, cameras still failed to capture the sheer scope of him... of _Duo_ in action. Physically intimidating, he stood a few inches taller than Joel, and was a good deal more solid. His whole body was heaving, seemingly under the weight of the Aura he exuded with every breath.

His glazed eyes were wide and bloodshot as they followed every motion before him at a rapid speed, a side effect of seeing the world in such detail I suspected. The use of Aura alone was normally enough to overwhelm the senses, let alone at the levels he was putting off. Each step thundered echoes as he moved on his prey with single minded purpose.

"N-no, no there s-she is!" the man he'd used as a battering ram gestured weakly towards us, tears streaming down his face as the air rank with fear. "Y-you don't have to... P-please, let me go... _Please_...!" His begging stopped abruptly with a wet crunch as foot met skull. The Trapper looked up from the twitching mess to us, as if noticing us for the first time. A pink-tinged smile broke the rictus mask of red-soaked flesh as he turned his head to the side inquisitively.

**_"_****T-target… _sighted_!" **the beast before us intoned in a conditioned response, one instilled by his handlers over years of similar assignments, though I'd never thought I would be the focus. His voice cut out with a feral snarl that made my legs feel faint, and a whimper pass through my lips.** "Found you… NNNNNatalieeee!"**

Was this... Was this what those White Fang troopers I'd seen while "reviewing" the video feeds taken from his mask had felt?... This terror? This helplessness in the face of a predator they couldn't hope to match?

"I'm sorry." I turned to Leah in time to see thick-bladed, curved daggers appear from seemingly nowhere into her hands, before the Faunus charged forward with a flash of gold at the monster eyeing her like a piece of meat for the chopping block. Just another tally. "For the White Fang, for my brothers and sisters, _DIE_,_ YOU MONSTER!" _Whether or not the boy even cared at this point what she'd said, I honestly had no clue, merely screaming back at her with lung shattering force, as he charged to meet her in the middle.

Hope swelled in my chest as the Faunus easily ducked her opponent's swing, one meant to tear the head from her shoulders, but merely succeed in cracking the paneling of the walls from the force of the swing. The pressure alone was enough to buffet me backwards a few steps. Remarkably, Leah held her ground, using her Aura to root her in place while she struck at Briar's exposed chest. The blows were turned away, but not before tearing into the tender flesh beneath. Not yet done, she rushed past the former Trapper's attempts to barrel forward in a blind fury, scoring more upward slashes across his back that had him gasping in pain, and splattered the ceiling with the result.

**"YOU…!?" **He spun, his cudgel extended outwards before it cratered against the wall, and missed the girl completely. The Fox Faunus' tight dancing movements were nearly impossible for me to follow. Every slice, twist, and cut. **"Gragh… _Ahh_!"**

"Silence, murderer!" Leah twisted inside his guard, the Trapper's style open and full of holes for the skilled combatant to exploit, and managed to get her arms under his as she flared her Aura like a tiny sun, giving her the strength to heave him upwards, and toss him hard to the floor, neatly on his back, and tearing stained carpet and wood apart under his weight. "Vengeance for every Faunus you've murdered!" Stunned, the boy was unable to prevent the fox from pinning his arms at his sides with her legs, daggers swooping downward for a masterful killing stroke across his throat that should've ended it there.

It would have, too, if her target had been anyone other than the Aura-clad killing machine beneath her. Her daggers found their mark, sure enough, only to both shatter under the power of her own swing, as they met his steel-like barrier as I'd seen dozens of weapons fail before.

"W-Wha...!?" the Faunus girl murmured in shocked disbelief, as she stared at the ruined remnants of her weapons. Right before Duo grinned, and brought his forehead crashing upwards, shattering her slim, perfect face, before grabbing hold of the back of her head as she reeled backwards off of him, and slammed the Faunus' face first into the carpeted floor again, and again, and again... To the wet, muted crack of vertebrae, even after she'd ceased moving. He did not stop, until even her body's nerve spasms had stopped all together.

**_"Secondary Target… eliminated…"_**

I was crying now, eyes blurring even while I brought _Chance_ to bear on the creature hunched before me. The hand cannon's muzzle flashed again and again as I unloaded the whole clip in my desperate urge to cause this son of a bitch as much pain as I could, screaming so loudly I thought my ears would burst. The first slug caught him on the side of the head by surprise and drew his attention. The next thudded off his shoulder, while the third was batted back at me, soaring so close I felt a flash of pain as the hot chunk of lead tore past my cheek.

My weapon clicked empty before I was even aware of what had happened, the muzzle pressed into the heaving chest of the giant standing head and shoulders above me. I could taste the coppery tang of blood on the air, and hear his hearbeat hammering in time with my own, like a bull's in the face of a rabbits, as he brought his weapon around, the stained club inches from my face... And stopped.

I caught a glimpse of consciousness returning to his features, as my legs fell out from underneath me, before he caught me in one broad arm as he lowered me to the ground gently, an innocent smile building across his face. "Whoops. Close one there, huh, Nat? Almost didn't stop myself there."

His laughter was cut short when he saw I was fading, my eyes growing heavy from the sheer stress that being near an Aura like his inflicted on me. It was like an ocean looking to smother me whole.

"Oh wait, don't pass out yet! No... Ah, dang it!" He shook me a bit in an attempt to stir me, but by then I was already...

* * *

**_-Edward Briar-_**

"Ah man." I straightened up, struggling to keep the small girl as comfortable as possible in my arms while trying to support my weapon along with her. It was harder than one might think. The girl was practically weightless in the aftermath of my little adrenaline high, and felt like she might break any second. "Shoot, I really screwed this up, didn't I? Yeah. Yeah, I did."

_'Got blood all over my new clothes, too... Again.'_

Peering around at my handiwork, even _I_ could say I'd gone a bit too far. Resistance from the club's staff had been almost laughable, but, of course, the Queen had told me again and again to hurry. I guess the pressure had finally gotten to me. Speaking of which...

I adjusted the girl in my arms, placing a finger at her neck, and holding it there nervously, before sighing in audible relief as I felt a quickened but steady pulse beneath my fingertip. That was close. Wouldn't do to bring back a corpse. No sir, that wouldn't do at all. Also wish I could've spared her clothes from the stains. Sadly, there wasn't a spot of me that wasn't at least somewhat coated by some type of vital fluid.

_Occupational hazard, Lizzie had said...' _Could still remember her face as she said 'd looked really sad afterwards, no idea why, I'd completed that particular mission with flying colors...

Still though, it wouldn't be the first time someone's accidentally died of fright when I tried to recuse them, like that one time when the Hand had sent me to save that chairmen's son, boy had taken one look at me and…well, let's just say Commander Violette and Virgil hadn't been too happy with me for a while afterwards.

At least if she had died and I caught it early my Semblance might've been able to help her, just like it had Miss Bordeaux back in the hospital. At that I took a real first glance down at Natalie Corbell, the traitorous little snake that had whispered in Joel's ear and tricked him into hurting Lizzie all those months ago.

**_'She took Joel away from her, __Sister, Sister…!' _**

I suppressed the sudden and very tempting urge to snap the girl like a twig while she slept, taking a deep breath just like my sister had taught me, thinking about the consequences before I acted. It wouldn't be smart to break one's new partner after all, especially since she was so pretty. It was always sad when the pretty ones died, like that Faunus girl a few moments ago, really sad.

_**"She deserved it..."**_

"No... No use dwelling on that," I said to no one in particular, pretty sure whatever occupants still remaining in the building were off cowering somewhere like they should be. "I get to be on a team. _We _get to be on a team! Isn't that exciting? Way more important!"

There was no response from the girl in my arms of course. Merely a shiver as she instinctively drew closer to the warmth I was letting off, whimpering in her sleep. Maybe it was the blood. Sleeping without washing always gave me bad dreams...

"Don't worry, partner. I'll protect you," I said firmly, spinning on my heel as I marched back the way I came, careful to step over the bodies. No use tracking them out with me. The Queen wouldn't like that... "Just you wait, we'll be the _best teammates ever_!"

-END

**_A/N: Welp here they are, Sonia's little band of misfits and killers. A more mismatched crew of OCs as I've ever seen. This idea been building since I brought Capaneus back months ago and he sort of fell off to the wayside along with Roman, made as Sonia's terrible replacement for SBLE, funny as she already has half the team seeing as Eddy/Duo was there in the dream. Does he know this, hell no. But there is a reason for it which she'll get into once she meets up with him, the guy's actually responsible for a lot more than he thinks._**

**_If Duo is too much I am glad to tone him down, generally I just watch scene after brutal scene from fight movies, anime, whatever until I'm in his mindset. Yeah he will make this fic M even if it kills him, which it won't._**

**_For Alexander Capaneus' new combat gear, see King Bradley from FMA with the collar alterations or Zack's SOLDIER uniform ala Crisis Core. Natalie is wearing a more feminine version of the standard goon wear with her own touches. The shield is a Trojan design similar to Pyrrha's shield._**


	73. Chapter 73

**_Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One_**

THE HORIZON

**_-Charlotte Cerise-_**

_"__I'm a little spider, now come and watch me spin..." _I hummed along to the children's song, bringing the blood coated bayonet blade down again and again in tempo with the steady beat tapping away inside my skull, the tone set by the sickly sweet burn of the Butcher's call... _"And if you'll be my dinner, I'll let you come on in..." _So close. So so close. Just a bit more and I would have reached it, that tingling sense of serenity the pain promised at its peak, but not peace. _Never _peace... _"Then I'll spin a web so tight, and gobble you up in __**one BIG BITE!**__"_

My arm picked up a feverish pace, as if on its own accord, as the tune bled into its ending notes, before finally slowing. My breath came in exhilarated gasps and giggling tremors as I stared at the crimson covered instrument in my hands, noting how the gauntlets and weapon would certainly rust if I wasn't careful, and then to the mass of unrecognizable meat in glorious red armor, which had been blue in the beginning, if I remembered right, cooling on the damp grass of the school's grounds beneath me.

A Faunus serving in the Atlesian military. A rare find, indeed. He'd been so handsome in his prim and proper soldier boy uniform, too, once I got his stupid helmet off, of course, and got a good look at him and his soft little bear ears. Even after what I did to his friends, he was still fiery enough that it took almost a dozen stabs to get through his Aura and get to the good part.

"I'm so sorry, honey. I would've kept you for my collection..." I leaned down and whispered softly into the what was left of his fluffy ear, at least I thought it was his ear... "...but orders are orders after all. Why'd you have to go and be so damn cute?"

Licking my stained lips and savoring the coppery taste, I stood up shakily to admire my handiwork, and bask in the Butcher's rewarding caress of pleasure burning its way along my nerves, exciting every synapse, the pain hurting so good...

My mouth was unable to resist cracking a twitching smile as the moonlight was regularly blotted out by the hanging bodies swaying overhead, those left of this hapless group that hadn't been deserving of any_personal_ attention... those that hadn't run at least.

_'__Oooh, Fide and Taurus don't know what they're missing out on...' _I trilled, riding out the sudden warmth magnified a dozen times over at the thought of my favorite little pursuits, those that had gotten away. For now at least... _'If I can find Adam's little wayward kitty... Heh heh!' _My fingers curled reflexively around a pale neck framed with the wavy raven colored locks and amber eyes I'd come to despise so much.

Unfortunately, it seemed not to be, if still quite fun to imagine.

These poor soldier boy's more cowardly fellows had retreated pretty quickly when the blood had started flowing, and the other Hounds were eager to follow the Commander's broad order and give chase. As for me, rank in our little "pack" had its perks, and I'd at least gotten the chance to savor...

"Having fun, my dear Charlotte?" And like that, the tingling feeling was shattered like a stone through a mirror, replaced cruelly by an ever mounting annoyance that scratched at the corner of skull-like fingernails on a chalkboard, all of it stemming from the haughty baritone calling out behind me, and the stench of burning hair that accompanied it. "Oh dear, quite the messy one. Liked him that much, did you? Shame for him."

_'__Damn it all! Why couldn't that Atlas lot have run faster!?' _At least I was coming down in a lull at the moment, otherwise I might've been tempted to just attack first and be done with it. Least I would've had the excuse. Alas, it was not to be.

With a low pitched snarl, I slowly reached for the worn, if well-maintained variable assault rifle lying discarded in the dirt beside me in my haste to get up close, brushing off the worst of the grime and replacing the bayonet with a satisfying click, before glancing back to find a tall, sun-bronzed figure with long horns sprouting from curly dark brown hair, spotted liberally with black, marching towards me from the tree line casually, like he owned the place. Orange-yellow eyes gazed curiously towards the corpses from behind the red and white domino mask he wore, that was so similar to my own.

"I told you it's _Charlie_, Iblis," I said curtly, a flicker of false hurt flashing across his face before his razor-filed smile reasserted itself as he stroked a hand across his chin. "Finished already?"

"Of course." He cocked his head, dismissing the question. You'd almost think he found the mere gall of it insulting. "Soldiers quivering in their boots, and screaming students barely off the teat? Hardly a true test of my skills. Thinking I may even go without it tonight."

_'__Dramatic as always. Of course __**he'd**__ be back first.'_ I groaned inwardly, scowling as he motioned elaborately towards a pack sewn into his pant leg where I knew his cocktail of injectors must be, a similar one snug against my hip, though mine included a fair bit extra besides, all of which were prescribed by the good doctor. Every Blood Hound had one... Well... except for the Commander himself.

Rumor had it that Falkner had been forced to incorporate wrist injectors with an imposed limiter into his weapons at the very last minute, as yesterday's little outing had been a hair too close for comfort, and the medical staff weren't looking for a repeat.

Luke Iblis, Blood Hound and occasional terror, struck an intimidating figure I supposed. Not as stocky and sturdy as Boris, or possessing the same kind of sheer presence as Commander Argus. He did, however, exude quite an air of palpable menace, even by the Blood Hound's standards. As usual, he'd chosen to eschew the use of a shirt, or any sort of covering on his upper body, and depend entirely on his ragged, if padded and armored, fatigues, his bare, lightly haired torso and arms covered in flowing, dark-colored tattoos. Unlike Conan's, however, his were far less jagged, Vacuoan apparently, as the Goat Faunus so proudly spouted off to anyone who asked, and to anyone who hadn't, at every perceivable opportunity.

Really, it was the heavy, dark iron pitchfork he had slung across his shoulders that sold the whole image, each end of the wicked weapon glowing red hot from the weighted end to the barbed tips of its three prongs, the brightest at the points of contact with his hands. If the cold Autumn weather, or the fact he was touching the near equivalent of molten iron, bothered him any, he certainly wasn't showing it. A fire manipulation Semblance would do that for you, I supposed, as the man's fingertips flickered dangerously, trailing small motes of flame as they danced across the surface of his weapon in a slow tempo.

_'__Oh, to be able to turn people to torches with a thought. Such pretty fireworks. So warm and loud...' _I clamped down on the stray intrusive thought with a tick of my eye, as I beat back the reddish haze and crooning whispers, the moment of weakness not passing unnoticed, if the small snort amusement that sent flames licking the corners of his upturned mouth was any sign. _'Get a hold of yourself, girl! Job's not done!'_

"So what? Good for you," I said, a bit more forcefully than I'd meant to, a flicker of pain shooting through my synapses as I fought back the urge to leap at him, camaraderie be damned. "Why don't you go bother someone who cares? I'm busy."

His eyes narrowed dangerously as he cricked his neck, his grip on his weapon tightening visibly. For a thrilling moment, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd get my fight after all. Hell, my blood was singing for it...

"Clearly..." he said slowly, relaxing his grip to my visible disappointment, the Butcher punishing me with another searing hot spike at the back of my skull. "For your information, my dear, I come with a warning. It seems Commander Taurus has seen fit to release captured Grimm onto the school grounds in hopes of throwing those left here into even greater disarray than he feels we can. He wants us to reign in our people, and keep them from tearing too many of the beasts apart before they..."

"Was it Adam who said this, or the bitchy human who has him on her leash?" I cut him off abruptly, not even looking at him as I instead focused on the yips and howls rising up from the other side of the campus near the entrance walkway, followed shortly by gunfire, screams, and explosions in equal measure. "Lady really knows how to ruin a party, taking us out of it right when we were..."

"The **_Commander_** _insists,_" Iblis repeated again through gritted teeth, spitting a wad of fire into the wet grass in his irritation, his smile fading. "Get in contact with Kingsley, gather up as many others as you can, and meet at the rendezvous point for further orders. Go now, and you might be able to get half of them before they lose themselves to the call." The way he said it, his vision darting towards my hand, which even now twitched towards the pouch despite my best efforts to hid it. "Now, if you would? We don't have all night, after all."

"Ooh, when did you suddenly start handing out orders, Horn-head?" I crooned, striding up to him before leaning in close with a coy smirk. "Telling _me_ what to do? Rather bold for the man who ate sand last time he challenged Argus for command."

I nipped at his neck with enough force to graze against his Aura when he moved to retort, before the Faunus man shoved me back hard with a snarl, my armor smoking hot enough to singe the flesh underneath at the points where he'd come into contact with me, though the indignant look on his face went a long way towards easing my discomfort. The flames dancing across his weapon intensified, the heat palpable as the air warmed several degrees and steam rose at his feet. My only show of aggression a slight tightening of my grip on my rifle.

"_YOU...!_"

"You're not my usual type, of course, but I think I can settle just this once!" I told him as I flashed him a fanged smile that only further deepened the scowl he wore when he put a hand to the freshly bleeding hickey. "Whaddya say!?"

_'__So easy to get him roused... Serves him right.'_

"Rrrgh... Enough of this! They're Argus' orders, wretch!" I ducked back away from the halfhearted swing of his smoking pitchfork, the tips passing so close, I could feel the dull heat radiating off them in waves. "He wants as many of us in our right mind as we can spare, or as close as we can manage, given current events. The reunion must be perfect, after all."

That perked me right up, a chuckle falling from my lips as I looked off towards a fresh plume of smoke rising in the distance, outlining the floating colosseum in the sky... So pretty... A shame it's gotta get stained.

"The Commander's really gonna try after all, then? Didn't work so well last time."

The other Faunus shrugged dismissively, shifting from foot to foot in a way that betrayed the nervous anticipation he felt. That we _all _felt. He might not be as familiar with the Butcher's siren song as some of us, his ability to still refuse it proof enough of that, but he still heard it. "You know he doesn't care. Perhaps his last episode took what was left of his wits." Brave talk, especially seeing as the man in question wasn't in earshot. "Personally, I don't see the point of it. The little abomination _is_ half human after all. Tainted stock unwilling to stand with her true fellows in our glorious..."

"She isn't so bad, actually," I interrupted him before he could launch into another lengthy rant, sighting down my rifle idly as I picked up the sounds of heavy footfalls, and the panting of bestial lungs at the edges of my senses, and knew my fellow had as well. Seems we'd have company soon. Perfect... "I actually got to meet her last night, definitely has it where it counts. Girl's her father's kid through and through. She just needs to loosen up a little, can even be pretty cute, when she wants to."

"Hmph, I feel sorry for her already."

We stood there for a few moments as the sounds of Grimm drew steadily closer, my heartbeat pulsing like fire in my chest. A thin line of blood trickled down my chin as I bit at my bottom lip with a needle sharp fang, and savored the wave of feeling it evoked. Meanwhile, the Goat Faunus rolled his broad shoulders, the pop and creak of vertebrae and bone echoing in my eardrums as he did his own prep, the temperature of the air slowly rising to almost uncomfortable levels.

"Hey, Iblis..." I said, breaking the strained silence as the first of the Beowolves lumbered from the tree line, snarling all the while as they moved to encircle us, as if we were the prey. Silly dead creatures... "That Cinder woman. Do you really believe she actually intends to help our people like she says? I mean, Adam has to know she's just using us, right?"

"I follow Commander Taurus, and, by extension, Conan Argus," the Blood Hound replied, his hand twitching for an instant towards his supply, but seeming to think better of it. Such a good boy following orders. "He says to help this Black Queen with her plans, so I do. I burn her enemies because he believes I should. I follow her silly demands because he wills it. It's simplicity itself."

_'__Wow. And he says __**I **__have a crush?...'_

We moved back to back, my gun trembling in my hands. Not from fear, but from excitement, the sheer urge to leap in almost overpowering as the song grew louder and louder, reaching its crescendo. Iblis was calmer, but no less tense, his whole body practically vibrating with killing intent. It was so bad, the beasties must've realized it, their formation faltering as some attempted to back away.

Luke Iblis could be dry as a desert, for all I cared. I was looking to indulge myself, but just a little bit though. My hand reached towards the pouch at my waist. "And yourself?" He asked just before I could bring the inhaler to my lips, giving me pause. Any moment now... "Why do you follow her, if you have such doubts? It can't be out of loyalty to that mad dog, can it?"

To his apparent surprise, I giggled. Apparently, he thought we were having a serious conversation. Too bad for him, especially if he wants to be that funny.

"I do it 'cause it's _fun,_ silly!" I cried out, inhaling a beautiful puff of cerulean pixie dust that burned so sweet. My eyes, all eight of them, dilated as the world became_so much_ clearer. The scent of musk and blood on the air, the far off screams and cries for help, the warmth tickling my flesh... With a mechanical whirring, the rifle in my hands shifted, becoming a long serrated spear clutched in both hands. "Why would I want to do it otherwise?"

The voices could agree... worming at the edges of my brain, the screams... the call. But for now, I was content. Content that they couldn't touch me. Not yet...

"Can't argue with that logic, my dear," my fellow predator sighed, though I hardly heard him, or cared, as the closest Beowolf already died with my spear in the side of its now open throat, warm vital fluid caressing my face gently before vanishing, as if it had never been, along with its former host. I could care less. The Butcher called, and, one way or another, it always gets it's due.

_'__I live for what excites me. I kill for what excites me. And if that supposedly helps all the cute little Faunus of the world... well, all the better then, right?'_

Just like my fellow murderer said, how can I argue with that?

* * *

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"So then..." Marigold said smugly as Dust whorled around in the center of both palms like miniature twisters of flickering cinders and icy hail. Her perfect smile glistened in the dim light, while her lone eye took in every threat, and judged them wanting. "Who's ready for the fun to start?"

Oobleck and Port certainly were, by the looks of it, if a little put off by the show the Dust Mage was putting on, though that might've been the woman's excited chuckling under her breath, inaudible to most of the students except for the Faunus, who only saw a spectacular display of power. Unlike the looks of stupefied awe that had taken hold of just about every other student, Ben, however, stiffened under my touch, a short exhalation of breath coming from his lips, almost as if in relief.

"Whew. Dodged a bullet there. Can't believe I almost..." he said in a whisper he obviously hadn't meant me to hear.

"Can't believe you almost _what_?" I asked him suddenly, setting the Bandit coughing quickly into his sleeve in an attempt to cover up his slip. He was spared from having to come up with some excuse as the Grimm took action, the first wave coming down at us from all sides in a swarm of talons, beaks, and shrieks. Each student was still in the process raising their weapons to fight back when a green blur streaked by.

"After you, Madam!"

So fast that even AMBR's sniper had lost track of him, Oobleck slammed into the front line of Griffons, stunning them, and leaving them open to attack. Not missing a beat, Fortuna leapt using a sudden explosive blast of force from her right arm to propel herself forward into the air above the stadium and the other teams' shouting heads, whooping like a maniac all the while. Hell, the look on Valkyrie's face was practically worshiping.

She'd left her cloak fluttering behind her, the sleeves of her billowy shirt rolled up to reveal the red and white crystal-like tattoos I'd seen earlier, no... _brands_ carved into her flesh. The markings bled pure, vaporous Dust into the air behind her.

"Aw, such a gentleman!" the Bounty Huntress exclaimed grandly, extending her right arm, and executing an elegant midair twirl, sending a single spike of ice through the skull of every nearby Grimm before they could reorient themselves, landing in a graceful pirouette, and turning the surviving beasts into living, screeching pyres with a few quick gestures. "Such a rarity these days!"

"Ha! Rarity!? Back in my day...!" Port called back as he expertly guided his Blunder Axe amidst his own portion of the flock, his monologue brutally cut off as the Huntsman spun on his heel, and neatly decapitated a Griffon that had thought to sneak up behind him, blowing the head off its fellow in one smooth motion. As an axe wielder myself, I could easily tell I was seeing a master at work, as each of the man's wide strokes were carefully measured in a way that spoke of years of experience and practiced skill. No wasted movement, no openings as he executed his craft.

_'__Where the hell was **this** in class? Might've actually paid attention...' _I thought dryly, remembering the hours and hours of lectures, even as I turned to Ben while reaching for my Scroll, the blonde obviously having the same notion._'Speaking of axes...' _I grinned broadly, snickering as I heard a far off crash of displaced concrete and stone as something blasted into the night.

Less than a minute later, twin thunderclaps pounded through the arena, as two Griffons on both sides of us disappeared with a wet crunch under the crushing weight of twin lockers, their metal doors blasting off, before ejecting my _Cerberus _and Ben's_Hangman's Glory _into our waiting arms just in time to take out another pair, as we leapt into action. Well, I leapt. Carson just stayed low, and blew the fucker's head clear from its shoulders with his usual accuracy, but the end results were still the same.

It felt nice having my baby back again, the axe's comforting weight resting perfectly in my hands, as I felt the telltale tug of flesh and bone parting before Dust-treated steel, and thrilled in the pain-filled screeches left in its wake. Sweat, blood, paint, iron, Dust, smoke. All of these scents swirled and mixed all around me, as the world surrounding me seemed to slow down. And it was so, so... beautiful.

"Max,_ Lucky Dog!_" A blood-flecked smile split my face as I ducked back to the source of the voice, Carson's comforting bulk slamming against my back, panting, and laughing... _Laughing_, like a little kid, despite the screams and frantic orders of the others around us, the explosions, and the fighting as we found ourselves surrounded on all sides. "Give 'em hell, babe."

_''__**Babe**,' huh?... Could've been worse I suppose.'_

With sudden rush of power, I ducked, laughing as madly as the cackling Dust Mage, and drawing upon my Semblance to send a wave of force outwards, more to stun and lift them for but a few moments. Moments, however, were all Ben needed to dispatch the oncoming line. His eyes flickered a brilliant green as he moved like a blur, poncho whipping about wildly as his weapon cracked again and again, each a perfect kill shot.

"_Switch!_"

On command, he dropped, and I rose to my feet, _Cerberus _splitting into ranged form, and barking Dust-tipped death dealers to the oncoming wave that had been behind the fast fading bodies. Not as clean or efficient as Ben's steady hand, but more than enough to chew them apart regardless.

_'__Whoever said 'quality over quantity' obviously never held a machine gun.'_

The numbers of Grimm had thinned somewhat, giving us a short breather while Oobleck and Marigold took on the brunt of the next wave. Port motioned for us with that axe to break off and make for the exit along with the others. "Children, I suggest you leave this to us!" he said with a confidence that could've weathered a hurricane without flinching, the others moving without question. Personally, I was about to argue the matter, the Professors trying to ruin my fun, when a robotic hand clamped down on my wrist. Turning, I saw Ben looking back at me, motioning towards where the adults fought with a tight grin.

"C'mon..." He tugged me gently, a rare firmness in his voice touched with a hint of apology. "I think this party's about to get a_bit_ too hot for us kids to handle." I turned to face the Huntsmen again, before my eyes went wide as my enhanced senses took in the scene before me. The _whole_ scene. My awareness of the situation grew all too clear.

That was when I realized, truly, just what the difference between Huntsman-in-training and Master Huntsman really was. What I'd thought was just another wave was, in fact, much worse. Easily double the number of Griffons we had fought, along with Nevermores, and a host of monstrous beings I couldn't identify flooded the upper heights of the arena like locusts. The only thing holding the storm at bay were the two Huntsmen.

Caffeine-addled Oobleck was quite literally a blur, moving about the swarm too fast to track, but leaving whole lines of singed Grimm bereft of limbs, heads, and wings, and showing no sign of slowing. Marigold was just as devastating, if more visually impressive, as small orbs of what I realized must've been super-heated Flame Dust flitted and streaked about in brilliant white streaks of balefire, like a scalpel, through the soulless ranks, while those lucky to get close died atop great spikes of ice that formed and shattered in moments.

_'__And this is them... holding back...' _The realization was sobering. The knowledge that they held back to protect us from the fallout was even more so.

Marigold saw me staring, and shot me a playful wink, shattering a freshly made ice sculpture with a spinning heel, before turning her focus back to the fight, showy as ever.

* * *

Reluctantly, I allowed myself to be dragged along with Ben and the rest of them. Most of the leaders, Rose out in front, guided us through the charge and past huddles of terrified audience members, including more than a few students who were watching us nervously as we passed, and who flinched as I growled back at them.

_'__What else would they expect? Cowards.' _I'd even seen members of _Team CRDL_ battling their way through Grimm, paving the way for a fair number of civilians. _'Look at me, applauding Cardin and his boys. God, the world really **is** ending...'_

The behavior earned a few annoyed stares from some of the older students of CVFY and GLDN, except for Larka Lister, who zipped by me on her roller skates, nodding approvingly. In the end, I felt vindicated.

"I feel like I gotta apologize!" Ben blurted out as he ran next to me, his rifle slung behind his back. "I kinda feel bad for havin' to wait for us to become official this whole time! And right when shit hit the fan, too! Damn Grimm..."

"Should we _really_ be talking about this_now!?_" I snapped, sending him an annoyed glare.

He shrugged. "Probably not. Still, you have to admit that we could've done this sooner!"

I let a groan, and merely shook my head. "True... A lot of it _was_ my fault."

"Hey, better late than never, right?" he grinned. "If there's one I thing I'm gonna thank the nutjob behind all this for, it's that."

At the mention of that, both of our faces darkened. I even bared my teeth, snarling at the thought of how this was all some psycho bitch's crazy plan.

"I just don't get it..." I heard Ben mutter, his hands tightening so hard, I could hear screeching from his robotic hand. "There's no way in _hell_ this could've happened without someone knowin' it... They couldn't have possibly considered the Grimm to attack as they did, either. There should've been a friggin' sign... Ozpin or Ironwood should've..."

Hearing his mumbling, my ears perked up, as I was suddenly reminded of my earlier encounter with a certain green-haired minx... who was _supposed_ to be back home in _Mistral._

"Hey, guess saw who I saw on my way here!?"

"Who?" he asked, before his eyes shot up in a hopeful craze. "Please tell me it was Psycho!"

My brows dipped in confusion. "Ambrose? No... Why the hell would you ask that?... Speaking of which, where is he!? He's the first person I would've thought to see fighting!"

Carson groaned in annoyance. "Shit... Psycho's been missin' since last night. We we're hopin' you might've known, what with Marigold runnin' around... But it seems like you don't either... Anyway, who'd you see?"

So they _were_ looking to get me away from Marigold. Fortunately, it seems it hadn't gotten too bad, and they avoided her... At least I hoped so.

"Wait, he's gone!? And you have no idea...!"

"Look, it's Joel. I'm not saying he's... Never mind; back track a second."

Rolling my eyes over my partner's status - if anyone would be alright in a Grimm apocalypse situation, it'd be that living spark plug - my eyes dipped down angrily. "Fine. The person I ran into _here,_ and _not_on her way back to _Mistral_ with her injured partner, was that bitch Sustrai!"

This certainly caught Ben's attention. "Wait,_what!?_ T-that's impossible. They said that they all left the Colosseum for Mistral after the match with Blondie!"

"Well, I don't who told you that, but they're wrong, because I _know_ I saw her. And that scent... She was here! And by the way, what the _fuck _happened with Xiao Long in that match!? I'm gone for a few hours, and suddenly...!?"

He shook his head, my rant trailing off, but not yet sated. "I only know the same as everyone else. She won the match, and then she went and decked a shell into that kick-happy bastard's leg."

"Mercury was here, too!"

Both of us slightly jumped up as Rose butted into our conversation, having dropped back to us from her position in the front, and apparently listening in on our talk. From his side, I could see the pipsqueak tapping his arm, and her hands moving in that language of theirs more rapidly than I'd ever seen. "And Max is right; Emerald was here! But so was Mercury!"

"What're you two talkin' about? You saw how he was after that match; there's _no way_ he's gonna be standin' anytime soon!"

Murasaki kept flashing her hands at him as Ruby went on. "Me and Reika were looking for you, when we spotted Emerald in the other end of the arena! Then, Reika dragged me into a corridor, where we found Mercury sneaking around! If it weren't for her, we might not have found him!"

Carson looked to Rose, then down to his partner. "And you're saying that not only was he was_ standin' on his two legs,_ which should've been impossible given what we all saw, but he also fought you guys?"

Murasaki nodded her head furiously, before making more gestures. "...And you're sayin' he might've known that Penny was... uh..." I could instantly tell that the look in Rose's eyes were what stopped him from finishing that sentence. His artificial fingers flexed despite himself.

I never got to meet that girl, but I knew Ambrose was a friend of hers. I could only imagine how distraught he'd be to hear that she was gone, and that was not even mentioning the fact that she was a robot this whole time. Still sort of mulling that one over myself, actually...

"Sorry. I know she was your friend, Rosie... I know she was a bit much at first, but she seemed a decent person... Can't believe those bastards would actually..."

Wow. Carson at a loss for words? That's rare.

"I knew..." she cut off. She looked ready to cry, but surprisingly held it in. "She told me on the day we were looking for Torchwick... She wanted to move here after the tournament."

I could feel my ears droop sadly at hearing that; I didn't care if I was in front of Carson and the pipsqueak. Rose had known all along, and she still treated the girl like a person. Polendina wanted to move over here, where she could feel that everyday without worry... and these bastards had taken that from her. For that to have happened to her, and by Nikos, too...

All of this was just messed up.

Ben nodded at her sympathetically. "Damn... I'm sorry that this, Ruby. I really am." After saying this, my teammate... boyfriend... whatever he was to me now looked at her curiously. "You said you were lookin' for me? What for?"

His shadow, after having looked at Rose as sadly as we had, looked back at her curiously. Looks like she didn't know why she needed to see Carson, either.

Her eyes dipped, giving her us a serious look that was rare for the red-hooded girl. "Well... Earlier, I met up with Velvet. We were talking about what happened with Yang, when she told me that Coco had said they had been seeing things during their match with them!"

"What things?" I asked.

"During their match, Coco said that she thought she saw Yatsu when they got separated. Next thing she knows, though, she got knocked away by Emerald, and that's where the match ended!" she relayed. "Coco chalked it up to her 'seeing things in the heat of the moment.'"

Reika flashed her hands rapidly, leaving Ben nodding in agreement as he scratched at his cheek. "Yeah. Just like Rosie's sister."

I arched an eyebrow. "What about Xiao Long?"

"When we asked about what happened during their match, she said that when she looked back after she had won, she saw Mercury tryin' to land a cheap shot at her from behind. That's what she's sayin' prompted her to hit him."

"But I saw the footage playing all over the news! _She_ was the one who practically threw the cheap shot at him!"

"Yang didn't mean to do that!" Rose blurted out instantly.

"Now, take it easy, Red!" Ben broke in, holding up his flesh hand to calm her. "We're not sayin' anythin' right now! We're just goin' over the facts!"

"But Yang didn't break Mercury's leg! Him being here is proof of that!"

"I know that! If Reika's sayin' the same thing, it's gotta be true! But right now, I'm tryin' to make sense of how that is! We all saw what happened; Yang broke his leg! But he's here, standin' on his feet._ How!?_" he presented, puzzled by all of this new info, hand moving to his hair, as the other tapped away on the strap of his gun.

That was when Murasaki glanced at my way, doing those hand signs at me. "Damn it, Short Stuff, you know I don't understand you when you do that!"

"She's askin' you what you did when you saw Sustrai," Ben filled in, still off in his own world. "Kinda curious to know the answer to that myself, actually."

I merely snarled, having to recall how that rat had escaped. "I spotted her, and then chased her down. I was right about to get her, too! Thing is, when I had her_right_where I wanted, practically _within reach, _I thought I tackled her, but instead it's like I went through her! I turned to look where she was, but she was gone! I could smell her, though!"

I mean, her scent at the time had been lost amidst the crowd, but it had been Emerald. There was no doubting that.

"Maybe you miscalculated your tackle and speed?" Ben offered. He scrunched back from the glare I gave him. "Guessin' that's a no? Alright..."

"More like _hell no!_" I snapped pridefully. "She was right there! I _had_ her! After I phased through her, I could still smell her nearby! I know I had her there! But it was like going through thin air!" Talking about it merely flared my temper even more, bringing up a growl from deep in my throat. "She must've used a dirty trick! Like a Semblance, or something!"

From the corner of my eye, I could see Rose look back in confusion. "A Semblance that makes others see things?... Like illusions?"

As soon as those words left her mouth, Ben stopped his running, his jaw slacked open, ans wide-eyed. We were right about to enter the bus docks, and everyone had been paying attention to our exchange. When Ben stopped, they had all stopped as well.

"Uh, Ben...!"

As soon as I spoke, he put his hands at the side of my head, before pulling me forward to kiss me in my lips. It was quick, not too different than a peck, but it was certainly enough to catch me both off-guard and blushing, if the heat on my cheeks were any indication.

"Max, you're a genius!" he shouted out excitedly, before letting go, and turning towards Reika, flashing his arms at her with hand signals.

"W-wha...?" I stuttered, not trusting my voice at that moment. After a few moments though, I regained my bearings. I quickly sent my sights on Ben, fuming at this point. "Carson, _WHAT THE** FUCK!?**_ I know we're official now, but that doesn't mean you get to act all fresh with me, all of a-"

Out of nowhere, the bandit turned to face me, and placed his index flesh finger over my lips, stopping me mid-rant. "Hold that thought, babe." He then twisted around to continue his silent conversation with Murasaki.

My blush only increased at his boldness. "Why _youuuu...!_"

"Alright! It's startin' to make sense, now!" Carson shouted out, his face falling to one of determined anger.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, as everyone else watched him.

"For specific reasons, I had Rei, here, use her Semblance to look for Max. Don't ask why; it was a team matter," he told, glancing toward my way at that last part. "However, durin' this time, Ruby found her, and they went lookin' for me. After that, Ruby and Reika caught sight of Emerald Sustrai, and ran into Mercury Black. As far as we all knew, they were supposed to be headed for Mistral for Mercury's supposed injury... Yet he's here, standin' up right." He was almost like Oobleck, his voice getting carried away in the midst of his own excitement.

"Yeah... So?" asked FNKI's Flynt Coal.

Ben crossed his arms and smirked. "The 'so' here, my funky friend, starts like this... Throughout the Tournament, Reika's been using her Semblance at times durin' the matches. Now that new info's come up, I asked her to recall certain moments in those matches. Specifically, the ones that involved Emerald and Mercury's team."

He then calmly walked forward in a slow pace, as to not go out of the circle of Huntsmen-in-training that surrounded him. "In this first match, there was a segment where Coco and Emerald fought in the forest section of the arena." He then stopped right in front of the fashionista as he walked by her. "Now, is it true, Coco, that before Emerald took you down, you claim that you saw Yatsuhashi show up?"

Adel nodded. "Uh, yeah. I was in the forest alone, when I thought I saw Yatsu there. Before I know it, I'm being blasted away, and my Aura count's down to zero." She shrugged. "I don't know. Guess my mind was playing tricks on me in the heat of the moment."

This only made Carson chuckle. "Interestin' choice of words... Which leads me to what happened next." He then began walking again in the circle around him, smile building. "In the Doubles Round, our blonde bombshell, Yang Xiao Long, won her match against Mercury Black. Just after that, in a totally unexpected turn, she went and broke his leg, leadin' him to be sent back to Mistral to recover... or so we thought. Accordin' to Blondie's own testimony, she claims she thought he was tryin' to cheap shot her from behind, and retaliated in kind. Team RWBY told me that General Ironwood chalked it down to her 'seein' things in the heat of the moment...' Weird, huh?"

Ben stopped right in front of Nikos, the smile he had built now dropping. The girl had been so enraptured in his explanation, she was certainly caught off-guard when his eyes fell on her. "Which leads us to what happened just now... Look, Pyrrha, I need to know what happened in that ring. What you _thought_ happened."

She flinched back in trepidation. "W-what!? B-Benjamin, I... I..." I grimaced, smelling the fear and reproach immediately as I went to tug at Ben's shoulder. The bandit was just too fast, however.

Jaune stepped up to her defense, while Valkyrie put a hand to her shoulder. "C'mon, man. Do you really need to bring that up now?"

"'Fraid so, Hero. Besides, this might just prove that Pyrrha didn't mean for all of that to happen." He then returned his green gaze to hers, doing his best to look apologetic. "I know it's hard, but I need to be sure; _absolutely_ sure. Before you... used your... what _exactly_ did you see before that?" He was dancing around something for her sake. Something that might've explained what the hell Nikos did in that fight.

I looked over to Ruby, and saw that she was clutching her scythe tightly.

The Champion glanced over to Arc, who kept his eyes on Carson angrily for brief moment longer, before looking back at his partner, and nodding reassuringly. Nikos then looked down at her feet, before meeting Ben's eyes again and answering. "Before I used my _Polarity,_ I saw her unleash hundreds upon thousands of her swords on me."

_Polarity?_ Well, that explained a bit...

Ren shook his head. "What? But t-that's impossible, Pyrrha. We all saw the same number of swords she had when the fight began."

Ben nodded. "Yeah... But it's not what_she_saw..."

I groaned at him, getting very bored over how long it was taking him to get to the point. "Quit being' dramatic, Carson! What does all of this have to do with Sustrai?"

"I'm glad you spoke up, 'cause I was gonna turn to you next, babe! Now... _Ack!_"

I swatted the back of his head with the side of my axe. "What'd I say about getting fresh with me, Carson!?" I heard a few awkward chuckles from the other group, but they were all silenced by my glare.

He rubbed his head gently, mumbling curses to himself, before continuing. "Anyway... My _teammate..._ said that she was chasin' Emerald, but when she got close and tackled her, she phased right through her. And when she turned back, she was gone. Now, bein' a Dog Faunus, she can smell people when they're nearby. However, when she caught her, she disappeared... _as if she weren't there to begin with!_"

He then pointed at his bodyguard. "Also, Reika had been usin' her _Sense_ during these specific incidents. After askin' her about it, I noticed a specific connection. Before these events happened, she noticed a significant shift in Aura, which, to her, usually indicates that someone's emotional state is shiftin'. Thing about these ones, however, was how quickly and dramatically they occurred." He twisted around to face Coco. "She used it in Coco's match to get a good look at where she was under all those trees. Before you lost, Coco, she noticed that your state changed from panicked and cautious, to one of relief." He then pointed at Ruby. "She also claims that a shift in emotions occurred in Yang's match." Finally, he looked back at Pyrrha. "And in your match, you were convinced that there were thousands of swords comin' at ya." He then shook his head, and chuckled triumphantly. "Man, I have never been so glad that Reika decided to test out her Semblance than today."

"So what does this all mean, dude?" Neptune asked, enraptured in the rogue's explanation before looking at Murasaki hesitantly. "And what do you mean by_Sense...?_"

Ben put his hands on his waist, facing becoming more serious than I've ever seen him. "Never you mind about Reika. What's important is that, put simply, some people were unknowingly manipulated to react to things in a manner that, in their minds, was an appropriate response, but, to us, was too far. Translation... She made you all see things; illusions."

Pyrrha's face fell in shock. "W-_what!?_"

"Yep. She was makin' you guys see what she wanted you to see, so that you'd react in a way that benefited them, and whoever they're workin' for. I'd probably need to actually see her try it on me to be sure, but I'm about, hmm... ninety-five percent certain I'm right..." He trailed off, before shaking his head out. "So during this match, my partner was thankfully usin' her Semblance to keep an eye on Max here, the fight, and Emerald and Mercury all at once. Around the time shit hit the fan, our trickster's signature fluctuated in a way that, accordin' to Rei, indicated that she was pullin' somethin' off with her Aura... Namely a Semblance."

My ears had dropped as I had listened to him, but they suddenly popped up when I realized something. "I just remembered! When I spotted her, she looked really concentrated. She might've been doing whatever you're saying she did then!" My face scowled instantly. "So this girl was sending illusions to people!? Like those bastards from the cave!?"

At the mention of our first mission, which made everyone else, save Murasaki, look at us in confusion, Ben's serious expression darkened. "Maybe not as strong... but definitely as dangerous. Yeah... I'd say so, Max."

Okay, new plan. Shoot Sustrai on sight next time, and hope I get lucky.

Neptune suddenly raised his hand. "Wait, there's one thing I still don't get, Ben. You said that Emerald used this illusion-making Semblance to benefit them, and that she used it on Yang during her match, right?"

"I did, yeah."

"If that's true, why use it to make her take out her partner? How would that benefit them? And, for that matter, how did Mercury recover so fast? I mean, unless she can fool cameras, legs aren't supposed to bend like that."

At that, the rogue actually put his metal hand to his chin. He stood there for a few moments, before scratching his head with his metal hand. "Yeah... Sorry, that's where I'm stumped!"

A few groans came out from the group, especially Vasilias. "Really, man?"

Sun then elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut up. Don't be a jerk."

Carson dropped his arm to the side, but then stopped to examine it for a moment. After a few seconds, where his eyes shifted left to right in thought, his jaw slacked in surprise. "...Prosthetics..."

We all then turned back to him. "What?" Ruby questioned.

"_Prosthetics!_" Ben said loudly this time. "_That's_ how he did it! He's got a _metal leg,_or _legs!_"

I shook my head. "Are you serious, Carson?"

"Yeah! Think about it!" he argued, looking out to all of his, now looking a lot like Oobleck when on a coffee high. He held his hands out in front wildly, moving them about like some fanboy reacting to a plot twist or character death. "Cybernetic limbs are easy to repair! All it takes is the right parts, and knowin' where they go! Just look at me!" He pointed at his metal arm. "And those pants of his did a good job at hidin' his skin!..." He then let out a loud gasp, before growling audibly. "...That explains why he let himself get hit... He'd practically be the _perfect_ guy to take the fall, and frame someone like Yang in that scenario! Those dirty, rotten, low-blowin', connivin'..."

"But why do that!?" Ruby cried. "What would be the point of framing Yang like that!?"

"Simply put, to kill two birds with one stone," he answered. "Mercury and Emerald needed to find a way to not be at the Finals when shit went to hell. They needed some sort of alibi... Not to mention they needed to get rid of a significant threat: Team RWBY."

Rose'd eyes widened in shock. "W-what...?"

Carson went on. "If what Ambrose's friend told him that night we fought Torchdick is true, as well as that symbol on the screen during that bitch's speech, then we're dealin' with the masterminds responsible for all of our trouble in the past year. The fight at the docks, Torchdick, Mountain Glenn, etc. They've dealt with us before, so they needed the troublemakers out of the way when the time for them to make a move came."

"But how could they do that? To do that, they'd need to have some way to rig the random selection process in the tournament!" Wukong blurted out.

Ben held up a hand, shifting his eyes left and right, which I now realized was the same look he had whenever he played chess with the teachers, albeit this time more frantically, before looking back at the Monkey Faunus. "They did," he responded. "Remember that break-in at the CCT tower a while back? I'm willin' to bet that was them. Even more so was because, around that time, I saw their leader leave the dance floor, if memory serves right. I should know; I have a _good_ memory about that night. I asked her for a dance before she left." He then quickly raised his hand at me. "Now, that was _way_ _before_ we hooked up, Max."

Judging by Jaune and Nora's brief cries as they suddenly floated off the ground, I was seriously reconsidering my relationship prospects. "_Carson..._"

Chuckling uneasily as I put Arc and Valkyrie back down, he then continued. "I've been thinkin' about it after considerin' Pyrrha and Penny's match. The only way they could've been paired up the way they did was if they had a way to control the selection process... And the only way they could've known the truth about Penny would've be if a high rankin' somebody from Atlas had accessed the network here... like Ironwood. Not to mention they probably did the same thing to AMBR, knowin' how we were still pretty much unprepared, and the fact that we'd never faced JNPR in combat before."

I growled irritably at that. My chances of glory in this tournament were ruined by the this psycho? I was starting to hate this bitch more and more.

"Besides, if they were able to hack into both the transmissions, as well as the Colosseum's speakers, then I doubt they would've had trouble with anything else connected to Vale's CCT tower." Taking a deep breath, he then shrugged. "But then again, I'm from the Badlands. What do I know about computers?"

At this point, everyone was staring at the Badlander with both awe and surprise, myself included.

Rose was the one who found her voice first. "So... what does that mean?"

At this point, Ben unslung his rifle again. "It means that Ambrose was right: Yang_didn't_break anybody's leg. And we can now explain why." He then turned to Pyrrha. "And what happened to Penny wasn't your fault. Everything that's happenin' right now is nobody else's fault, but Mercury's, Emerald's, and possibly every other member on their team..." He then paused, as a thoughtful, frustrated, and somewhat impressed glint came to his eyes. "And now that I think 'bout it... they weren't just behind this... For the past year, they've manipulated things from the get-go. And while all of the incidents they were involved with all seemed to be unrelated, I realize now that it was all for _this_ very moment."

"What do you mean?" Umber asked.

He then looked around at all of us, counting down his fingers, as if seeing if he left something out. " They stole Dust so they could cause the Breach. The Breach was to make Ironwood the head of security for the tournament, so that he could place a fleet above Vale... like they knew he would, and use him as a scapegoat for today, and to sow distrust in Kingdoms. I don't know how they managed to incorporate the Grimm into this plan of theirs... or why they're even doin' this shit... but either way, they're directly responsible... And damn it, if they weren't prepared for it... We need to stop 'em."

I nodded at the sentiment, deeply glad that this little impromptu investigation was over.

"But why!? Why do all this!? Why cause a panic to attract the Grimm to Vale!?" Arc cried.

"To cover their tracks, I assume," Ben answered, with a competitive glint in his eye. "This was all a game of chess, where they played masterfully, and made a move today that was greatly effective... I only know some of the who, the what, the where, and the how here. As for the why... Does that really matter at this point? Whether we like it or not... the game's begun."

I noticed that he answered that rather quickly. Still, I merely chalked at him being angry at everything. But something about him smelled off.

This was evidenced further, when Ren spoke up. "Ben, I don't understand... What break-in at CCT?"

Ben's serious frown quickly shifted into a confused one. "Eh?"

"There was never a break-in at the CCT Tower... at least none that I know of. We would've heard of it."

At this, Ruby blurted in response, "Yes there was! It happened on the night of the dance!" she cried, catching everyone's attention. "I was there! I'd gone out of the ballroom, when I spotted some figure in black! It was a girl, and she was using glass to attack. But... it wasn't a Semblance. I told Ozpin and Ironwood the next day. They thought it might've had something to do with Torchwick, but they told me to be discreet."

"Which means you were supposed to keep it secret, right?" Sun asked. "So how does Ben know this?"

Rose merely shrugged, her hands drumming along her scythe nervously. "Well, I told my team about it... And, Yang kinda told Joel, but she made him pinky promise not to tell!"

I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one giving her a deadpanned look at the moment. "Pinky promise, Rose?... _Really?_"

"Yeah!" she argued, pouting slightly. "But... I guess Joel kinda broke it if he told Ben..."

At this, I shook my head harshly, groaning at all this talk. "Look, whatever happened, there's _no way_ Ambrose wouldn't have told us. And, I don't know about you, Pipsqueak, but this is first time I've heard about this."

Murasaki nodded, keeping her eyes on Ben.

"Uh, y-yeah!" he interjected, waving his arm around dismissively, as if to wave off some foul smell. "Yeah, Joel told me about it a while back! It kinda came out of nowhere, but he made me swear not tell anyone... Kinda forgot about that little promise. Hehe..."

Besides that act that he was acting very suspicious with that grin of his, the air around him had a funny stench. From where I stood, I took a deep inhale of breath, letting my nose analyze what he was feeling. I felt the obvious nervousness, but also something else. Panic and fear... instead of the brief flashes of frustration and anger at having let a friend's secret slip by.

"...You're lying..." I realized, eyes narrowed at the rogue as his grin quickly fell at my words.

"What? Max, what're you..!"

"Pipsqueak, is he lying!?" I cut him off, looking at Murasaki as she gave him a glare. For her part, she narrowed a glare at him, before shortly nodding at the question I shot at her.

R-Rei, wha...!"

"Ambrose never told you anything!" I interjected again, now putting him under the spotlight. "There's _no way_ he would've told just you, especially if he promised not to tell anybody, or if it had to do with Torchdick! He's too whipped on Xiao Long to do that! If he had the permission, that would be something he'd tell all of us about in no time flat!" I then walked right up to him, nearly touching his right cheek with my nose. "So how'd _you_ find out, Ben!? 'Cause he sure as hell didn't tell us!"

At that moment, Ben looked like the kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar... literally. This wasn't like the times where he got caught doing something dirty, like during the beginning, when Ambrose caught him using his bed when he brought those first girls in. No, this time, he was genuinely at a loss for words. He paled even further as everyone else turned to look at him, waiting for his response.

"W-well..." he stuttered. "I, uh... I-I... I... Uh..."

He didn't get the chance to answer, however, as I picked up the distant screams from up ahead, where the Airbuses _should have_ been offloading people. Unfortunately, they seemed to be having a few problems with that.

Bullheads emblazoned with the White Fang's distinct logo blazed over the heads of screaming civilians, their oddly beaten hatches opening to drop live Grimm, Beowolves and Ursi, into the audience. The beasts were drawn by the fear, and many terrified folks I saw were ripped to shreds before they could even scream. The White Fang ships screamed away before the hapless Atlas Troops and their androids could respond.

"What do they think they're...!?" Jaune yelped, his face pale as many of the humans shared similar reactions. The Faunus of the group, however, were of one mind on the matter.

"_YOU BASTARDS!_" The Grimm paused in their slaughter, only to meet the full anger of both me, Scarlatina, and the Lister twins. The black-furred beasts were ripped apart under hails of gunfire, writhing razor sharp wires, or set ablaze by flaming spurs. Even Bunny Girl gave a good showing, shattering an Ursa skull under her boot heel.

This wasn't like Torchwick, a man willing to go through others; a human. This was the worst face of the Faunus. This was malicious mayhem, with no regard for those innocents caught in the crossfire. In their minds, _there were no innocents;_ they just didn't care...

With a roar that tore at my throat, I caught one of the offending ships that was in the middle of offloading another snarling passenger in the jaws of my Semblance, its wings buckling under an invisible vice grip with a rending screech and a bust of ignited Dust, before I drove it down towards the flagstones of an unoccupied section of the platform.

I wasn't aware of what happened to the hapless grunts manning the craft, whether they were taken out by the crash, or even now at the mercy of their own sinister live weapon. In fact, I was merely somewhat stunned, if not all too surprised, to find I didn't really care one way or the other.

_'__They made their choice. Belladonna can spout off about them being 'misguided' all she damn well wants. Drop Grimm on people, and they're gonna die. No two ways around it. These fucks knew **exactly** what they were doing.'_

"First line, _FIRE!" _An organized salvo of gunshots cracked through the cool air, as Grimm on all sides dropped like dominoes. The Atlesians entire demeanor changed, as a booming voice dripping with confident authority overrode the commotion with a stream of rapid-fire orders. Rather than scattered groups struggling to survive, they now came together like a swarm of rapier wasps, augmented by the appearance of some of their mechanical drones, and efficiently moving both to protect civilians, and dispatch single Grimm at a time. Form up, take aim, fire, move on to the next like a well-oiled machine. And at the center of it all stood the imposing bulk of James Ironwood. "Encircling formation! Target limbs, and bring them down! You, there! Check your aim!"

Caught between our little group of Huntsmen and the renewed morale of the Atlas troopers, the Grimm swiftly found themselves outmatched, as the last of the Beowolves, an impressive Alpha, found itself the victim of Ironwood himself, who faced the beast in single combat. My personal feelings towards the man aside, I couldn't begrudge him for his skills, ducking past the monster's startling fast swings as he unloaded shell after explosive shell from a powerful hand cannon into the beast's hide.

There was a brief moment where I thought the man might've made a mistake in looking to take a bone shattering blow head on, only for him to somehow stop the blow. No weapon, no sign of effort or Aura, the Grimm's arm merely crashed against the man's open palm with a sound that rang vaguely metallic and hollow. I missed the grand finale where he threw the monster around like a ragdoll, as my eyes drifted instead towards a curiously nervous Carson, who was clutching at his prosthetic without seemingly being aware of what he was doing. Murasaki, being the little shadow that she was, noticed as well, shooting me a worried look from behind her partner's back.

The others seemed to be milling towards the General, flocking to the greatest source of authority. If he noticed the sudden increase in young, brightly dressed and armed youths entering his personal space, he gave no sign of it, instead motioning towards his troops, jaw set as he scanned the smoking horizon. "Secure the civilians aboard transports, and get them moving! All unoccupied troopers are to spread out and find the asset... _Move, _people!"

_'__Asset? Who the hell's he...!?' _I wondered, before my train of thought was cut off by my teammate, boyfriend... this was gonna take some getting used to. He abruptly grabbed mine and the Shrimp's arms, and legged it behind the nearest pillar, careful to remain out of sight of the Atlas goons and their toys.

"W-what are you...!? Ben...!?" I grimaced as he made to stifle my protests, holding a finger to his lips desperately as he peered out from behind our improvised hiding place, raising his goggles to his forehead, and glaring daggers at the straight-backed man leading Vale's defense. "Get off...!"

"_Keep it down!_" I clamped my mouth shut, growling low as to keep the bandit on his toes. The blonde had the gall to flash me an apologetic grin while he cleared his throat. The rogue was glancing at our feet, scratching at his cheek and unable to meet our gaze. "Look, I need to tell you both somethin'. Somethin' that's probably better if you heard it from me, rather than... Yes, it is, Reika! I'm gettin' to that!"

I slapped the mute's waving hands down, locking reddish brown onto verdant green, the grip on my axe tightening as I smelt something new in him. Shame, worry, affection... Goddammit!

"What's going on; what's wrong with you?" I shook my head out, tearing my hand out of his grip and getting in his face. "Look, if this is about what you were about to say earlier, can't it wait until later!? Shit, Ben, there's Grimm flying around! This is hardly the time to be worried about Ironwood and his..."

Man, he was really off his game. I understood this was an extreme situation, but what the hell could he have done to make him so... "Max, it's not that I'm worried about Ironwood... Well, I am, I suppose, but that's just... Ah, never mind! Look, a few days ago, you see... Atlas was... um, recruitin'. And I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter, so they... uh..."

Even Murasaki had my back now, looking like she was very, _very_ tempted to start reading his Aura. "Spit it out already, Carson! Recruiting you for what!? Shit, don't think I've ever seen you this...!"

"Sorry, I-I'm tryin'! I r-_really_ wanted to let you guys know, but they... but it's just... Rrgh, screw it." Ben stopped himself, taking a deep breath as he smoothed back his hair, and looked to us both with a scary amount of seriousness on his face, completely at odds with the sarcastic smirks he usually wore. "You guys, I'm technically a... _Urk!?_" Before he could finish, a white armored glove snatched him by the collar of his poncho, and dragged him bodily out into the open, catching us all by surprise. Our reactions were immediate, weapons up, thinking we'd missed a White Fang somewhere, at least until we caught a good glimpse at the man and hesitated.

"Hey! What the hell are you…!? What's goin' on here!?"

Holding the struggling blonde was a tall, well-built figure in modified Atlesian armor, that seemed more tactical than flashy. His face was obscured by a full helmet, rather than the half helms most of his fellows wore, covered in small scrapes and what almost looked like burn marks.

Still, how he'd managed to catch us all off guard, even fooling my nose and Reika's senses, was what caught me off guard more than anything. And then there was the feeling about him, a natural instinct I'd come to trust over the last few months, a certainty that, even though his attention seemed to be on Ironwood, he knew exactly where we were, and how to take us down. It wasn't the overwhelming pressure I'd felt off of Marigold, or my Father's menace, but it was palpable all the same.

"L-let me go!_ Oi!_" Ben tried to squirm out of his grasp, but the man was having none of it, merely letting the bandit tucker himself out. His grip did tighten visibly when the bandit went for his pockets, squeezing just a bit tighter. "Asshole! You'll tear it!"

"Spectre reporting in, General. I've secured Specialist Carson!" the soldier shouted off in Ironwood's direction in a voice magnified through something in his helmet, the proclamation echoing through the empty space over the murmurs of the survivors and the chaos of what happened in the arena back the way we'd come. "Awaiting further orders!"

The General let out what looked to be a sigh, and glanced over, looking relieved as well as a bit confused over what was going on between the two. Safe to say he wasn't the only one. "Good work, son. I was worried about you when you weren't responding to my calls, Benjamin."

_''__Benjamin?' Since when is that idiot on first-name basis with the General of goddamned Atlas? He have his Scroll number, or... Wait,__**Specialist**_**_!?_**_'_ Reika was thrown off as well, looking between both her partner and the Ironwood as if she couldn't believe her ears. Hell, I'd been looking to her to clear up this madness. _'**Ben's** **working for Atlas!?**' _I looked at the rogue in question, his face unreadable. His eyes, though...

"Ben?..."

"...Don't suppose 'sorry' is gonna cover it, huh?"

Personally, I thought my response was rather tame. I didn't break anything too important, after all.

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_'__Well, they're reactin' 'bout as well as I thought they would.' _I thought bleakly, feeling my teammate's judging gaze burning into the back of my skull with every step, as I was dragged towards the dour-faced General, dragged being the only way to describe the way the strangely armored man maneuvered me around like a child. In fact, I could feel a lot more than just their eyes as we passed. A good portion of our friends gaped at me in stunned disbelief. _'__Not that I could rightly blame 'em, of course. 'Ben Carson' and 'Specialist' hardly seem like they should be in the same sentence.'_

Could've been worse. I was still breathing with all my bones intact, or those I still had, anyway. I rolled a mechanical shoulder, wincing at the whine of overstressed servos. Max's shouting had been... loud, and the punch had left a nasty bruise. But still, the look on Reika's face was worse than any of that.

Anger I could've taken; Maxine had been angry. Understandable. New relationship, and the first big thing is "Ooh hey, I'm also a dirty spy for a corrupt Kingdom I've always said I've hated." Reika... Reika just looked disappointed, and I couldn't say she wasn't wrong to be.

_'__It's not my fault, dammit.' _I simmered, gritting my teeth at the smile Ironwood gave me. That damned smile, as if he wasn't aware he'd just outed me. _'The hell happened to 'keep it a secret?...' Ah, right... Grimm and terrorist attack. How could I forget? Thought Qrow was supposed to handle this?'_

"It's good to see you're alright. With the Grimm about, we couldn't be sure of the situation," the general said with a note of what sounded like genuine concern. Sounded like it, at least. Personally, I had no idea what was going on in the man's mind at the moment. "I take it your Scroll was damaged somehow in the fighting?"

"Nope. Too busy fightin' for my life to really check my messages, sorry," I said in a mock cheery tone, the general frowning as he turned to the bastard keeping me in line.

"Thank you for digging up your fellow Specialist, Spectre. What of your other assignment?" The clockwork soldier finally eased up and released me, snapping off a crisp salute, before reaching into the lining of his pocket, and removing what looked to be some sort of wafer-sized computer chip, and a few other bits and pieces of tech I couldn't identify, before passing it to the General with great care. Whatever it was, it hurt the man to hold it, his face falling as he glanced down at his palm. "Is... Is this really all we could recover?"

"These were designated as priority objectives for recovery. Unfortunately, the combat scenario in the arena, and the extent of the damage sustained, made the possibility of full asset retrieval impossible until the current situation can be resolved. I apologize for..."

"No. No, I'm... certain you did all you could. Even this much will prove priceless moving forward, if things take a turn for the worse." I wasn't sure if it was possible for a mask to blush, but if it could, this Spectre was damn close to pulling it off, standing up just that little bit straighter, practically brimming with pride. The General placed the strange objects in his pocket before turning back to face me, smile vanishing. "I take it your teammates were less than enthusiastic with your new position?"

I barked out a cheap laugh, glancing over towards where AMBR, or what was left of it, stood away from the crowd of students milling about, checking weapons and saying a few words. Seems the others had wised up, and were now giving the pair a wide berth. At least until scattered debris stopped floating. Haven't seen her this mad in a while.

"That bad, then?"

"AMBR's sort of built on mutual trust. We depend on one another. Take that away... Well, they seem to be under the impression I was sharin' secrets. Even asked me if I really knew where Ambrose ran off to all by his..." I trailed off, the explanation only making me feel worse. "Look, you said this was supposed to be a secret!"

"That was before Grimm invaded Vale, and a madman had taken control of my flagship." The towering man motioned with a hand out on the horizon towards what I now realized were burning wrecks of downed Atlesian ships. The majority of the fleet if I wasn't mistaken. In fact, the only thing in the air now seemed to be the Grimm and Ironwood's pride and joy, which was currently unloading all it had on the warehouse district. But its current course wouldn't keep it there for long.

"Torchwick?" I asked, putting the pieces together in my head, but I just needed to be sure. I swore under my breath when the man nodded. "You're sure 'bout that?"

"Positive. He wasn't exactly quiet about it. He broadcasted it over all channels, in fact. We don't know for sure if anyone on our side is still aboard, as all attempts to establish contact have failed."

"You can't just... oh, I don't know, blow it outta the sky?" I asked hopefully, glancing around at the droids. "Nothin' stashed away somewhere for a rainy day?"

The General wasn't amused, or in a mood to play around. "Anything we may have had capable of bringing down that ship unfortunately went down with the others. That means we have to take it back the old fashioned way. I believe you're familiar with the concept."

Boarding action. He was going to attempt to take the damned ship by force. Plausible, seeing as I doubted Torchdick had much in the way of help. Too large a force would've been noticed long before they had the chance to seize the ship. That meant surgical force. An assault could work, if not for the glaring issue presenting itself.

I opened my mouth and closed it, gulping as I looked from him to the flagship wreaking havoc on the defenseless city below. "You can't be serious? General, you probably know better than I do the kind of firepower that thing has. If he sees you comin'..."

"We're expecting heavy losses," the man confirmed casually, the only sign of acknowledgement a twitch of an eyebrow. "Which is why the majority of the ships I'm taking will be carrying Atlesian Knights. That way we can keep loss of life at a minimum, and hopefully the Grimm won't be as drawn to them."

"So what? You're sendin' me on the suicide run, now!? _Wow._ I'm honored and all, really, but you do realize I have _no idea_what the layout of that ship is, or the number of baddies, or anything I'd normally use to plan a raid, right? I'd be good as useless up there."

"Yes, which is why I will be leading the assault myself. Your duty, and that of Spectre's, will be to act as my representatives in the field, alongside whoever we can spare to assist in the border's defense. Someone has to stall the oncoming horde's advance until we can get the situation under control."

Spectre merely nodded at the order. I must've looked a little less enthusiastic in his eyes, or maybe it was my mouth moving on its own. "Uh... Say _what_ now?" I had to have misheard him. Why's this Spectre idiot nodding? This is crazy; this man was _crazy!_

"With the loss of the airships comes the loss of most of our senior staff in this engagement. I trust in the courage of those young men and women, but harrying attacks and delaying tactics are hardly something they've trained for adequately, so any experience you have may prove invaluable to saving lives. Your father said you were capable. Is there a problem?"

_'__Cheap shot, Woody. Draggin' in family into this...'_

Hell yes, there was a problem. Many problems, actually. Many _big _problems. Sure, I've been in charge of skirting a few hordes and raiding parties in the past. Large groups and caravans like Dad's little group of misfits almost constantly drew opportunistic bastards like bees to honey. It was operational hazard of carrying wounded, and the possibility of petty arguments giving rise to negativity that could attract Grimm. It was a matter of strategy under pressure, understanding what you had available, and more than a fair bit of luck to keep one step ahead of them, which was something I'd gotten quite good at.

Atlas troops, however, were outfitted differently than anything I've worked with in the past, and lacked the innate trust in their fellows that the men and women I'd grown up with had shared. I knew them, what they were capable of, and they in turn knew I had at least some idea what I was doing and why. Tack on the fact I only had a basic understanding of the geography, and that this strategy wasn't exactly designed to keep the enemy at bay forever.

Typical. This was just typical. Like playing against a stacked deck with the other man's hand on his gun.

_'__Of course, it's worse for that lot.' _I looked out at the Kingdom burning beneath us. All of those people must have been terrified out of their heads, struggling even against the meager numbers that had already entered. Public safety bunkers wouldn't do shit, if the numbers I knew were coming breached the defenses again. _'Dammit, Ben, when did you start giving a shit? Idiot.'_

This was Ambrose's influence; I was sure of it. I made a note to later punch that heroic moron in his perfect teeth.

"Nope... Not at all." I shook my head, giving the man a lazy salute and a resigned smile I didn't quite feel. "I mean, if dear old Dad thinks I'm up for it, well... why not?"

"Fear is a more likely conclusion. The General gave me strict orders to subdue you if you tried to run," the helmeted soldier beside me said in a clipped tone, something vaguely resembling what I thought was supposed to be humor behind it. "In these desperate times, the defense can hardly stand the loss of any useful asset."

Ironwood shifted uncomfortably as I burst out laughing, drawing the attention of the whole platform, and some renewed growling from Max. Poor girl was gonna hurt her throat, at this rate. "Bit blunt, aren't 'cha, Chuckles?" I choked out, clapping the man on the back. His whole body stiffened at that, and a sudden sense of danger shot down my spine. It passed quickly enough, but it still sent a cold sweat beading down my brow all the same.

"I believe so. 'Blunt' is a word people have used to describe my way of speaking in the past. I personally prefer describing myself as 'direct,' instead," he said with a note of confusion, glancing between me and Ironwood, who merely shrugged. "'Chuckles?'"

"Trust me, you'll get used to it." The mood was still a bit dour, but at least the General's morale seemed to be improving slightly. "So, we ain't walkin', are we?" The man shook his head, motioning with a stiff arm towards the far end of the docking area, where the familiar shape of a beat-up old Bullhead eased its way down to the ground. A few new additions and patch jobs since I'd last seen her, but frankly, I could've cared less. "Really? Now you're just panderin'."

"With things how they are, our people were forced to draw on a few non-military volunteers to make up for our numbers in the air. He was the first, and the most enthusiastic." I shook my head, unable to suppress a grin as Jude Redgrave clambered out, and started waving our way, drawing more than a bit of attention from the other pilots.

"Yeah... Yeah, he would be." I cupped my hands over my mouth and cried out, shocking both of the professionals. Well, at least Ironwood looked a bit less confident. "_Oi, Rock Star!__ How's it flyin'!?_"

* * *

Soon enough - _too soon_ if I was being honest with myself - Spectre and I, along with a pair of hastily pulled Atlas troopers and a pair of droids, were marching our way behind Redgrave. The man, I noticed, was keeping closer to me, looking around at the soldier boys nervously. He'd been excited to hear he was flying with me again, but was less so when he heard about our destination.

"You haven't been listening to the feeds, have you? It's bad out there, and with the Grimm flying around... _Ah!_" He winced as I punched his shoulder firmly, giving him my best smile, and doing my best to inject as much confidence as I could into the look. "Sorry."

"Not a problem. Hell, I'm nervous, too." I shrugged, brushing some dirt off my poncho, very much aware of our Atlas comrades listening in. "Think of it this way, though. AMBR's _always_ gettin' the shit jobs. Hasn't killed us yet. has it?"

The pilot scratched ruefully at his dark hair, giving a noncommittal shrug that I was having none of. "Well, that might apply for you kids, but I..." I punched him again, harder this time, and cuffed him right over the head. "_Ack!_ W-what was that for!?"

"For bein' stupid. _You're_ _AMBR!_ At least in my book, Rock Star. Huntsman or not, you've pulled our asses from the fire more times in the last year than I care to remember. So yeah, you're one of us." A formidable huff caught my attention, and I turned away, very aware of Jude's stunned face as the Atlas troopers looked at the man almost in awe.

"So you're deputizing people now, huh? How _official_ of you," Max growled, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the pilot sharply, setting him on his heels. "Could've picked worse, I suppose." Wow. Coming from the acrophobic Dog Faunus, that was a damned glowing compliment. Didn't stop the heated scowl she gave me as she drew closer, still pissed at me no doubt. "Heard from Iron Ass that you're heading to the border. Told me I wasn't allowed to go, funnily enough. So close to throwing him off this flying deathtrap."

Spectre tensed at that, but obviously knew enough about sarcasm, I hope, to keep quiet. _'__Least I hope it's sarcasm.'_

"It's dangerous. Besides, you'll do more good at the school than out in the middle of nowhere with me. And I know how you hate long flights."

"Stay put, then? That an order,_Specialist__Carson_?" I flinched, knowing I probably deserved that. Probably deserved a lot worse in retrospect. Why the hell did she have to look so damn good when she was angry? Wasn't fair at all.

"C'mon, Max, don't be like that," I frowned, guilt ripping me up inside further. "Look. Can you please look after Reika. I know, you two don't get along, but I trust you to watch her back." Max merely narrowed her crimson red eyes at me, making me sigh heavily. "And for what it's worth... I need you to know that I never meant..."

I was cut off as the Faunus grabbed me by the front of my shirt, and tugged me into a deep kiss, one that lit up every nerve in my face like fire, as I was keenly aware of our entire little group watching the exchange. Not like I gave a damn. The feeling was just so...

She promptly pierced the side of my lip with a nipping bite of her canines that caught me off guard, making me flinch back sharply. "Ah... Ha, always forget that bit." I thumbed the throbbing injury, realizing she'd gotten me pretty good with that one. "Think this one might even...!"

"We're still pissed at you, Carson," she growled lowly, speaking directly into my ear with a warm sigh. "_I'm_ still pissed at you. So you better make it through this so I can kick your ass properly, understand?" I looked down at her wide eyed before nodding, opening my mouth to speak, before she promptly shoved me on my ass, and stomped off, ears twitching irritably.

"You too... Stay safe, you two," I whispered, hoping she'd heard it. Thought she must have, if the little skip in her step was any sign. Then she had to go and bark at some sympathetic civvies. Goddamn, the girl was hard to read sometimes.

* * *

**_-Jacob Ambrose-_**

_"__Professor Ambrose, I am detecting a marked decrease in your blood pressure. At this current rate, even with the stimulants, without treatment I estimate you will be unconscious within two minutes and fifty-three...!"_

"P-positives, Allison. Ah... G-give me positives," I gasped through gritted teeth as I hauled myself along the bloodstained corridor, and almost cried out as I nearly tripped over the body of one of the poor soldiers. Bile rose in my throat as I was forced to move on, and force his rigid, pain-stricken face from my memory. "In... In fact, tell me something I don't know..." I rejoiced at the sight of a red and white box bolted to the wall. An emergency medical station... for which this situation certainly qualified as... as... So cold... "I'm s-serious, Allison... Distract me. It'll stave... stave off the shock... I think."

_"__Very well. Preliminary heat scans show only three other living individuals aside from yourself. One of which holds a ninety-eight point zero zero two percent comparison to Trapper-02. The other signatures are unknown, and do not match with any of the crew's..."_

"Y-you know what?... I think I'd prefer some positives, actually."

_"__Tomorrow's forecast shows clear skies and optimum temperatures for family enjoyment, and..."_

"Oh, for fuck's...!" The uncharacteristic swear bled from my mouth before I could stop it, my whole world swaying dangerously before I was able to right myself. "D-damn it... This isn't funny."

_"__I fail to see the humor in this situation, Professor."_

"Yeah, you're... not wrong."

I tried my best to ignore the others that mismatched little monster had left in her wake, focusing instead on applying pressure to the hole in my gut, a messy little wound that vomited a fresh trickle of brightest crimson with every step, staining my front. The sadist had wanted me to bleed out slowly and painfully, that much was obvious. Still, it could've been worse. At least I'd had the adrenaline injector in Allison's casing. The industrious little program had acted swiftly as soon as she'd detected a dip in my vitals, and cranked up the little cocktail that, even now, kept me standing and at least semi-functioning.

_'__It can always be worse... This is**nothing**compared to my leg. Joel would deal with this no problem.' _Doubtful, but the motivation held, as an inner competitiveness within me, refusing to be outdone bu my brother, kept me going.

With a grunt, I ripped the outer shell of the station downward, making it shift into part workbench, part shelf. It was great to lean up against, as you tried not to dwell on your life slowly and surely ebbing... I shook my head weakly, pawing through the set of drawers and gauze, looking for anything and everything that might help.

"Allison, walk me through this," I ordered, doing my best to keep my voice leveled as I held up my wrist, allowing the little AI to snap a photo of the station's interior. "Soon, preferably. I need to get to work." And she did, with some reservation over my safety. The clipped voice guided my hands through a combination of cameras both through the ship and from my wrist as I cleaned the wound, the alcohol burning so painfully I thought I might pass out right then and there, later moving onto a series of painful injections, which slowed the rate of blood loss, at least, giving me some time. Then came the surgical stapler... "...Really?" I asked, hating the whine in my voice as I propped back against the wall, staring down at the device with some reasonable apprehension. "No painkiller?"

"_If mixed incorrectly, or applied in too great a dose, it may interact poorly with the stimulants already present in your system. Potential risks include sweatiness, nausea, allergic reaction, death..."_

"O-okay, okay! I get it! Just... J-just give me a second to get ready..."

"_Do you desire to bleed out, Professor? I believe many enlisted sergeants refer to this as an instance of when one should 'man up,' correct?" _I couldn't help that laugh that rose up in my throat, thankful that the sudden sharp jolt of pain from the motion meant it was short lived as I glared down at the bloodstained watch. _"Professor?"_

"Remind me... _Ah!_ Remind me to adjust your attitude after all this. Your bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired," I grimaced, bracing myself, and stuffing a roll of bandages into my mouth, before pressing the stapler around the edges of my wound, and pulled the trigger.

One sharp click and a whoosh of compressed air was soon followed by muffled screams as I quickly did it again. Once, twice, three times in quick succession, before slumping down the wall to the floor, breathing heavily. A pained groan issued from my mouth as the staples drew together automatically, knitting my flesh together tightly, and sealing off the wound. For the most part, anyway.

_"__Would you like me to place a reminder to 'adjust my attitude and lacking bedside manner,' Professor?"_

"Are you... actually being serious, right now?_" _I asked in between ragged breaths, the discomfort slowly but surely ebbing into something at least manageable as the watch remained silent. "Allison?" I said again with a note of concern, eyes darting to just how much blood was on the device at the moment.

Her casing should've been sealed completely, her processor safe. But what if... No. No, not her, too!

_"__I was attempting to inject levity into the situation. To 'lighten the mood,' as it is said. Was I successful?" _Despite the horror of the situation, the Grimm no doubt swarming about a ship now piloted by a madman, I laughed. It stressed the tender staples, but I ignored it all, and simply chuckled more heartily than I had in months. I instantly regretted it, but it was nice all the same.

"N-no. No, you're alright. It's just the way you are, Al," I said slowly, grinning down at the small mote of red light that had appeared on my wrist. "You're... W-what's wrong!?" My eyes narrowed as the mote began to flicker and distort visibly, the speakers sparking with static.

_"__Pro-Pro-Professor, I am detectinginginginginginginginging... a strange signal emanating through the CCT network attacking... attacking..."_

The mote flickered out, replaced by a stream of binary code racing across the watch's face, the speed so fast I could barely follow it in my addled state. Barely... meaning it took a few seconds, rather than an instant, to glean its terrifying purpose. The sudden wave of red filled the screen, accompanied by a Black Queen chess piece I was quickly beginning to hate with all my being.

_'__Oh no. Shit, shit, **SHIT**!'_

Ignoring as best I could the cold ache tugging at my stomach from the sudden motion, I dragged myself up using the out folded station as leverage, nearly collapsing down as my legs wavered. Of course, all that pain and trial paled in comparison to what something or someone was attempting to do to the network governing our systems and protocols. _My network._

"_Al!?_ Allison, disable and cut off all contact with primary networks! Run full systems reboot and diagnostic!" I ordered, tugging off the watch face to get at the delicate systems beneath, the heart of what made the little AI... well, Allison herself, at my quivering fingertips. "Confirm status!"

I waited for a few tense seconds, before breathing out an audible sigh of relief as the intelligence's voice echoed through the speakers yet again, her tone steady and robotic. _"Ambrose Trial Intelligence Personal Liaison Serial #025, designation-ALLISON, confirming operating systems at sixty-six point six four five five percent efficiency and rising." _A brief pause passed when she suddenly spoke up again, this time her voice actually wavering now, terror and relief mixed in equal measure, as the little red light appeared yet again. _"F-Father, **please** don't let that happen again! I almost lost myself, I almost..."_

"Did you just... I... It's... I-it's okay, Al. Everything's going to be alright. You're safe now," I said after a brief tightening of my jaw, suppressing an illogical and beautifully vindictive fury as I did my best to... to comfort the small little being, replacing the casing with an audible click, before running a finger along its stained surface. "I'm sorry I scared you."

_'__Father...? That was too close.'_

"Don't access the network directly. Work through a dummy. Tell me what just happened," I ordered, shifting back into some semblance of seriousness. The AI seemed all the better for it. A return to routine, something normal.

_"__Before I was forced to shut down, I detected a rogue signal being propagated through the CCT main network, specifically targeting at all linked intelligences connected to the Vale-Atlesian Military Operating System. Somehow, it was able to bypass my firewalls, and attempted to alter my protocols directly."_

I shuddered, my mind racing through the possible implications, testing scenarios and running numbers in my head.

All linked intelligences on the system. That included every Atlesian model droid, from the standard Atlesian Knight-200 series to the Auto Pilot on the Paladins, that drew from that server to make tactical calls, compare friendly targets with that of the enemy, and react to unexpected scenarios. If this attack had been able to bypass both the protection and the firewalls I'd placed on Allison's OS with barely any trouble at all, and cripple her to this extent, then the others...

_'__More than half the military power available to Atlas within this Kingdom is robotic, all of it subject to the attack.'_

"Wait... You said 'alter your protocols...' Alter them _how?_" I asked, my mouth dry. A small part of me already knew full well what the answer would be, but hoped against all that I was mistaken. It had happened, before after all...

Not this time, unfortunately, much to my dawning horror.

_"__My protocols regarding friendly targets, Professor Ambrose. Specifically, those regarding Atlesian-outfitted troop classifications."_

"...Oh no..."

**_-_END**

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Luke Iblis - Khary Payton

_**A/N: Big thanks to Da-Awesom-One for helping me out with this chapter, namely Ben's little Sherlock Holmes moment which was all their own bit of writing. I thought it made sense, and yeah he was a bit insensitive to Pyrrha I suppose but it's a bit of an extreme situation. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed, next up is Memories of R, and then we can kick this counter-attack with earnest.**_


	74. Chapter 74

**_A/N:First off a little side note, anyone else see Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive? Finally got around to watching it and it is the one of the most plot heavy but artistically beautiful things I've ever watched, probably gonna base Bastion on a less tech heavy Insomnia cause I like the crowded aspect of a "stacked city" especially with the surrounding area as dangerous as it is. Now onto the important details._**

**_This chapter marks the last of the little memory segments, hard to believe. I have also added just a bit more besides this update. Some of you have asked how Joel Ambrose and Elizabeth Briar first met, a part that was left out of the final product for Memories of AMBR - A. I've since rectified this and included a new segment in chapter 54 for those interested._** **_The additional part for ch 54 set in between Lucas asking Joel to join the Hand and his training with Vergil._**

**_Anyway without further ado, here's some of the hardest and happiest moments in the life of AMBR's silent bodyguard._**

**_Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One_**

MEMORIES OF AMBR – R

**_-Reika Murasaki-_**

"Oh, leave her be, Hana. You'll only make it worse," Grandmother pleaded, trying to hold back the storm, only to be swept aside by a gentle, if firm, gauntleted hand. "You know it wasn't her fault."

"Be that as it may, it doesn't give her the right to run amok. Reika! Reika, get down from there, right _now_!"

My Mother's upraised voice caused me to shoot up in my latest perch, scowling down through the flush of branches at the woman standing there in her battle garb, a flashy mix of tough, light-armored plates, and richly patterned silks. Her long raven-dark hair was drawn back in a tight braid to keep it from her violet eyes, while a heavily greying elder stood resigned behind her. I had quite the view of the little scene, the flourishing cherry blossom tree easily dwarfing many of the surrounding ramshackle buildings and homes, as well as even allowing a glimpse over the great wooden wall that surrounded the village, and kept the soulless at bay.

A glimpse was hardly much to brag about, though whoever thought that had obviously never seen the sea of treetops colored similarly to the one I sat in. Meanwhile, others stood, displaying a hundred different shades of vibrant reds, oranges, or rarely a spot of green to break the tide. I'd gasped when I'd first laid eyes on it, but, like with everything else, the other children were never quite able to understand. Never able to see the colors in the same way I did.

_'__Just because I can climb better than they can doesn't mean they get to laugh at me... or say I'm talking false.'_

"Little liar," they called me. Well, if they were going to be horrible to me, then fine. Let them. I, for one, didn't have to be around to hear it, or have to let them play on _my_ pretty tree. They'd tried to drag me off altogether after my little announcement. Too bad for them I was stronger than any of them, even the boys. Mother, though, was one of our people's protectors; a Huntress...

"_Reika_!" she called out again, seemingly ignorant of the scene she was causing. The other kids had brought their parents and older siblings as well, though it seemed none were quite so willing to confront me with Mother here. They wouldn't dare. "You owe the other children an apology!"

"Why should I?" I spat back petulantly, curling back instinctively into the bough at the withering look she shot me with. "T-they laughed at me; called me names! I hate them!" That got a reaction. Being angry always got a reaction from all of the townspeople, sending them into nervous titters, while my mother's face paled. We weren't supposed to get angry, as it supposedly brought the monsters that roamed outside closer and closer.

_'__Who cares if they do? Oka-san and Oto-san will just beat them up, if they tried...'_

"That's a strong word, for a girl your age." I let out a squeak as I felt a strong hand on the back of my kimono heft me upwards, kicking and struggling as I found myself staring into a pair of dark hazel eyes, framed by spikey dark hair and bangs. The figure holding me was tall, if forced to hunch over to avoid the branches, dressed in similar clothing that my mother wore, and armed with a boxy rifle slung over his back. "Really stepped in it this time, Rei-Rei..." He was shaking his head and frowning. Father hated frowning...

"Kuroi, do you have her!?" He peeked through the branches, giving his wife a reassuring nod, before showing me off to her, like some prized hunt, dangling with only the ground beneath me.

"Yes, love! Clear up, won't you? I'll handle her," my father called down, frown fraying just a little at the edges as he glanced back at me, only to see me glaring back in embarrassed annoyance, my tiny arms crossed. "No need to cause a scene, is there?"

"He's right, you know; this isn't going to help matters," Grandmother added as an aide, taking his side, and Oka-san knew it. The younger woman shaking her head with an annoyed sigh I could hear from here. "The soulless..."

"Yes, yes, you're right... Reika..." She motioned at me with a firm hand. "...We'll discuss this unacceptable behavior later once we've returned. And as for you..." She shifted her attention to her husband, who shrugged his shoulders, patting me on the head "...Don't let her bully you. This is serious." He waved her off, promising reassurances that I would be dealt with appropriately while she took the first patrol. The woman hesitantly accepted as she moved to break up the crowd, calling for the guards to do the same, before giving us one last warm smile. Well... Not too warm.

"Really stepped on her toes this time, haven't you?" He leaned back against the trunk, and slid down into a cross-legged pose before releasing me, immediately grabbing hold when I tried to scamper away, and sitting me down in front of him. "She has a point; you shouldn't be feeling this way about your friends..."

"They're not my friends!" I growled, keeping my arms crossed as I looked at the retreating forms of some of the other children, all of whom looking at me as if pleased I was in trouble and not them. "They laugh at me when they think I can't hear them! Call me names just because I run and climb faster than they can..."

"What names?"

"Monster..." I said quietly, the tears welling in my eyes and the burning sting just making me angrier, "…Freak, just like how some of them tease Shiro about his tail... Am…" My breath hitched as I looked down at my little hands, scared about how pristine they were. Not a scratch or a bruise from my climb. "...Am I a... I apologize for my actions, Oto-San. I''ve...!"

Father didn't even respond, merely snatching me up again, and hugging me closely to his armored shoulder. He tried to hide it, but I caught a glimpse of his face before he angled it out of view. Anger... He was angry. Angrier than I'd ever seen him before. And yet, the way he held onto me was so gentle.

"You're _you_, Reika. Not only that, but my daughter, and the child of the woman I love. Those are what you are; not what some children say. Don't apologize for that. Just... reign it in next time... Alright?... There. _That's_ a pretty smile."

* * *

It was dark... It smelled like smoke... And it hurt... _E__verything _hurt...

My face was aflame, stinging enough to make me want to cry out with every ragged breath, as my aching legs carried me in a hobbling rush through the undergrowth, away from the cries and howls echoing behind me. As dark as it was, however, I hadn't tripped and fallen like so many others, theirs screams piercing the night as the monsters found them. I knew that because I could feel it happen, somehow, feel that spark of light falter, and be snuffed by those... absences of being still hunting in the dark.

That same sense allowed me to navigate over every stray branch, tree, and root, though not the rocks, I'd discovered, to my now bruised foot's dismay... I couldn't feel the rocks, for some odd reason. Unfortunately, it had also shown me the true scope of what had happened in that first startling second. To my people, my friends... My family...

_'__Gone... It's all **gone**...'_

My stomach growled, my injuries hurt, and I was so cold... I wanted to cry out. For Mother, or even Father to come save me... But then I found that I could not... That was when I stopped running, my legs falling out from underneath me, with only the barest rustle of sound.

"...!" My hands clutched at my throat desperately, as I tried and failed to utter more than a strangled gasp, and even that became slowly harder and harder to accomplish. My mouth was working furiously. A wracking cough, a glorious sound passing through my lips... but no words. I could barely smell the smoke anymore; I'd run so far. I wasn't choking from it, but it still felt as if there were something lodged deep in my throat, cutting off speech.

_'__No... No, no, no, nonono**NO**!'_

I tried to scream, but couldn't. Tried to sob, but there were only renewed tears dripping down my face, that seared white hot as they made contact with where that bird-thing had clawed me. A part of me never wanted to move again, to just lay there shuddering, until my parents found me, waiting for this nightmare to be over. Then I felt them, edging at the corners of this strange new world. The absence, the nothing... drawn by my fear, as the elders had always said they would be.

My eyes had adjusted enough by this point for me to see after a fashion, to make out some of what lay around me. Namely, the glowing pairs of red eyes hovering amidst the trees, peeking out through the brush. Wolves, Father had taught me. Strong beasts that always moved in packs.

I felt the same instinctive terror I'd felt before threatening to freeze me in place yet again, my _Sense_ reaching out for aid, but finding nothing. I was all who was left...

"..." I forced myself to breathe regularly, getting slowly to my feet as the growling began, my eyes searching for... _there_! I sprang into a full on run, as fast as my little legs could carry me, towards the tallest tree I could see. It was a gnarled thing, old and strongly rooted, with high reaching branches. My lungs worked to push me forward, heart pounding in my ears louder than I'd ever heard before. Something stirred within, giving me strength.

The monsters followed after me, their clawed feet treading the leaf-strewn forest floor to dust beneath their heaving flanks, frothing saliva dripping from open maws ready to snatch me up, like just another morsel.

At least, that was what I felt. I didn't dare look behind me, and risk faltering a single step. One mistake was all it would take to see me disappear like all the others, snuffed out like Grandmother was. Like Mother...

With a wordless, soundless cry, I leapt a far as I could, slamming into the thick bark as my fingers scrabbled in desperation, and, by some miracle, found purchase. It took a second to right myself, and even that was too long. The great beasts nipped vainly at my heels as I scrabbled and scraped my way up the trunk, like one of the skittering furred creatures I'd tried so hard to emulate. Nails cracked and bled, my arms threatened to give way, but I didn't dare stop. Not until I neared the peak of the great cherry tree and settled, chest heaving, amidst the branches, clinging to it like the lifeline it now clearly was in the face of what roamed below.

It wasn't until well into the next morning that I managed to calm myself down, feeling safe in that I wouldn't fall into their clutches, or my safe haven would break beneath my weight. The creatures retreated back into the shadows, away from the warm light of day, and my _Sense_ told me it was safe to move about. Safe enough to give me a head start for when they returned.

They would be back, of course; I knew that much at least. They would _always_ be back...

* * *

Hours stretched into days. Days of wandering about, with nowhere to go. I only left the safety of the trees when I felt them at the furthest reaches of my _Sense_. They were never truly gone, but at the edges waiting. Waiting for me to falter, to finally fall as my little body failed me, just like all the others who had vanished over time.

I took some small bit of pride in denying them that, at least, drawing on everything I could recall of Grandmother and my Parent's teachings on how to survive in the wilderness given to me since the day I could walk. Climbing, I'd already managed on my own, and had allowed me to avoid them when night came. I scavenged what fruits and plants I could eat from the trees, and knew how to find water...

That had been what had almost killed me. Peering into the small stream I'd found one morning, I saw the blood-stained marks on the left side of my face that had burned so fiercely and prevented sleep. The terror and sorrow flooded back, and I soon found myself running from the same pack that had been pursuing me, drawn by my emotion. I'd escaped, but only just, and it left me worse for the experience. I slept cold that night, wrapping what rags were left clinging to me in an attempt to find warmth. That same stirring that had helped me escape the monsters warming me, if only just enough to beat back the night chill.

I was well and truly alone, or at least as far as I could tell. The last few lights in the wide expanse, not the dim glow cast by the trees on all sides, but the burning flares of conscious life, had long faded days before. Long before I could reach them, their glow overshadowed by fear and pain at the end, before the absence swallowed them whole. Others simply winked out like candles, curling in on themselves. I thought I might have recognized some of them by the feeling they gave off, though I didn't dwell on it. The training passed down by my elders was strongly ingrained.

"..." Fear and sadness would only draw them closer. I knew that now.

Hope didn't come until later. A flicker at the edges of this strange new world I saw appeared, life massed together in one place, and drawing closer. I'd thought it a dream, until I sought it out again and they didn't vanish. It wasn't the security of the village, the lights foreign to me, but I had a destination; a goal. They were beyond the edges of the forest; a place my Mother had only spoken of briefly as a dangerous place, though I could hardly see how it was more dangerous than here now.

_'__Oto-san always said goals were important. It was what set us apart from them.'_

With that in mind, I gathered up what few supplies I'd gathered and set off, leaping through the webs of tangled branches where I could, skirting the ground, and hiding out in knotted alcoves within tree roots, or underneath thorny brambles when that was impossible.

Of course, with hope came the possibility of failure. Despair nagged at the corners of my thoughts however much I tried to fight it. Starved as they were, the beasts became harder and harder to avoid; to outrun, And soon enough, it was impossible.

_'__So close... Just a bit further... Just **a bit**further...!'_

That mantra echoed wordlessly on my cracked lips, as I stumbled over the rough ground past what few trees remained on the edges of the forest, dark writing shapes in the fading light of the beating sun, still blazing white hot above me. The heat had only grown heavier as I'd continued... west? I thought so, judging from what dried out moss I could find adorning the browning trunks. Spring must've been ending, and Summer rearing its head.

I'd noticed my surroundings slowly changing as I drew ever closer to my goal. The trees lost their plentiful leaves, with soft dirt giving way to dry crust and stone, and the air choked with biting dust, whipped up every so often by harsh winds that forced me into cover to avoid their razor sharp edges, coughing up grime and blood.

My head swam, and my face burned, but it was not just because of the sun. The scratches from that bird's talons were getting worse. I'd always healed all the cuts and bruises I'd gotten playing around in almost no time at all. But the marks... they just wouldn't close, and wept blood, and leaked some foul-smelling, awful-tasting ooze every few hours despite my best attempts to wash it out.

Only the stirring and the thought of others so close kept me going. Kept me putting one foot in front of the other. But, of course, the monsters wouldn't let me go so easily.

I broke into a run, the crush of paw on dirt close behind me, joined by a skin-rattling hiss that spoke of something _far worse_ than even the wolves. So close, I could sense the life pulsing with mirth so close by, and see the ragtag circle of vehicles and fires dotting just outside the tree line, as well as figures moving amongst themselves laughing, singing, playing instruments...

_'__Beautiful...' _my addled mind thought with tears stinging my eyes, punching myself as the slip only made it harder to see in the dimming light. My mouth opened to call out to them, but again nothing. No sound, not even a whimper. Even that was gone from me now, I realized with a start of horror, that only baited the beasts further.

Once glance over my shoulder only made it worse. The wolves were stalking silently through the trees, pawing after me. And in the back, a roiling mass of sleek, scaled flesh reared upward at my gaze, towering taller than any tree I'd ever seen. A paler mass shifted and undulated just behind it. This monster moved forward, as the others moved from its path in either deference or fear.

I wasn't going to make it. That realization struck me with a dim sense of finality, as the serpent looming above gave what almost might've passed as a cruel smile, before unhinging its massive jaw. This thing would swallow me whole long before I reached the convoy. In perfect silence, without even a scream to mark I'd ever been here. A part of me wondered if it had let me come this far, to have my one hope of safety dangling before me, only to snatch it away, and make me suffer all the more sweetly before claiming what it wanted.

The sun dipped over the horizon, throwing us into darkness, with only the moon to mark out where the monsters lay beyond. That and the eyes. The terrifying crimson eyes...

If I'd wanted to, I could've just accepted it, and let the monster do its bloody work. At least then I might see my parents again... But no. No. I hadn't come so far, suffered so much, for this thing's amusement. Oka-san hadn't faltered, even at the end as the village burned around her. No, she'd charged and fought, her soul burning more brightly than anything I could remember feeling.

My body moved on its own, throwing myself to the side to avoid the serpent's snapping jaws, and reaching out with raw hands through the sand, before my fingers found the rough surface of a stone. Without pause, before the monster could even register that I'd escaped, I lashed hard as I could out in a blind throw, or at least I hadn't needed to turn and look at it directly, feeling the soulless absence so clearly in my mind's eye, that sight felt somewhat muted by comparison.

Just as I'd hoped, the stone struck true, and directly into the serpent's eye with a wet crunch. The beast let out an involuntary, ear-piecing shriek, that echoed into the night. It writhed wildly, sending shattered trees and yelping wolves about in its fury. By some miracle, I wasn't smashed or swept away in the chaos.

Its rage was so great, I thought I might've been able to slip away if I'd been able to. Unfortunately, my limbs wouldn't respond. My head pounded madly as I tried and failed to pull myself along, and succeeded only in flipping myself over so that I could peer up at the piercing light of the moon outlining the scene unfolding around me.

The monster had ceased its rampage after another strangled hiss, it's pale twin striking it bodily to silence it, before both heads leered down at me. The one I'd struck bared its fangs once again, peering out from the ruin of its eyes.

"_On your feet, boys! Grimm!_" drawl-laden shouts rang out dully from a short way away. They were difficult to make out over the beast's breathing, as it reared back to strike, my eyes narrowing defiantly. "_Cornell, get the others! I'm... Holy hell, it's a **kid**!_"

Before it could make a final attempt, a pair of thunderous cracks split the air, as twin blossoms of fast-dissolving crimson fountained outward from the center mass of both masked faces, to mine and the wolves' stunned disbelief. The serpent's halves slumped to the ground, crushing a few of its fellows in its wake, and leaving the others easy prey, as more cracks rose up from the direction of the camp.

In a flash, furred flesh and bone were ripped apart under the salvo of withering fire, produced by weapons much the same as those I'd seen our own guards and Oto-san used, and wielded by raggedly-dressed men and women, if with much greater effect and enthusiasm than I'd seen previously. The weight of numbers...

Whooping cheers rose up every time the crimson light in a monster's eye faded or vanished with a strangled howl in a fountain of gore. My own lips were unable to resist a smile, as the soulless absence surrounding me vanished, replaced by the light of dozens of what I believed could only have been souls. Before my awareness faded, I felt myself lifted into a warm cradling hold, my eyes struggling to make out a pair of dazzling green eyes looking sternly back down at me.

"It's all right, darlin'... You're safe, now... Bill's got ya. Just hold on..."

I tried to speak, to cry, to say thanks... But, once again, no sound would come. Only the sudden rush of darkness came, as consciousness left me once again.

* * *

_'She really is quite pretty...' _I decided, staring down at the centerpiece decorating the worn photograph that had slipped from underneath the folds of the Boss' pillow as the man stirred, rambling inaudible nonsense in some overly-slurred gruff tone, before turning over in his messy bunk, dragging the flask he sported along with him. Another "bad day," as the camp's caretaker had put it, grumbling under her breath as she set me about tidying up the space, one that had gone far too long without a woman's touch, in her expert opinion and had tempted me with some sweets she'd had stashed away. Carson had these days occasionally, more so now that Ben had stormed from the trailer, his meager possessions slung over his shoulder in a sack of tied bed sheets, and a spot already made in the rear of the supply wagon, where he'd since taken up permanent residence.

They still weren't talking much. I could tell Ma was getting worried, even if she wouldn't say so...

Staring at the picture hadn't been my first intention, of course. Even acknowledging it had given me a certain uneasy feeling. The sort of thrill where one knows they're doing something they really shouldn't. However, when I'd moved to replace it, I was struck by the sheer simplicity and wonder of the scene captured before me. A clear day, rare enough in the Badlands, at least in the parts I'd traveled through the last few months at any rate, with a deeply tan-skinned woman, with brilliant blue eyes and a shock of blonde hair, stood cradling an infant of similar description, swaddled in an elaborately-woven quilt, one I recognized as the same one hanging over Ma's bunk back in our shared trailer, if less worn and stained. A visibly younger William Carson stood beside her,with an arm wrapped around her shoulder to hold her close, while the other ruffled the hair of a small toddler that could only have been Ben.

They both looked so... _happy_. They all did. The Boss' eyes were aglow with a light, a joy that showed, even through the grain of the image, while Ben, on the other hand, appeared more carefree than I'd ever seen him show in person. All of it was centered around the woman and her precious little bundle, their joy making it very clear who she must've been. She was a woman I'd only ever heard the barest murmurs about around the campfires, when the Boss and Ben were absent. The same I sometimes heard Ma whisper about to herself when she thought I was asleep. A _traitorous witch _and _harlot_ in the eyes of many in the crew, including her son...

"My wife... Abigail." I jumped, almost lashing out at the bleary-eyed form of the older Carson leaning off his bed, blissfully unaware of how close he'd come to taking a blow across the jaw. His focus was entirely on the small photograph still clutched in my hand, as he reached out with a trembling finger. "And our girl, Annie... Only a few weeks old by the time this was taken. This was... one of the first longer days we'd been able to get the family together, me bein' out so often on business, and all... Abby was still not... still not fully recovered from the birth, you understand. It was Ben who got her up and through it all. Always made her laugh to see 'im playin' at the bars of the crib... She'd be only a bit younger than you, I expect, if she'd... if she were still..." His speech was faulty, slurred by both spirits and raw emotion I could feel in waves.

It was overwhelming, as unspent tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I felt the urge to run, to apologize, to just drop the photo, and flee from the space, and escape from this place. These feelings all rose unbidden to the forefront of my mind. Feelings almost acted upon, until he spoke again, voice freezing me in place out of sheer morbid curiosity.

"Ben... He can't understand... Doesn't_ want_to understand what happened... It was my fault. I wanted to give them a better life than this... She didn't go back to hurt us. It was those _damned cowards_ who lied, who wanted to make an _example _to all of us, who only wanted to live our lives how _we__chose_... And they got one..." The man broke down as I passed the photo back to him, the man gripping it to his chest like a lifeline... Perhaps, in a way, it was to him. "Annie... My poor, sweet little girl..."

It was then I became very much aware of all the times I'd glanced strangely Ma's way, usually after stumbling across another frilly dress for me to wear. I remembered Ben's first words to me so long ago. _"If you're gonna try and replace Annie, you could've at least chosen a better lookin' stand in!"_

"That boy... He deserves _better_ _than this_, even if he'll never admit it. Growin' up as some criminal on the hunt, lookin' over his shoulder his whole life. He's the best of me, and all of her wrapped up into a snarky, little ball of anger, that's gonna get 'im killed one of these days. I can't stop it... Even you can't, I'm guessin'..." He turned to me, green eyes piercing into my own, stealing what little breath I had left. The sheer desperation and vulnerability playing out in them was terrifying to behold, especially from my hero. "I'm loathe to ask this of you, Reika... but I still have one simple, utterly selfish request for you... Watch out for my boy would ya? Don't let my mistakes burn out his potential. All that he could... No. Dammit, I can't ask this of..."

He paused, gritting his teeth as I clasped his hand silently with both of mine, my own senses warning that he was on the edge of consciousness, likely not even to remember this moment. I didn't care. I nodded anyway.

The man opening his mouth, closed it, and smiled sadly once more, before finally letting himself fall back into the forgetful peace afforded to his dreams, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

* * *

"Now, now, sweetling," Ma crooned into my ear as she ran a soft hand through my hair, holding me close as I heaved and sobbed into the folds of her skirts. "I know that boy can be a bit crass, at times; a right pain in the neck, actually. But I'm sure he didn't mean it."

I had to wonder how much of that the scarlet-haired woman actually believed. I could've maybe used my _Sense _to work it out, but I faltered at the last minute. It felt..._wrong_, using it like that, too personal. If anything, the look in her eyes as she stared down at me, or, more accurately, my scars, were proof enough. It was the same look I'd been getting ever since I'd woken up in her trailer, with the woman staring down at me, along with William "Bill" Carson, the leader of this little band of rogues I'd stumbled upon.

They'd accepted me remarkably quickly, treating me kindly, giving me clothes and food, even taking the initiative to work out my name from what had been left on me by the time I'd reached the Badlands. I, of course, was in no position to help out, and my own knowledge of reading and writing was shaky at best, never having been a huge priority, at least to me.

"Reika Murasaki." The little scarred runt who couldn't even thank the ones who saved her life. A girl to be pitied.

_'If anything, Benjamin's at least honest...**Cruel**, but honest.'_

Anything was better than the whispered conversations, and the stares... Never anything to my face, Ma and the Boss would never allow it, but I knew. I was damaged; delicate. And they could dress me in all the pretty clothes, and say the sweetest things, but it still didn't change that.

The camp's matron didn't seem to notice my relaxed grip, or, if she did, merely took it as a sign I was calming down. "There, there. Just you wait. He'll come 'round. I just know he will."

Bill had thought so, too. He had meant for me to be some sort of companion; a friend to his son. For him, I could give Ben a chance. For him, I would forgive.

_'I just wish it wasn't so hard...' _I thought bitterly, drying my tears on the skirts, before curling up in the woman's warm embrace, remembering better times, where another woman, this one leaner, with dark hair like my own, sang to me in a voice that made the tears flow anew.

* * *

I coughed and spluttered, working to remove the coarse grittiness of sand and dirt that I'd swallowed after my sudden fall, the ground having suddenly lurched to the side from out underneath me.

_'Sand. I **hate** sand...' _Shame we had to be constantly surrounded by it...

The quake was over in moments, yet had still succeeded in startling every soul in the camp in a flurry of swears, screams, and the crash and clatter of loose supplies tumbling about. In the middle of it all stood William "Bill" Carson, up on his feet before many had even registered the shaking had passed, and was already rattling off orders, effortlessly making himself heard even over the din.

"Hold steady, you lot! Only a lil' shakedown; nothin' to scream about! Cornell, get off your arse! I want teams checkin' the suspension and axles on the carts! Dyson, let's get this mess cleaned up! On your feet, now; c'mon…!"

Many new to the crew, those who were fresh from the settlements, with dreams of adventure and riches, questioned how a man like Bill, with his fair share of faults and vices, both personal and physical, could manage to hold together a band of opportunistic scoundrels, and paint himself as little less than a folk hero in the hearts of hundreds, if not thousands throughout the region. I never did, as that strange sixth sense already told me all I needed to know from the moment I'd met him, and before, even. His soul was... warm; a beacon that drew others to it, likely without meaning to.

I could feel the pressures and joys of that, in equal measure, radiating from the man, even now. If anything, it made me love and respect this man all the more. Judging by the stunned looks on many of the faces around me, I wasn't alone in this regard.

A ruffled, but still unbent Ma was the one to finally snap me out of my reverie, picking me up to my feet, and worrying over the dress I wore and me in equal measure in a shrill, snapping tone.

"Are you okay? Oh my, look at you!... Oh dear...!"

I appreciated the gesture, but at that moment, I wished nothing more than to tell the woman I was just fine. As it stood, I was forced to wrestle myself bodily out of a crushing bear hug, and show her that, aside from the dirt, I truly didn't have a scratch on me.

In fact, I could hardly remember the last time I'd even winced from a stubbed toe. Not since my time in the forest, when I'd felt so weak, I could hardly move.

With a sudden growing concern, I reached outward with my _Sense, _feeling the almost electrifying thrill of nervous energy pervading the camp. No one seemed to be injured, thankfully, and already the fear was subsiding. Such shifts in the landmasses of the region were commonplace, if not entirely welcome, as such things inevitably drew the beasts, the Creatures of Grimm, as Bill and the others called them. At least everyone...

...Hang on.

My brow furrowed as I realized that something, _someone_, was missing from the camp. A soul that, in its own way, burned so brightly, so similar and yet so different from his father's, was gone, its absence palpable.

_'Benjamin?'_

My head swiveled back and forth as I sprinted off into the chaos of movement, with Ma's frantic voice rising up after me. I ducked past confused and shaken bandits in my attempts to see if I was wrong, hoping I was. He wasn't in the Boss' trailer, nor in his little hideaway in the supply caravan. That only left...

_'BEN!?'_

* * *

_'C-come... on! **Move**!' _I grunted, breathing heavily as I struggled against the unflinching stone, mouth twisting into an astonished grin as I felt it give but an inch or two, before another pair of massive stones crashed down from above, throwing me back against the ground, shaking in silent fury, and coughing at the renewed dust filling the air, as all my meager progress over the last hour was crushed underneath the weight of cruel, unflinching nature. _'NO, NO, NO, **NO**!' _I struck the sandy ground again and again, until I finally set my head down in my arms, tears stinging at the corners of my vision.

I had found him, found Ben, and it was worse than I'd feared. Following that flickering feeling of him away from camp, I'd stumbled upon a cavern, or what used to be a cavern before half the ridge had fallen in around it. I wanted to hope otherwise, but this_Sense, _this strange ability I had, never steered me wrong. It had helped me find the boy before, despite his attempts at avoiding me... I stiffened, getting to my feet shakily, before resuming my task, shoving away a few of the smaller stones, this time wary of those falling rocks from above. This would be easier if I had help.

Well... of course it would be; that much was obvious.

It hadn't taken me long to find his father amidst the chaos of grumbling bodies and shifting crates, gaping and pointing desperately for him to follow, as I tugged at his front, bidding him to understand. He'd then proceeded to pawn me off on an irate Ma, who thought it more prudent for me to sit in the trailer quietly, where I wouldn't get into trouble, or in the way of those actually doing work. To my ever mounting annoyance, that work included tracking down the erstwhile son of the Boss while he was busy getting everyone else in line. They merely thought my behavior a symptom of fear, as if I were some delicate little girl still afraid of the ground shaking. That I'd be better off cowering in my cot, waiting for everything to settle down. They'd even locked me in with the promise of a firm talking to after the first time I just walked out, and tried to get them to chase me to the cavern, Cornell just a hair too fast for me.

Their hearts were in the right place, I was sure. It still didn't stop me from crawling out the small window the woman had left open to combat the sweltering heat the moment I had the chance, slipping through the sea of activity as subtly as I had dodging the monsters back in the forest, resolving to do my best to help that trapped young boy, or at the very least cause enough of a scene to get them over here.

_'...Why, though?' _a traitorous voice crooning at the back of my mind asked, the question enough to give me a moment's pause in my work. _'What has Benjamin Carson ever done for you to deserve this?' _The train of thought continued, dredging up memories of hateful words, and spiteful glares. _'He always makes trouble. He doesn't appreciate what the others sacrifice to provide for him. He taunts them with silly names... Maybe... Maybe...'_

_"...Watch out for my boy. Don't let my mistakes burn out his potential. All that he could..."_

My hands snapped back to the closest stone as I swallowed my own disgust for what I'd almost been tempted to do. I realized that this stone was one that supported a fair few of the others. One that, if I could just shift aside, might just make an impact. It wouldn't budge, my heels digging into the sand as I pushed on, muscles stinging under the hot sun.

I couldn't give up. Not now, and certainly not over reasons as petty as a poor attitude. I'd made a promise, a promise to the man that had saved my life. Who had taken me in, and given me a home. A man who only ever asked, at his lowest moment, for me to perform one simple act, And I _would not_fail him!

The shift was sudden, if minor. A short give in the rock face, one that caught me by surprise, and almost derailed my efforts. Instead, I let it spur me on, breathing in deep as I drew upon all I had. My frustration, my fear, my memories of home... With a start, I thought I could hear my parents' voices over the sound of the howling wind rolling through the wastes. See their encouraging faces as I closed my eyes, and focused on that single emerald spark waiting, fighting towards it with every labored step, as I felt something deep within me swell. Something that I realized had always been there, that I'd just been too blind or too distracted to see, but now burned so obviously. My senses grew clearer, the scent of dust and moldering stone in my nostrils, the cracks and rustle of shifting sand between the cracks, the feel of each grain between my fingers...

It was glorious... I could feel everything. _S__ee **EVERYTHING**!_

With an airy sigh, I pushed for that single frightened spark... and felt the entirety of the world seem to shift at my push, my strength.

* * *

"Alrighty! So we've got a problem... Well, least you do, anyway... Oi, calm down! I'm just bein' honest!"

I narrowed my eyes angrily at the blonde boy as his face reddened, arms raised in an attempt to ward me off. It seemed Benjamin still hadn't forgotten the little part about me being able to crush stone with my bare hands, yet, or at the very least he'd been making an effort to be more courteous over the last few months since I'd discovered my Aura's remarkable side effects. Seeing that he was sufficiently cowed, I merely shook my head, and remained seated on my crate. The boy let out an audible sigh of relief, that had me wanting to punch him all over again. A fact that didn't go unnoticed...

"..."

"See, right there. _This_..." He pointed to my mouth, then his, rapidly, exaggerating his speech. "..._Communication_. That needs to improve. You gotta admit, savin' my ass would've been a _hell_ of a lot easier, if you'd... _Aah_! What was that...!?"

He yelped as I kicked him hard in the shin, pointing to his face, and then motioning at the far off figure of Ma, currently perched over two of the boys, arms crossed. From what I recalled, these two had gotten just a bit too rowdy last night over some alcohol one or the other had stashed, and were now stuck doing the whole crew's laundry as penance. Not a pretty sight or smell, but better than endangering the group with negative emotions.

"..."

"Seriously, you're her frickin' swear jar, now... _Gah_! Fine, fine I get it!" His face pinched, hands curled tightly to restrain himself, as I sat back with a knowing grin. "Puffed-up, cocky lil'... Look, we can't have you gettin' by with charades, and writin' everything down would take forever! Plus, we don't want you to have to run for paper or chalk to get your point across." I nodded slowly, raising an eyebrow as he reached over, and snatched up the infamous little satchel he'd brought out with him, tossing it at my feet. "Go on; have a look. I swear, it ain't got snakes in it, this time." He added hastily as I hesitated, giving him one last glare. "_I swear_!"

That had been a memorable night. Just a few days after he'd finally gotten the cast off his ribs, and started actually hanging around with me, he'd given me the little bag, calling it a gift, and saying that there were no hard feelings for the injury. What had transpired afterwards had involved way too many wriggling scaled bodies for my liking, and his after I'd left his laughing behind buried face first twitching in the ground.

His nose had been set back alright, and none of the teeth he'd lost had been permanent. Ma hadn't been pleased with either of us, and had us on our own stint of laundry duty for weeks.

Flinching, I opened up the dusty flap, eyes widening as I drew out a small hardback book from within. Aside from some of the few leather-bound tomes and hand-drawn picture books Ma kept in our shared living space, I'd never really seen an actual "book," even back in my home village, where they had preferred scrolls, and folded layers of wooden binding. Even then, I'd never really been able to read them. Well, aside from the little symbolic language my parents had taught me, that apparently hadn't made its way out to the wastes and was pretty much no better than scrawling.

_'Thankfully mother had thought ahead and marked the clothes I'd worn in a more common tongue, who knows where I'd be or what I'd be called otherwise.'_

I was more stunned to discover, opening it up to view the contents within, that, rather than just line after line of unintelligible text, there were instead rows and rows of pictures. Tiny detailed panels, depicting figures with their hands twisted into various positions and movements.

The confusion must've shown on my face, because suddenly Benjamin was hunched over my shoulder, making me jump, but, of course, he didn't notice, too intent on pointing out the pictures. "Neat, huh? Shifty managed to 'liberate' it from some Valean trader on his last supply run." I glanced up at him, instinctively searching out Cornell, who was currently at work underneath one of the water trucks, probably swearing up a storm, while Ma was distracted. The blonde noticed the lapse, and flicked me in the forehead, turning back to the book before I could retaliate. "From how he made it sound, this is sort of like a dictionary for gestures which amount to words. People in the Kingdoms use these... 'signs,' I think he called 'em, to communicate with people who can't use speech. People who can't hear, or speak."

"..." I frowned.

The rogue coughed awkwardly into his fist, as he thought to himself for a minute. "It's a book that teaches you how to talk, but with your hands... See? 'Green.' Like the color." He motioned to one of the signs, copying it awkwardly where I could see, before pointing to his eyes. "There. Now you try. Just hold your fingers like this..."

I copied him, moving my fingers in the same way, as his face lit up with a laugh that had my face reddening as I shoved him, scowling.

"No, no, that was really good! Especially for the first word I've ever gotten from ya. Ha, 'Green'." He got up quickly, taking the remarkable book into his hands as my mouth gaped back at that realization, his eyes darting from page to page in that usual remarkable way he had of concentrating, before he looked up at me with a wry grin. "I know this is just an intro, but I think it's still somethin' we can build on. Add words as we go, y'know? Was thinkin' we can learn it together, seein' as you'd still need me to read off what they mean, exactly. Maybe teach it to some of the others as we get better..." I stared at him blankly for a few moments as his face fell somewhat, his face turning to the book yet again, face flushed. "Uh... I mean it was just a thought... Like…" He held up an arm, rattling off a few quick gestures, speaking as he went. "Hello. My. Name is. Uhh... B. E. N. Ben. Nice. Meet. You... Shit, that isn't... Wait!"

He let out a strangled yelp as I collided with him, throwing us both into the dirt. His arms moved on reflex to fend me off, before he paused, realizing that I was crying. Crying, and smiling as broadly as I could, shoulders heaving as I pressed myself further into his chest. I could feel Ma's spirit sparking red hot as she saw us, stalking over from her post, likely thinking we were fighting again. My clothes were probably dirty and torn, though I could care less. The sheer joy I felt was too remarkable to allow for anything else.

_'__I can speak again... I can... I can...'_

I scrambled off of him abruptly, the boy perching himself up as I snatched the book to my chest, like it was the most precious of treasures. The red-haired woman stood over the two of us with a confused and wary expression of her face.

"Uh, Reika? Sweetling?" She stared daggers at the blonde boy, who merely looked back, shrugging his shoulders. "Are you...?" She paused as I raised my hand, staring at the both of them as I waved it in the same gesture I'd seen Ben use moments before.

_"__Hello. Hello. Hello."_

If anything, Ma just grew more confused.

Ben, however, smiled more genuinely than I'd ever seen him, flashing me a lazy salute. "Well, hello to you too, Miss Murasaki."

* * *

_I was a back in the forest again as a child, weak and helpless, sprinting through the darkness as furred and scaled shapes stalked me at every turn and every bend, seemingly bleeding out from the shadows themselves._

_I knew it was a dream, the same one that had haunted me so often over the years. I knew this, just as I knew that lying ahead of me would be the safety of the camp over the horizon, ever so close. I knew that I had made it before in the waking world... But not this time._

_This time, I felt myself trip over a stray root or stone, and saw myself fall to the ground hard, as the beasts cackled in merciless glee. There was no Bill there to save me, nor would my Aura come to my aid. All that remained was to watch the wolves dart towards me with frothing maws, and the slithering scrapes as the serpent coiled to strike..._

* * *

"...!" I shot up in my bed, panting, eyes wide, and my fists clenched as I realized I was reflexively scanning the area for miles around. Ma was still asleep, snoring loudly as ever, as were Ben and Cornell in the room across from ours, just like the few hundred souls slumbering in the large trading post we'd stopped to rest in, before our, meaning Ben and I's, first big heist. The only ones still awake and moving about at this early hour, however, were nothing more than the occasional drunks, and wary Law Keepers. Reaching even further, I found my first Grimm. Tiny, and dozens of miles away, thanks to the natural barriers of the surrounding cliffs.

Finally reassured that no Grimm was rearing to snap out at us the moment I let my guard down, I allowed myself to slump back down to the slightly ragged pillowcase. I didn't relax, didn't even think of falling back to sleep. Such a thing was always almost impossible after dreams like that.

_'__I made it. I __**did**__ make it...'_

Countless nights had passed since then; I'd grown stronger both in body and Aura, if that were possible. Killed my fair share of Grimm, as well. But still, that time rankled, where I'd been so weak and helpless. And from there, it wasn't long until the screams of my people as the Grimm gorged themselves began to play out all over again in my mind. My scars burned, further aggravating the issue. How I hated them. I shouldn't have, but I did. The stares, the whispers, no matter how Ben, Ma, Bill, and all the others tried to hide them. They made me out as vulnerable; weak...

Without really knowing how or why, I soon found myself wandering the darkened misty streets, just taking in the ambient background noise of the area with each step, as I did my best to calm my nerves.

Our first heist after so much training. Mine and Ben's first _real_ test of our mettle. I had to be _perfect_. I had to prove myself worthy of the Boss' generosity and praise, and had to learn how to pull my weight beyond the occasional chores here and there.

_'__If not for him, then for myself, at least...'_

I'd been walking for a few hours now, the sun slowly rising over the ridgeline, with the early risers stirring, moving to start the day on the right foot. Craftsmen, merchants, "opportunistic" individuals looking to unload their misbegotten wares on weighted tarps lining the streets, as well as to snag a few Lien from tourists and the like, before the first sandstorms cleared them out.

For the most part, it was junk; leftovers their sellers couldn't fence properly, or knickknacks with no hard value. But today, I couldn't help but be drawn by one particular item: a half-mask. Whether it was the way the kindly White Tiger Faunus it belonged to actually looked me in the face, rather than turn away or avert his gaze, or the way the shape of the mask made me jump a little at the sight of it, I didn't know. But it caught my eye nonetheless.

Molded iron, shaped to resemble the snarling jaws of a Beowolf at it attacked. Terrifying in its detail, its craftsmanship actually drew me back to another time. A time where I watched similar masks being worn by performers alongside my parents. The memory burned, not just at the realization that I could hardly remember their faces anymore, but at the childish joy I'd felt at the time, screaming as men in costumes pounced and roared like the beasts in a pale imitation.

_'__Except I wouldn't be performing,' _I told myself as I silently passed what little lien I had to the stunned thief, silently allowing him to show me how the straps were meant to be secured to my face. It drew stares, both scared and curious. I found it made for a rather terrifying image when I peered at my reflection in a cracked storefront.

Exactly the sort of image I wanted to evoke, as I smashed those murdering monsters into jelly with my own hands. Show them exactly **_what_** I was.

Ben and the others were wary of me as we rode to the rendezvous, Bill unable to resist glancing my way every few moments during his final rundown of the plan. He assigned myself and Ben to the rear of the train, along with Cornell and a few others. The action aboard those sections would be light, by his estimate; mostly clunky security androids courtesy of Atlas. Still, according to him, it would be a good way to "get our feet wet," as he put it.

_"__Board, grab, and get rich." _We'd even be allowed to grab a piece of the take for ourselves, even, as long as we pushed up a good majority to the benefit of the crew as a whole.

Simple... At least until the shooting started.

We soon found ourselves in a screaming buggy, ducking scattered shots from the mechanical sentinels and onboard staff both, as our driver tried to maneuver close enough for those without Aura training to board.

Ben had froze at the last second in the middle of his jump, green eyes fixed on the fast retreating stain adorning the rest of the tracks, that was all that remained of Graham, the bandit having misjudged the distance by an inch. It hadn't been clean... Fortunately, before the blonde could share a similar fate, I'd already managed to catch him in midair, and drag both him and myself up on a patch of railing into the train proper. My friend had been terrified, clutching his borrowed rifle to his chest, and wheezing as he tried to recover. I, on the other hand, had felt glorious.

_'__I was **needed**; I was **strong**...'_

No Grimm, and certainly no half-baked drone, was going to take that away from me. _Never again_.

* * *

"Look, friend, I'll make this easy on both of us," Ben said casually, leaning forward on the bar counter, drumming his fingers on the wooden paneling, as the bald bartender glowered down at him and at the shipping manifest he'd just slid before him. The bandit, however, hardly seemed to notice, seemingly more interested in the rows of brightly colored bottles, and scantily-dressed company perusing the establishment. "I just want any information you might have on a certain Atlesian Freighter bound for Vale. One that's slated to pass through this region, and has proven _particularly_ elusive. Word is you're the guy to talk to..."

The man's face furrowed, the large moustache he sported wriggling wryly as he gave the slip of paper a quick once over, before pushing it back. "Hey, don't know what people are sayin' 'bout me. I just hear things now and then."

"Course you do. Which is _why_ I'm askin'," my partner shot back more sharply this time. The man's eyebrow rose as I swirled my sweet tea, too used to the boy's emotions on this subject to be surprised by the outburst. "And _pretty politely_, too. Right, Rei?"

_"__Just get this over with," _I flashed him under the table, passing it off as I made to scratch an itch underneath my mask, keenly aware of the older man staring keenly at me, and trying very hard to focus on anything else. My current focus was on the quartet waxing away at a hearty tune. Not sure why he'd care so much about me. I was hardly the most eccentric person in this place. Bill would've called it a side effect of my reputation... Not good, seeing as Ben wanted this as discreet as possible.

"Like I said, I just hear things, _Mr_. _Carson_." Ben flinched at the sound of his name, glancing over his shoulder quickly, just in case someone might've heard. His eyes narrowed, as if he'd seen something surprising. A quick smile flickered across his lips, before he was back to business as usual. Strange. "Yeah, I know who you are, _and_ who you're workin' for. So, what's in it for me?..."

The blonde smirked, chuckling under his breath as he leaned closer, before gesturing towards me with a thumb. "She'll stop doin' it."

I set my cup down, sighing silently as I knew exactly what was coming. _'__Typical.'_

"Doin' wha...!?" I'd already pushed myself forward in my seat before he'd even finished speaking, clutching at the fancy string tie he wore tightly, before slamming him head first into the counter, his skull snapping back from the shock of a suddenly, very broken nose. "_Gahhd ah!_

"Doin' that."

The crash had put a momentary halt on the merriment, heads turning, and hands going for belts, backs, and boots, reaching for weapons, only to pause when they noticed Ben's hand on his own weapon. Concern for their own sakes quickly overrode any they might have for the bleeding information broker. The band started up again with renewed vigor, as the crowd went back to their lives. On edge, but no more than usual.

_'__Just another day in the Badlands. Lovely.'_

"You little bastard...!" I made to move again, but Ben held up a hand to stop me, the man still flinching away, as if he expected to be put _through_ the counter this time. Not a bad idea, actually. That mustache of his was starting to creep me out with the way it was wiggling about on his lip. "Jumped-up punks!"

"Now, then, we can do this the _easy way_, or..." Ben paused, glancing at me quickly, looking nonplussed, before turning back and picking up where he'd left off."...Actually, I'm pretty certain this _is_ the easy way. Reika, if you would?" I rolled my eyes in response, before shifting up slightly, just enough to imply violence. It was a common tactic we used, one that rarely failed to get the reaction Ben wanted.

A favorable one reaction, at last. "O-okay, alright! I get it!" He waved his arms to ward off my non-existent attack, before Ben pulled him into a hastily whispered conversation I didn't bother listening to beyond the occasion harsh grunt, and the scratching of pen on paper as the man jotted down directions and times. "...and that it's set to pass this ridge early tomorrow afternoon. That's _all I know_, honest! We good!?"

Ben merely shrugged, though I could tell he was reading the man for any sign of falsehood. It was a necessity in an environment like this. Apparently, he liked what he saw, nodding, and allowing the skittish man to flee from his own bar. I did my own quick read of the man for safety. In my eyes, he was easily too afraid to even think of lying.

"I think that went rather well, all things considered." My partner snatched a bottle of amber-colored spirits from behind the bar, offering me some, which I flatly refused. "We've got more time to kill than I thought, and I know the ridgeline the bastards'll be usin' well enough."

_"__I don't like this," _I signed flatly, frowning in marked distaste as he knocked a few gulps back, spinning in his seat to lean back against the counter, and survey the space, winking and smirking his way through the clientele, on the hunt as it were. _"The Boss would want to..."_

"The Boss made his position clear. I never asked you to tag along with all this."

_"__You never needed to ask. I'm just giving my opinion."_

"Well, consider it noted... Ah, _there_ we go!" He clapped his hands together loudly enough to make me jump in my seat, as he vacated his, marching his way towards a young woman around our age, with shockingly red hair that fell about her waist. "As I live and breathe! _Cherry_? That you? You've met Reika, right? I think you guys must have..."

Again, I let my mind wander, waving a quick hello to our old playmate, who didn't seem to acknowledge just how angry and nervous the men she'd just ducked away from were in their attempts to find her. Ben didn't notice of course, too wrapped up in his own confidence and relief at finally having gotten somewhere with his little act of rebellion, no doubt. Might lead to trouble, but, of course, that was for later in his mind.

_'__Wouldn't be the first time.'_

I'd long accepted my partner's "habits" when it came to those of the fairer sex, and the consequences that often arose in the aftermath. Enough that, in the end, I had just decided to steer clear as far as possible while watching his back. A shame my Semblance could be so _detailed_ at times...

_'__And great... Now I had to splash some water on my face.'_

It seemed to come easy to him. A carefully crafted smile, the way he held himself, the air of danger that seemed to radiate from every pore. I could certainly see what a woman might see in him. As for me... well.

We'd tried, of course, a few years back, to make a go of it. Two childhood friends, seeing what might lay beyond. Thankfully, some handholding, one extremely awkward kiss, and a whole night of laughing and joking about it, had been enough to realize there was nothing romantic in our future. He was my best friend, my partner, and the closest thing I had to an older brother...

"I'll fill you in on more of the details, tomorrow." I glanced up at that roguish smirk, one arm wrapped around Cherry's shoulder, the woman subtly huddled underneath his poncho to keep her hair hidden, and the other hefting his drink as he nudged me playfully in the side with his knee. "C'mon, live a little!"

I turned him down, the boy nodding with mock offense, before laughing his way out of the bar with his tag-along, leaving me to muse over what we were doing. Actively going against Bill's orders, drawing resources and attention we couldn't afford... and I felt strangely calm about it all.

Benjamin Carson was no fool. A drunk, con-man, and flirt, but _not_ a fool. I had full confidence that tomorrow would come, and he'd have a plan. He always did... Right up until the end.

* * *

Ben's plan had been remarkably simple in its execution; nothing we hadn't accomplished dozens of times before on just as many similar jobs the two of us had taken on over the years. The only difference was this was no lightly guarded transport ferrying stolen goods. This was a military freighter adorned with the symbol of Atlas, and we, on the other hand, had no back up to speak of. It was reckless, but Ben's confidence was infectious, and I'd been taken in, never able to win an argument when he was like this.

We used the oncoming dust storms, and the train's own debris, to avoid detection until the last possible moment, as we neared the central car. The engine of our "borrowed" transport roared madly, but paled next to the scraping whine of the massive Dust-powered hulk speeding alongside us. From there, it was a simple matter of leaping aboard with a burst of Aura, measured precisely to coincide with the shaking movement of the train, which was practically instinctual to us at this point. Ben easily cleared the gated bars, wincing somewhat as his new tattoo must've ached under the weight of his rifle. Meanwhile, I hooked my tonfa on the bar, slid underneath them, and rolled into a crouch, eyes, ears, and _Sense_ set to the task of identifying foes.

If I'd been more careful, I might've realized that the signatures playing out across the train were far less prevalent than I would've expected for an Atlesian freighter this size. Surely I would've been tipped off by the wary state they were in, so different from the usual calm boredom. Alas, I was too focused on my partner's mood, the good nature he'd displayed after I'd picked him up replaced by a viscous sense of purpose. He was angry, and he knew that I knew. Perhaps that was why he sent me off on my own to secure the front of the train, while he went to examine the cargo, promising to call over the short wave line we had if he ran into trouble. A promise I should've known would ring false...

This was hardly the first time we'd split up on a heist; we were one of the few Aura wielders of any skill at all in the gang, and Ben often split us up on the jobs he headed, giving the men under us a greater chance of survival if they had a "Human Goliath" like me present to watch out for them. It made sense, and it helped clear the train faster, but we'd never split off on our own. I'd gone along with it, certain the bandit could handle himself in a fight if it came to it, relieved that all the live workers were within my part of the train rather than his, but also a certain sign I would face more resistance.

With that safely in mind, we'd split up. Ben donned his goggles, and gave his weapon a quick inspection, while I checked to make sure my mask was held securely over my face, a sort of pre-ritual that had carried since the first time I'd worn it for a job. Still, though, I was unable to escape the feeling that something was wrong. But of course, in the moment, I tried to act as Bill had taught me: professional, calm, and taking each moment one step at a time.

The first android went down quick enough, its head twitching from a sudden hole in its blank-faced features as it toppled to the floor, the closest standing to it quickly following suit under a crushing heel from my boot, that splattered oil and machine bits around the cabin, and dented the floor as I landed in a crouch, and rolled off it to meet its fellows. It was visceral. Perhaps not the same as fighting Grimm, but the rush of bringing my strength to bear, even against these lifeless things, was an exciting prospect. My heart pounded loudly in my chest, like a drum sounding around the campfire, spurring me on as my punches cratered metal chest plates, and tore through circuitry like paper. Onward through the train I pressed, taking down sentinel after inept robotic sentinel, smashing limbs, firing off shots, and moving like a shadow. A shadow that brought one hell of a storm after her.

Soon enough, I found myself at the door to the engine room, buffeted by the sands of a sand flurry that would've torn unprotected skin to ribbons. I was just before the main control center, if I'd measured right, feeling the steady pulse of life through my Semblance, indicating the trio of live beings, the only ones on the whole train aside from Ben and myself, if I was correct, cowering behind it fearfully. As for Ben, he was still moving, his fluctuating Aura indicating some fighting, but nothing too troublesome. He was doing well.

Breathing a short sigh of relief, I refocused myself, placing the head of my tonfa on the door, and letting the internal pile-driver do its work. Two sharp clangs, and the door fell in on itself, paving my way into the sweltering train car, lined with pipes and glowing Dust engines.

Keen hearing saved me from a swipe of a bladed arm that would've taken my head off, as a droid extricated itself from an alcove at my left, my body spinning underneath the clever droid's defenses. Defenses soon blown apart by a thudding crash, as my tonfa met its swiveling "head," and embedded it in the ceiling above, sparks falling from above to frame me for... for the Law Keepers?

"It's Carson's lil' Monsta'!" the one nearest to the door yelled shrilly, as his fellows, signified by their long coats, and the fancy armbands adorning their persons, brought weapons to bear, one a thin rifle, while the other sported a pair of axes topped with viscous spikes. "Bring 'er down! Carson can't be too far behind!"

_'Carson?' _My breath caught in my throat, as I realized, with dawning horror and confusion, what their presence, and not that of an Atlesian squad, must've meant. This had been meant as a _trap_, with information in regards to Abigail Carson as the bait. A normal mind probably construed that a scorned husband would bite at it, not expecting that his son might be drawn instead. Drawn in, willingly or not, and fall prey to... to...

Already, I could see the leader running for the door, a smirking smile on his face. _'Ben!'_

The lawman with the axes moved forward at the same moment his fellow fired, driving me into a corner, tripped up slightly by the smoking wreckage, and unable to properly respond, as a heavy handed chop crashed against _Strike Lotus _with enough force to buckle my shoulder, and scrape against my Aura with a violet-colored flash, as the edge of his other weapon came up swiftly to catch my arm when I tried to swat him away. While not Huntsmen, Law Keepers were hardly slackers when it came to combat, wielding even their meager Auras with practiced skill, and, judging by the knee meeting my kidney, as much honor as the bandits they swore to fight.

"You really _are_ just a kid, aren't ya?" the man growled in a low drawl, obviously having a bit more trouble holding me at bay against the wall than he'd thought he would. His axes were held in a way where one stopping me from moving my pistol, while the other wrestled with the Aura of my left wrist. "Heard the rumors, but even I... **_EEK_**!"

Shame for him, I had some dirty tricks of my own. The end of my pile driver slid out from the back of my tonfa, only to snap back with a sharp clang that jarred my arm, but succeeded in knocking him back a step, at least enough for me to aim a rising booted foot down low, his voice rising a few octaves, before I hauled him head first into a steam pipe, snapping his head back, and rendering him unconscious. His friend swore loudly, firing off on full-auto, that I was barely able to duck away from to the safety of an engine block, my eye twitching as one of the rounds traced a white hot line against the meat of my calve, while the rest ricocheted around me in a whirlwind of shrapnel.

_'Wait... Wait... **NOW**!'_

I rolled out from behind cover as the man's rifle clicked empty, firing a quick three-round burst that crashed through his pale-yellow Aura, and sent him sprawling back against the wall, clutching at his stomach, coughing up red. Unable to spare him more than a single regretful thought, I stumbled forward, fully aware of the searing pain in my leg as I slid open the door leading to the main conductor's cabin, my eyes widening as the remaining official glanced over his shoulder with a wry grin, finger poised over one of the control consoles.

"Too late, kid! Bill Carson's goin' up in_flames_, today!" He slammed down on the key before I could do more than gape underneath my mask, before a loud clang echoed from behind, as the link between the engine car and the rest of the train disconnected. "Feel free to tag along, now! Enjoy the view!"

His laughter was the last thing he did before I pulled _Strike Lotus' _trigger, his shocked face not even done hitting the floor before I was moving down the length of the engine room.

I hobbled at first, before I slammed my fist against my leg, doing my best to numb it. The gap was widening, a foot, three yards, increasing with each moment... With a burst of Aura I leapt, reaching out a desperate hand, and just managed to catch the lip of the retreating car's roof, tugging myself up amidst the stinging haze of sand and debris, before another click sounded from further down.

_'No! Oh, **come on**!'_

Drawing on everything I had, my partner's frantic signature was the only thing guiding me, as I leapt and rolled through the pain, the resounding rattle as the cars behind me began to loose their coordination, their disparate weights dragging some down faster then others, crashing into one another, threatening a full derailment. I ignored that, the burning nail seemingly drilling itself into my leg, the ragged breaths misting the inside of my mask, and the sand biting at my frantic eyes...

"_**Reika!**_" My head snapped up, catching sight of a blonde-haired figure glowing green against the drab scenery, hanging off the edge of the car by his arm, and staring in abject horror as I pushed myself into one last bounding leap, reaching out a hand towards him, even as his own moved to block me; to push me aside towards the falling ground, my mind blanking at the move. _**_"_They planted a...!**_"

The explosion cut him off. The last thing I saw before impacting to the sandy floor, buffeted by both my partner's desperate attempt to save me, and the explosion itself throwing me clear, was Ben's brilliant green light being swallowed by flames and shrapnel, the force upsetting the rest of the cars nearby, as they slid free of their tracks, and careened headlong into one another, in a deafening crash that turned everything white...

* * *

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

* * *

**_Intercepted Communique Enclosed - Indentured Huntsman Operative William Carson to Subject Reika Murasaki - Threat Level: Negligible_**

_Reika,_

_None of what happened is your fault. Benjamin made his choice, and is still alive because of you. You made an impossible promise to keep - yes, I remember - that I can never hope to repay, and one I can never forgive myself for. Punch me for it if I'm lucky enough to see you again, but this has to be said._

_I stole your childhood. You'll deny it, I know, but I did. Yours and my son's both. A better man would've taken the small, traumatized, wounded little girl he found being hunted by monsters, and taken her to the closest family that would take her, and love her in short order. A part of me wonders if I truly did see you as a means of taking Annie back. That you would help fix the mess of things I'd made with my son. If so, then that was cruel of me. B__rutally cruel. And it may be crueler still to say mine and the others' piece in a letter._

_You came to us for a reason. Why, I'm not sure. But luck's a fickle one at the best of times. What I, and every other member of this crew knows is that you're **family**. And that will never change._

_I can't keep asking this of you, as I've long since lost the right, but he's going to need you more than ever, now. I want this Huntsman thing to work out. For you both to get the chance to show the world what you're truly capable of. I, for one, don't deserve any part of that. Keep me separate from this new life, no matter what he asks. Please, Please protect him as you've always done, you beautiful young woman._

_And **never** stop moving forward._

_-With love, William A. Carson_

**-END**

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Hana Murasaki - Debi Mae West

Kuroi Murasaki - Dave Wittenberg

_**A/N: Yep, that's all of them. Funny that the first one started over 20 chapters ago, not to mention how long its actually been. This feels crazy. Anyway I'm as hyped as anyone else for volume 4 and the inevitable joyride that's gonna be and if you guys have any questions or anything you might want to see covered in future chapters always feel free to leave a review of message me and I'll attempt to get back to you in a timely manner.**_


	75. Chapter 75

_**Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One.**_

REACTION

_**-Maxine Argus-**_

"_No_, that _wasn't_ the first time we've kissed," I growled harshly, trying to ignore the unpleasant warmth spreading across my face at the sudden barrage of questions from seemingly everyone else on the goddamned airbus, namely Valkyrie, who'd also dragged Arc along with her, and for Nika Lister for some odd reason who was obviously trying to listen in. "And no, I'm not gonna tell you about his... katana...? What the actual _fuck,_ Valkyrie?"

"Oh, c'mon! Blake showed me this book, and... Well I just... Not even a little bit!? Just a little!" Why the hell was she blushing!? Anyone who asks something like _that_ has _no right_ to be blushing!

"_NO!_"

Jaune and Nora, I could understand. Hate... but understand seeing as the two of them had the combined romantic experience of a turnip, at least going by the overawed looks on both their faces. The older twin Wolf Faunus, however, was seemingly more fixed on the experience of dating in general.

_'__Why she couldn't just ask her teammates, or her floozy sister, I have no idea...'_

Umber and Damask were obviously a couple, judging by the way he hovered over her protectively like a shadow. The team leader's default at the moment seemed to be cowering from loud noises, and latching onto her larger teammate. Apparently, it had something to do with her Semblance and the time of day, some personal quirk Nika had mentioned when I'd pointed it out. She'd supposedly be back to her confident, unstoppable self once the sun was back up... if we lasted that long.

Larka, on the other hand, was engaged in a bit of awkward flirting with Wukong, the tan-skinned blonde looking as if his head was gonna burst if the girl's ample chest drew any closer to his face, blood trickling from his nose. The snickering wolf, for her part, was more than happy to encourage the younger boy, being extra affectionate.

"Then did you know Ben was a super cool spy!? Going on secret missions, romancy stuff like in the movies!?"

_'__He better not have been, or I'm branding his ass personally!'_

"Did it look like we knew!?" Cue their looks of blunt accusation, which were probably deserved, seeing how I treated the bandit at the best of times, but it still made my teeth grind. "No, we didn't know about the Atlas thing."

It made for an amusing distraction from the Grimm flitting about mere feet away, at least. It was hard to ignore the occasional dull thumps on the hull as the aircraft chugged away from the Colosseum. Thankfully, in my case, not jostling around much in the interim, but still struggling to stay just ahead of the monstrous horde. The same horde Carson was diving headlong into, with only a bunch of toy soldiers to watch his back.

But, of course, that _was_ his job now it seemed. _'__An Atlas Specialist... How the hell did they...?'_

Why would someone like Ironwood pick a person like Benjamin Carson, a man with an unabashed, distinctly non-subtle dislike for all things from the Kingdom in the North, for a role in his personal forces? And he'd just accepted the appointment lying down? No... They probably forced him into it. That at least sounded more like the Atlas way of doing things... But still, why not tell us, at least? We would've understood.

_'...__Actually, maybe not.'_

Shoving Nora's pleading ginger head of hair out of my face, I craned my neck to look at the pair of Huntresses sulking in the back corner of the airship, their little patch of designated space. Murasaki was dutifully cleaning her gauntlet, using the hem of her sleeve to scrub at whatever imagined imperfections dotted its surface. Rose... Rose was just sitting there, staring at, I realized with a touch of unexpected sympathy, what was unmistakably one of her friend Polendina's swords. The same she'd used when attacking the enormous Nevermore back in the arena.

I wasn't the only one getting an eyeful, either. Nikos was examining the scene with a guilt-ridden look she did her best to hide behind an air of focused discipline. No surprise there; she'd been on auto-pilot for the most part since leaving the arena, slaying Grimm with her usual ease, but seemingly unable, or simply unwilling to pull out her Semblance in front of the young leader.

Pointless, but I could understand the sentiments all too well.

_'__Wasn't able to use my Semblance for a few hours back in the Badlands, either. Not after...' _The memory of a struggling airship, much like the one Ben now rode in, being dragged underneath, and subsequently torn apart by an avalanche of unfeeling stone, along with its unfortunate crew, flashed to mind. I shivered, stomach roiling and threatening to spill over. But thankfully the lapse went unnoticed, as the sound of scratching claws picked up for a brief moment, and sent everyone aboard scrambling for their weapons... Well, all except for myself and those two.

"So what's the plan now!?" I piped up, drawing most of the attention aboard the craft. At least it got my fellow Mistralan's head out of the clouds. "I know Ironwood said we had to defend Beacon, but not much else!"

I'd aimed the question towards CVFY's Coco Adel, the fashionista the closest thing we had to a senior in this situation, seeing as our best options were a diminished Umber, a glum Rose... and Arc. Not to bash, but it was hardly the most comforting pool, in my opinion. True to form, the brunette raised an eyebrow over her shades, before slumping forward with a weary shrug, her deadly handbag slung loosely over one shoulder.

"I've had Yatsu and Velv checking frequencies while you all were busy gossiping..." Nora and Nika blushed furiously, the ginger-haired girl trying to hide behind Arc, while Ren sighed, shaking his head. "Initial reports say the students are holding the Grimm and White Fang steady with the Army boys._ For now,_ anyway." Well that was certainly encouraging... The fashionista cleared her throat, before shooting a glance at my teammate, striding forward, and continuing in a lower tone. "She's gonna be alright, isn't she? I know the whole Carson thing was probably a shock..." Reika perked up, but said nothing, either drawing on her Aura to eavesdrop, or merely assuming.

"Oh, her? Nah. That little thing wasn't even..." I started sarcastically, but the older student cut me off with that sharp authority I'd heard on occasion from Ambrose and the other leaders, even Arc on rare occasion. "She'll be fine. She's not the type to shut down. If anything, it probably just pissed her off." Certainly hacked me off, and I hadn't known the bastard half my life.

"I hope so; we're going to need that down there." Adel clapped me on the back with enough force to push the air from my lungs, before turning to wink coyly at my diminutive teammate. "I've heard rumors of what a pissed off AMBR is worth in a scrap. Can't wait to see if it's true."

"Knowing how people gossip around here, probably." I shot a glare towards JNPR's general direction, Adel merely chuckling as she moved to speak with her teammates.

"H-_hey!_ Something's happening out there!" FNKI's Neon Katt shouted shrilly, voice ringing through the small space with enough force to set my eardrums pounding. "Something with the ships!"

"What!?" Adel scrambled to join her, followed by just about everyone else, me included, all of us jostling for a view outside. I am not afraid to admit I might've cracked Jauney boy's skull against the bulkhead in an effort to get there first. Swallowing my sudden trill of terror at the ground moving beneath us, my eyes caught sight of what the Cat Faunus was referring to... which made my blood run cold.

"_What the...!?_"

* * *

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

"_Sooo..._ You and Ironwood been workin' together long?" I asked awkwardly, trying to make small talk with the dour-looking Agent Spectre, the man standing as still as the AK androids flanking us in pairs on either side of the craft. His helmet was snug under one arm, and his eyes were closed, as if he were asleep.

A calm reaction after the rapid-fire orders he'd sent off to the other ships in our group ferrying their own platoons, straight from Ironwood's, in a clipped and efficient manner, like any machine.

_'__Might be, for all I know... Or maybe he's a robot, too? Wouldn't put it past 'em...' _I cut off that train of thought quickly, not wanting to relive watching that poor girl getting slaughtered, or the look of terrified helplessness on the champion's face. _'I shouldn't be here, sittin' with troops... **Atlas **troops... Fuckin' hell.'_

_"__Your experience will prove invaluable..."_ the man had said. God damn it all...

A glance saw the two live Atlesian troopers that had accompanied us on the craft actually reacting normally for one in this sort of situation, which, in other words, was being scared out of their heads, and trying to make the best of it by distracting themselves. This was all some bad joke; had to be. And I, for one, wasn't laughing one bit.

I was just about to ask him how he'd gotten that nasty mark on his lip, when he finally deigned to speak up, deep green eyes opening to meet my own lighter pair.

"Atlas military doctrine states that when one speaks of, or alludes to a superior officer in an active combat scenario, they should address them by their rank, and confer the appropriate level of respect owed to such a title," the brown-haired specialist said in a clipped cadence, voice betraying little in way of emotion, except for maybe the _slightest_ undercurrent of distaste. "In regards to your question, however, the General was the one who first saw my potential, and personally recruited me into the Atlesian Military, and later the Special Operatives Unit. I would go as far to say that he made me the soldier I am today, and likely the reason I'm still alive. His will is my duty; his vision my goal."

"...I-I've heard the stories they tell about you, sir," one of the troopers, an olive-skinned fellow by the name of Rosso, if his IFF was reading right on my Scroll, spoke up from his seat in a high tenor, though that might've been the nerves. Poor guy looked like he was ready to faint if he didn't start breathing properly. "Is it true?... What they say about the skirmish at Pastel Gulch, I mean? Did you really take down an entire cell of White Fang, two dozen armed Faunus, and rescue a Councilman's daughter singlehandedly?"

Pastel Gulch... Huh... I'd thought I might've heard something about it in passing a few years back, which frankly meant it must've been pretty big news, if some version had managed to drift its way out to my neck of the Badlands. I wracked my brain for details. I recalled that it had something to do about a plot to assassinate an Atlesian Council member, according to the men ranting about around the campfire one night. Only real thing of note I could recall was that it had gone south for the bad guys... and a lot of my father's boys had been rooting for them.

"Some parts, yes, though the media and the young Miss herself grossly overstated some of the key facts," Spectre said casually, glancing at his helmet with a straight face, void of any real expression. "The abducting Faunus' ties to the White Fang were never successfully proven, and I was only required to engage a force of eighteen enemy combatants. The others were merely engineers and auxiliary staff."

"That's... That's still rather impressive, sir," the young man stuttered out, his fellow nodding along along with him, and I was rather inclined to agree. Faunus were difficult opponents, and not so easy to sneak up on, or take on alone, as this guy apparently had. Maxine was all the proof I needed of that. "You're a hero; the real deal! That story was one of the reasons I wound up enlisting in the first place. Even with the plans to mechanize. My father..."

"I merely fulfilled the mission parameters dictated to the best of my ability, as would be expected of any serving soldier of Atlas."

_'__**O... Kaaaay...** Not rulin' out the robot possibility, after all. Good to know,' _I thought, nodding my head, and smiling as if I understood what the hell the man was spouting, resolving to keep my own personal comments about what any soldier of Atlas should expect to myself just in case.

Rosso and his buddy, June, on the other hand, stared at the man, sharing looks of awed respect. They were probably eager for more tales about their boss' secret soldier, and a perfect living example of what the patriotic, heroic Specialists were supposed to be. Better than the youthful, admittedly much more handsome, wretch from some backwater outside the Kingdoms proved to be, at any rate, even if he was technically supposed to aid the situation out there.

_'__Not 'he.' __**I'm **__supposed help out... And as a damned Specialist, to boot...' _Specialist "Tactician," to be specific. it was so weird to think about. Only a few months ago, the worst I had to deal with was Goodwitch. _'Ah, the good ol' days...'_

Sure, I fancied myself as a clever individual on occasion. Someone capable of coming up with a plan, and following through with it? No problem. Hell, I'd used to do it all the time back when I ran with Dad's gang, planning heists down to the smallest details, organizing contingencies for when they inevitably fell apart, and even losing men... But to actually be given authority over unfamiliar troops in an emergency, with possibly the fate of an entire Kingdom on the line?...

I checked my Scroll yet again, counting off the meager quartet of ships assigned to follow after us, in comparison to the dozen strong boarding party the General had pulled from across the Kingdom to assault his own flagship.

The necessity was obvious from both a tactical standpoint and a morale one. With the rest of the air fleet downed, either burning along the border, or crashed along the port, Roman Torchdick now had free reign of the skies. Mounting a reasonably sound defense against the Grimm would've been difficult enough, at this point. With that madman firing off everything in that flying superweapon's arsenal like a brat with a new toy, it would be practically impossible.

"We'll need to strike with haste if we're to stagger the incoming horde. General Ironwood proposed a variety of tactical motions that I believe are..."

"Great and all, but... From what I see, a lot of it depends on the Huntsmen already out there, as well as Ironwood... _the General _himself..." I hastily corrected after seeing the look in his eye, "...bein' able to provide support in short order. Don't know 'bout you, but try to avoid assumin' too much." I cut him off, switching to my own overlay of the tactical map, as if I hadn't spent the first few minutes of the flight filing away every one of the General's "proposals". "Plus, this has the troops backed into corners tryin' to cover every route they can manage."

"Holding the line" was great in theory, but we simply didn't have the manpower, metal or otherwise, to pull it off. Maybe not the best idea to talk about it in front of said troops, Rosso and his friend watching me with mixed expressions, or at least it seemed so behind those silly helmets they wore, but I'd rather be disliked for sharing an honest opinion, than get them, and likely myself, killed.

The border was in a bad way, yes; no doubt about that. Still, it _was_ holding, if the scattered radio transmissions from the beleaguered defenders Rock Star was picking up were worth anything. Apparently, in the General's mind, that meant it could do just fine with only me, his robot spook, a few dozen live troops, and maybe two dozen drones to hold it, until he was done taking back his fancy war ship, and come clean up.

_'__Probably take all the credit, too... after leavin' me to clean up his mess…' _my mind added with no small amount of venom... at least until I realized how stupid I was being, and banished the silly notion to the far reaches where it belonged. It didn't matter who got the credit if none of us were alive to see tomorrow, after all. Compared to that alternative, I'd take dead Grimm via airstrike any day of the week.

_'Always did enjoy a bit of fireworks...'_

"You seem to underestimate our forces' resolve in the face of the Grimm, Specialist Carson," Spectre said firmly, fixing me with a stern glare. "Atlas hasn't grown to boast Remnant's greatest military force by flinching away from danger."

_'__No, you just have a legion of metal cannon fodder to do it for ya...' _I seethed, though from his tone, it seemed the matter was settled. Then there was the fact I was pretty sure, at least in his mind if nothing else, he outranked me. Never a good idea to stick my neck out in front of a guy so obviously adept at cutting them.

I shook my head with an annoyed sigh, glancing back down at the device in my hands, keen on the status us Ironwood's attack party, when a flicker of red from the corner of my eye caught my attention. The Atlesian Knight droids old Ironwood had sent along were glowing now, and the one I saw was moving with cold, robotic precision, as it raised its blocky rifle to take aim at the pair of troopers too busy gossiping amongst themselves to notice the unexpected danger. My hand dropped the Scroll, mouth already in motion as I went for the knife at my belt, knowing I wouldn't be fast enough to intervene.

"_Chuckles! Droid!_"

Whether the man was somehow able to discern the meaning of my sudden shouting, or had merely heard the telltale signs of a weapon prepping to fire, I had no idea. The important bit was that he was already in motion before his helmet hit the ground, with what looked like the hilt of some rapidly expanding weapon clutched in his grasp. The droid barely had time to reassess the threat, before it found its wrists cleanly removed with a single swipe of a long bladed tonfa, that had decompressed with a hiss of steel parting steel. The droid's head soon followed with a flick of the Assassin's arm.

Rather than sit there and appreciate the man's impressive reflexes, I swiftly remembered that the droid hadn't been alone. Unclipping my harness and falling forward out of my seat, I moved just in time to avoid the trio of Dust-tipped rounds that rang off the hull plate, where my head had rested a second before.

A cry rose up from the cockpit as the plane shook, Redgrave ducking his head low. "_Oi! _What's going on back there!? Kid!?" Unfortunately, I was too caught up, literally, to answer him.

_'__Crap!'_

My arms snagged in the folds of my cloak from the awkward fall, I instead lashed out with a hasty kick to the offending machine's knee joint, before it could readjust its aim, throwing its sensors off balance long enough for Rosso to get over his shock, and put the thing down with a quick burst from his own rifle straight to its chest. It was a good shot, all things considered, though even that hadn't finished it off completely. The mechanical soldier still stirred, at least until I clambered on top of it, and hammered its head into the floor, and reduced it to sparking, smoking mess with my bad arm.

Satisfied the thing wouldn't get back up and slaughter us all, I rolled off and fell back into the closest row of seats, beating at some smoking patches on the matte material I wore, and breathing like I'd just sprinted a mile, making a quick mental note on the side to get the thing shortened when I could to avoid another mishap in the future.

_'__Too close... **Way** too damn close...'_

"W-what just happened!?" Rosso asked as he fought to extricate himself from his seat, glancing from his smoking rifle to the AK lying quite broken on the floor, and then at me and Spectre, who was in the process of examining his own "kill." "The Knights... Why would they just...!?"

He was freaked out; hell, _I_ was freaked out. My mind raced through every scenario I could conceive for why two perfectly functioning Atlesian mechanicals would fire on their own people, including someone with Specialist clearance.

Malfunction?... No, that timing was too precise to be random. Maybe an error with my own identification? Maybe Ironwood hadn't put me in the system yet?... Nah, that doesn't pan out, either. They went for the Atlas uniforms first, before anything else. And that glow... It was just like the screens at the stadium... Which meant...

_'__This was deliberate; an attack!'_

"Hey, uh, kiddo!?" Redgrave called back peering over his shoulder, voice understandably shaky. "I've got a ton of chatter over the comm line! Not sure what just happened, but... Umm..."

"Rock Star, give me an update here!" I groaned, kicking at the pile of junk as I stumbled towards the cockpit, cursing the sudden lurch that almost sent me flying into the control panels. "Spit it out! And while you're at it, get the General on the line, and tell him two of his '_helpful_' guard bots just went kill mode on us!... _Well!?_" I hung off the man's chair, peering down as the pilot reached up and tugged off his helmet. I could hear the panicked voices calling over the comms from here, the pilot turning to look me in the eye, his own wide as his face paled. "Jude? Contact Ironwood; we need to...!"

"That's just it! He's gone! The General and the whole boarding team... They're _gone!_"

* * *

_**-Alexander Capaneus-**_

"Well, that's one way of dealing with him, I suppose," I muttered in a disappointed whisper, voice drowned out by the bowler hat-wearing crime lord's cackling, the man absolutely giddy since his little stunt had sent Ironwood's little welcoming party, and by all indication the man himself, hurtling into the ground. "Not as _satisfying,_ but I'll take it."

Personally, I would've enjoyed the delicious irony of stomping in the haughty bastard's smug face into the deck of his own flagship. Though the thought of leaving the man to die in a fiery crash, or better yet, torn apart by Grimm, helpless on the ground, was just as good. Well... _almost_ as good. And the blood-colored lights flashing about on every screen did seem rather appropriate.

I glanced down at my wrist, examining my new little toy this "Black Queen" - perhaps the same individuals I'd heard whispers of within the Hand's ranks - had supplied me with. The weaponized shield, in fact, was almost as telling as anything else I'd seen so far tonight.

_'__And I've seen a lot for someone fresh out of the cage.'_

First, my new employer, eccentric as she no doubt was, possessed the means and the force of will to accomplish much. One only had to look outside, or see the chess piece on these screens to see evidence of that. Yet, somehow, the woman had gotten hold of my family's ancient schematics, and forged a passable replica of _Titan's Bulwark_. It held some flaws in comparison to the original, the Dust lattice just _slightly _out of tune in some parts, but not enough to interfere with the overall coverage. If anything, the woman's smiths had improved the design in some areas, the weapon now lighter, and the force exerted by my Aura passing through it magnified even more so. It was less efficient, but had more bang per blow.

_'__It'll do. For now, at least.'_

The second fact, clear as day, was that this woman would not abide failure. She'd stated in that velvety voice of hers that this was my _last_ chance, and that if I didn't do _exactly_ as specified... Well...

I grinned, running a finger along the burnished metal surface. I hadn't expected even _this_ much after the fuck up with Ambrose. The Red Hand didn't have much leniency in regards to capture, either. A good little Trapper would've fought to the end and I'd believed that too once. Had tried to goad that white-haired bastard into it with his girlfriend's corpse cooling on the ground... But it turns out the whole death or honor thing wasn't for me.

I'd come close to losing my head. Once was certainly enough.

_'__Thinking Ambrose had the right idea with this whole freelance thing...'_

Freedom, money, and all I had to do was keep an eye on, and play partner to some wannabe Huntress for the foreseeable future. Could certainly do, and had probably done, worse.

Of course, I was supposed to tie up loose ends, in the meantime, "testing my resolve" as she'd called it over the Scroll. She was cold enough to give Vergil, or even the Commander a run for their money. Torchwick had been decent enough company over the last few weeks, if a bit full of himself. He certainly deserved better than some dying Atlesian's bullet to the head. I could give him that, at least, as a courtesy. The girl... She'd be a bit more difficult.

Neo, as Torchwick had introduced her to me, was a different kind of unsettling than I was used to. Even now, I couldn't resist keeping an eye on her, passing it off as flirtatious winks, which she'd pointedly ignored. She was dangerous, and anyone who could murder her way through a warship and make a Trapper shiver wasn't someone I wanted to deal with directly. Maybe I'll catch her off guard.

_'__Shame. She's a real looker, this one, if a bit tiny for my taste.' _Least she wasn't a blonde, at any rate.

"Hey, Neo, think I'm starting to understand your boyfriend just a little bit more. The sight of a bit of anarchy _really_ grows on the soul." Torchwick pressed another button at random, the ship shuddering as the laser batteries wiped a few warehouses, and Grimm, out in a flash of verdant green. "Oh, _yeah,_ baby!"

Creepy Girl was distracted, looking wistfully out at the chaos next to her cackling boss. Her was umbrella held loosely at her side,and her stance tensing at the mention of her man, but hardly threatening. One quick squeeze would be all it would take to snap that pretty pale neck of hers in my grasp. I moved behind her with all the skill the Trappers had instilled in me. My breath slowed, senses tuned for the slightest sign that she was aware of what I had planned... Fortunately for me, she was too busy looking like she had something to say to the mad criminal. Something she was holding back. Too late, unfortunately for her, as my arm was already reaching outward... only to pause and pull back swiftly, as something caught my attention abruptly.

"Huh?" The words spilled from my mouth before I could stop them, head turning around in the direction of a very audible '_thump,'_ as something hit the hull hard.

The sound was at least hard enough that even an untrained goon like Torchwick was able to pick up on it. His bodyguard flinched back, visibly put off that I'd managed to get so close to her without her noticing. Torchwick, however, was too intent on whoever, or whatever, had interrupted his fun to notice our little awkward exchange, or care one way or the other.

"Ugh... One of you go see what that is." Neo nodded, smirking with anticipation, and moved to leave, but I beat her to it. Moving next to the ginger-haired criminal, I keying in a few quick commands on the console. "What are you... Oh?" The man's face broke out in a terrifying scowl dripping with menace, as the hull mounted cameras flashed to life, displaying a small red hooded girl struggling to stay grounded to the hull, the massive crimson scythe she wielded aiding considerably in that regard. Something about her seemed... familiar, somehow. "Oh, you can _not_ be serious! Typical!... Just _typical..._ Scratch that, you two. Think I might tag along for this one."

"Friend of yours?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the man's strange reaction. "Seems a bit young to me, but if that's what you're into..." I clamped my mouth shut at the look Roman flashed me, a small part of me wondering if I hadn't overstepped some strange boundary accidentally. Wouldn't be the first time. "Sorry; bad joke. Not a friend, I'm guessing?"

"Hardly." The man pulled a cigar from his jacket pocket, one he must've been saving somehow throughout his ordeal in lockup. He lighted it with the end of his cane, before glaring down at the screen. "Alex, my boy, meet Red. The most _annoying_ little do-gooder in all of Vale, and a certified pain in my ass. Yours, too, I'd wager."

"Hmm?"

A Cheshire grin then split Roman's face as he motioned from me to our little unwanted stowaway. "You know that blonde bimbo you kept bitching about? The one who was with your Trapper friend? Yang Something?"

"Yeah." As if I didn't think of Ambrose's golden bitch constantly. The one who had near singlehandedly derailed my life for good. "What about her?"

Torchwick merely tapped the screen with his cane, blowing a line of sweet smelling smoke as he laughed. This was no mad cackle, either. Just cold, clear, vengeful purpose. "That's her kid sister."

"...Well _that's_ quite the little fun fact!..." I said in genuine surprise, vaguely aware of the grin spreading across my face, and Neo's nervous glance as I clapped the other man on the back, before marching my way to the now stinking corpse I'd made earlier, scooping up the pistol, and holding it close to inspect it. "In that case, why don't we roll out the welcoming mat? Show her a good time?"

Oh this... _This_ was going to be fun.

Torchwick nodded eagerly, excited by the prospect of eliminating the little pest. Meanwhile, I glanced back at Neo, who was watching the scene with a bitter distaste evident on her face.

_'__Don't know what you're complaining about...' _I chuckled, rolling my shoulders as the doors parted before me. _'...You should be happy! This little diversion just saved your life.'_

* * *

_**-Jacob Ambrose-**_

Just a bit further now...

_"__Professor Ambrose, may I voice an objection as to this course of action?"_

"Might as well... Not like I can really stop you, anyway." Well, I could, but that would be rude and costly on my part. Allison wasn't exactly fond of being ignored. A holdover from the personality types used in her creation, no doubt, and also had a habit of messing with my finances if she felt I wasn't paying enough attention. "We don't have a choice. With Ironwood and his reinforcements gone..."

_"__Forgive me, but what you're planning, sir, even accounting my more favorable simulations, is tantamount to suicide. I can't in good conscience stay silent about this." t_he little AI spoke up, my watch flashing crimson as I keyed in the proper override codes to the launch bay, stumbling through the doors as soon as they'd opened wide enough to permit me. _"You're barely able to walk, let alone engage in combat!"_

"I thought that was what stimulants and assisted operating systems were for?" I grimaced, smiling despite myself as I half walked, half stumbled, across the catwalk, eyes set forward. "I'll just have to make it up as I go along. Seems to work for Joel, often enough... The suit's ready, right?"

_"__Affirmative, but Professor, you can't...!" _She tried to voice another complaint, but I was having none of it, too set on my current course to stop now. I'd stemmed the bleeding for now, and had taken the necessary steps to keep me standing. I couldn't just succumb.

"Is it ready, _yes_ or _no?_"

A brief moment of hesitation followed the question, likely punctuated by the AI running through every simulation it could trying to find a way of making me back down. Thankfully, or not, I'd managed to go through the small emergency chemical supply I kept in the watch so she wouldn't be able to force the issue.

_"...__Yes. The A:001Mk1 Knight-Errant is armed, and ready for deployment."_

The steady groan of automation sprang to life around me in a flurry of whirling metal arms and appendages, as the lights flickered to life overhead, outlining the path towards a separate alcove, where, even now, stood the massive suit of armor, armed to the teeth with enough raw firepower to give the largest of Grimm pause for concern.

"You've scrubbed its software clean? Full reboot?" Of course she had; it was the only obvious course of action in such a situation. Never hurt to double and triple check, however. What I had planned was dangerous enough. "The virus?"

"_Purged successfully, though some critical failures have been detected within the Targeting and Navigational systems, which may seriously impact performance. I can attempt to rewrite..."_

"No time! You'll just have to streamline what you can, and we'll have make up the difference on our own..."

Not the preferred option, but what can you do? There was bound to be a few bugs after fighting off a program like this. Still... To take over every autonomous system on the network, even the assisted guidance systems in some of our most advanced weaponry?... I only knew of a handful of people that could even come _close_ to devising something like this, and they were all currently in Atlas under heavy restriction.

Well... except for one.

_'__I hope I'm wrong about that, Natalie what did you...?'_

"I'm ready, Allison!" I called out as I stripped off my blood-stained shirt with stiff efficiency, tracing a hand gingerly over the fresh wound, and the much older scar tissue and pale skin grafts surrounding it that ran jaggedly along most of my midriff. Remnants of the night that had shaped my family's legacy forever...

The armor hissed open in a rush of superheated steam, the sections of the chest opening to reveal the cockpit and inner workings within. It was a good thing Allison had managed to wrest control of the hanger bay's automatic systems, or at least a fraction of them, or even this desperate ploy may have proved impossible, with me unable to even arm the thing, or get it moving.

It struck me for probably the tenth time just how stupid and reckless this whole plan was.

_'__Joel's rubbing off on me...' _I mused, realizing just how worrying that thought really was when I thought of the numerous injuries my brother had sustained with his insane antics. _'...Well... Mom did always say we were more alike than we thought.'_

The interior of the suit was cold against my bare flesh, before the gel layers conformed to my temperature and shape in moments. The broad chest plate sealed rapidly into place as soon as my limbs were clear. With a snapping hiss, the helm descended from above to cover my vision, and magnetically seal to the body of the suit. A steel gorget slid across my neck to lock it in place, trapping me in a world of absolute darkness and silence, with only my own labored breathing, for a few brief terrifying moments, where, illogically of course, I'd thought something had gone terribly wrong.

Thankfully, the visor depolarized in short order, and the inner speakers sprang to life, the world suddenly playing in clear rich stereo. The sensors picked out every small detail of the world in minute clarity. The General had likened it to how one felt under the effects of Aura use. I, of course, wouldn't know, but if this was indeed how Huntsmen saw the world every day, I could certainly see the appeal.

_'__No... Don't get distracted. Time to experiment.'_

It always paid to take a minute or two to get my bearings with this weapon, no matter how many times I'd worn the suit in the simulator, or even for that brief sortie against the Grimm weeks before. A necessity I'd found, especially when each step could shake the ground beneath it, and a clumsy swing of the arm could warp steel.

With a deep breath, I tried to move the suit out of the alcove, gritting my teeth with a hiss as my side ached painfully after only a few short stumbling steps. It wasn't comfortable, not by a long margin, though it _was_ bearable. Thankfully, it seemed the improvised patch job keeping me together held, at least for now, anyway.

This pain; this fear... It was nothing to what those brave soldiers must've felt before the end. This... This is _nothing!_

_"__Professor Ambrose."_ Allison's voice played over the speakers, data streaming across my HUD as the AI integrated into the systems directly from my watch's uplink. She could see exactly how I felt, my vitals playing out like an open book. Of course she would be worried. The red medical alert lights were already flashing brightly and buzzing incessantly in the background, the sound setting my teeth on edge more than anything else at the moment. _"I sincerely recommend, for your own safety, that you...!"_

"_No!_" I snarled with a hacking cough, servos whining furiously as I forced the armor, and myself, to stand up straight. "I can do this... **_We _**can do this! For the General... For Penny!"The mention of her cousin, what might as well have been her cousin, silenced the AI for a few moments, which was an eternity to a being like her, before the siren cut off, and a warning display with my vitals was replaced with tactical reads, ammo counters, joint lubrication, coolant levels, Dust equilibriums and stability, etc...

_'__I can still fight! I _**_will_**_ fight!'_

The thought was a strange one, ironic even, and enough so to put a smile on my lips through the discomforting rictus I'd been forced to adopt with every step as the suit vibrated against my wound. I'd spent so long trying to run from the Bastion ideal - strength and honor over all else - but it seems some lessons had stuck true.

That mismatched girl had killed my subordinates, my _comrades,_ cruelly in coldest blood, with a smirk on her porcelain little face...

I gazed down at a metal fist, clenching it digit my digit, the combined force of the grip enough to shatter an Ursa's neck in moments. A growl rose up in my throat as the smile vanished, replaced by a cold determination.

"I _won't_ let them get away with this!"

_"...__For Penny," _Allison's voice echoed solemnly, sensors pinging a sudden impact on the hull lining the top of the craft... Concurrent with some type of missile? No... No, it was too small, and missiles didn't exude their own vitals... Which meant... reinforcements?

Evidently, Torchwick and his entourage had noticed the ship's new passenger, as well, their signals moving rapidly to intercept it.

_'__Bad luck for them, then.' _Green lights flashed across my vision, as the suit, my weapon, initiated full battle readiness with the clatter of ammo loaders, and the creak of shifting metal.

"_For Penny._"

* * *

_**-Benjamin Carson-**_

"C'mon, you need to give me better than _that!_" I shook my head, trying my best to focus and ignore the rising sense of dread in the pit of my stomach at what had clearly been the sight of Red flying at the damned ship all by her lonesome. "What do you mean...!?"

_'__Blondie's gonna kill me...'_

"I mean what I said!" The pilot reached over and thumbed the control panel, as a steady stream of reports flooded in from the surrounding airships, or what was left of them. From what I could catch, it seemed that Redgrave wasn't exaggerating. The entire squadron of Assault Dropships accompanying Ironwood, and the man himself, had just went down after some sort of malfunction with the mechanical units on board. "_He's gone!_"

Even our small group hadn't come out unscathed, as many of the other ships reported injuries, though thankfully none had gone down. It seemed that having more flesh and blood on our boats made the difference. Unfortunately, Ironwood had opted for the full metal approach...

I should have seen this coming sooner. If this damned Black Queen was able to hack into the CCT Network, literally hijacking transmissions going out across all of Remnant, then I should've anticipated that they'd have something like this... It occurred to me a few seconds later, making me slap my forehead with my flesh hand. Torchdick... He was imprisoned on Ironwood's ship, placing him in the perfect position to sow chaos when the time came. And what better tool than one of the Atlesian's own ship's, specifically Jimmy's ship? Whatever tool they used to hack the CCT, they likely used it again there.

_'**Ooooh,** this bitch is **good...**'_ Whoever this accursed Black Queen was, she knew how to play her cards right. If I wasn't already officially with Max, I hope anyway, I might've said I was in love...man my taste in women, huh?

"_What do you mean the General's gone!?_" We both jumped as Spectre stormed into the cockpit, face alight with more emotion than I'd seen him display so far. It was cold emotion, but emotion nonetheless. Jude shrunk back in his chair as I interceded. "Report, Carson."

"You heard him," I answered, trying to keep my own panic at bay as I noticed the two troopers behind the man stiffening up, glaring at me. No doubt in my mind who they'll side with if this goes bad. Can't really compete with glory boy for popularity. "The assault failed. Seems their AKs went rogue, just like ours, and downed the ships before they even got in range of the flagship."

"...We need to go back, then. Pilot, turn the ship around, and notify the other airships to assist us in a renewed assault and rescue." Redgrave looked from the soldier and then to me, hesitation written all over his face as his hands twitched. As for me, I took a deep breath, wary of the fact that my fellow Specialist still had his weapon drawn, with every intention to use it if I gave him trouble just going by his expression.

_'__How would Joel deal with this?' _Regretfully I already knew the answer, my mouth moving before I could stop myself, placing a hand on the pilot's shoulder to steady him, and myself especially.

"Ignore that! Keep on course, and tell the others to do the same! _No one_ goes back!" I noticed the man peeking over his shoulder at the other Specialist before paling, the reason obviously having to do with the cold edge of the larger man's presence as he drew closer, towering over me. Shallow breaths. Stay on top of this... "Rock Star..."

"Uh... R-right!"

Of course, that wasn't going to go over well. No, sir...

June moved forward, rifle raised. "Hey, we need to go back! The flagship is still rampaging..."

I gulped reflexively, as my "comrade" cleared his throat, eyes darkening, and silencing the trooper with a raised hand. "Pilot, Carson... I gave you both an order."

"A stupid one, yeah," I said before I could stop myself, remarkably steady for one in this sort of situation. Maybe it was the marked distaste for authority talking?... "That madman's parked right on top of 'em, ready blow us out of the sky before we even get close enough to try somethin'. Sorry, 'fraid he's on his own, if he's even still around."

Seems brutal honesty wasn't the best tactic, as the man's face tightened like a prune. "Then we carry on where the General left off, and continue the attack..."

"Are you even hearin' me right now?" I growled through gritted teeth, robotic fingers tightening. "Madman. With lasers. _Suicide._ Besides, Ironwood gave us a job to do, remember? The Grimm..."

"Can wait for now. The General, however, is a potent symbol to our men, and..."

"Wouldn't want us to waste our lives in a mad attempt to rescue him, _if_ he's even still alive!" Pretty sure he'd be one of the few people besides Psycho who I'd even think could somehow walk away from a landing like that. "There are troopers fighting right now on two fronts! They need help, and they _will _die if we keep wastin' time!"

"Interrupt me again, and…!"

"And what!? Let you doom_ half a company_ for _one man?_ Yeah, _not_ _gonna happen._"

From what I could tell, I almost had the troopers, the pair looking between themselves and then at their commander. Patriotism was all well and good, but sacrificing troopers with no hope of rescue, and for one man, was another thing entirely. Besides, I wasn't the one with my weapon out.

"I'm your superior officer, Carson. Under penalty of court martial, and by the authority of the Kingdom of Atlas, I _order you_ and Conscript Redgrave to _fall in line._"

"Sorry, Chuckles. Can't in good conscience abandon those people." Man, look at me, fighting to save more Atlesians... Life does seem to have an ironic sense of humor.

Were summary executions still a thing in Atlas? I'd read through the list of regulations and general directives that were still enforced within the military command structure, after being pretty much forced through it by my new commanding officer, but if it was still a thing, I was certain I was just about toeing the line. An idea sprang to mind with that, but a painful one, almost assuredly. One that left a bad taste in my mouth... Still, it was necessary.

I began to read the blank-faced soldier boy like a book. Searching for weakness...

_'__Damn you, Ironwood...' _Dad would've cuffed me for thinking ill of the possibly dead, but for putting me in a situation like this, making me do _this_, I felt the man deserved a bit of scorn. '_Probably would've done him some good, what with all the ass-kissin' he seems entitled to.'_

"Are you sure you're up to this, big guy?... The ship carryin' your commandin' officer - your _friend -_ just went down. A few minutes ago you, were goin' on about how he made you the soldier you are today..."

"If you are insinuating I am weighing this action on anything else but cold logic, with the morale of our troops in mind..."

I cut him off before he could spout some diatribe about duty that would've only gone on to sway the impressionable men with guns standing behind him, laughing in cruel disbelief. "_Really?_ My compliments to the factory that churned you out, 'cause _I,_ for one, would be fuckin' _furious_ in your boots!"

"_**Don't**_ interrupt me...!"

"Then make sense with these demands! You'd rather have us ignore our orders - _his _orders - to run off at the first sign of trouble!?"

"Rescuing him is imperative towards maintaining a proper chain of...!"

"Towards getting us killed, more like... _AH!_" I hissed as I suddenly felt the cold kiss of razor sharp steel pressed against my throat, shoving me right behind Redgrave's seat, the tip grazing my Aura as it shook in the heaving man's grip. Sadly, it seemed the one most surprised by the development was Spectre himself, who stared at his weapon after coming to his senses a few seconds, and then at me with an expression of shocked self-disgust. "...I'm... I'm sorry, Spectre... I had to."

It was a pathetic apology, the words ashes in my mouth as the soldier lowered his arm and his weapon, turning his eyes swiftly down to the floor. "...Private Rosso Garrett... Private June Celeste... Conscript Jude Redgrave... Please note that I am no longer fit for duty. I hereby relinquish my command of this mission to Specialist Tactician Benjamin Carson based on the fact that my judgement has been..." he paused, breath hitching for but a moment, "_...emotionally compromised..._ in the wake of General James Ironwood's updated status..." He then moved to the back of the ship, sinking down into one of the seats after scooping up his helmet, before staring down at the piece of equipment with the same lack of emotion I'd come to expect from him.

I, for one, just breathed a sigh of bitter relief, relaxing the grip I had on the pistol hidden at my waist. _'__That was cruel...'_

"Hey, Kid... What the hell just happened?" Redgrave said, breaking the stony silence, and drawing me back to reality in one fell swoop.

"I think... I think I just volunteered to plan the counter-attack." Not just that, I realized with a start of true panic. With Ironwood and the rest of the upper level personnel M.I.A or worse, and Spectre now out of the running by self-admission, _I_ was now, technically, _in command of what was left of the Atlas-Vale garrison._ "Open a channel. We need to update our plans."

_'__I wish Max was here, or hell, even Psycho. I wasn't meant for this...'_

Sadly, just glancing around at the sheer number of flying Grimm causing havoc all around us, it was clear I wasn't going to have much choice in the matter.

\- END

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced This Chapter-**

Rosso Garrett - Sam Riegel

June Celeste - David Vincent

_**A/N: Yeah, messed up big time on the chapter release, my bad entirely.**_

_**Onto other news, I've been wondering if I shouldn't give Bastion a sort of language to work with, at this point it would pretty much be throwing in a few sentences here and there over the course of the story, maybe something they only use as a combat language for communication between Hunters which has died out with the wider civilian populace who've adopted the same language as the kingdoms.**__**Maybe Al Bhed from the Final Fantasy X series because frankly I don't want to risk insulting anyone by butchering a real-life language. Just a thought I had. At its most extreme it would mean going back and shifting some of Joel's dialogue to short statements when he's stressed, curses, sayings, stuff like that.**_

_**Example - (Damn it = Tysh ed/ Hunter = Rhidan) etc. No way am I changing any of the important speeches or lines with it and I would have a sort of Translation section as well. Something to think about.**_

_**Literally would just be flavor to maybe put in to add more lore at this point and give Joel's lines a bit more character like Ben's accent, wanted other peoples input on if it was worth the effort? Any Suggestions or thoughts would be very much appreciated. Hope to continue this story soon. - Mojo**_


	76. Chapter 76

**_A/N: Here's hoping it's the right chapter this time, ha!_**

_**Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One.**_

HOLD THE LINE

**_-Maxine Argus-_**

"_Heads up; coming through; 'scuse me!_" I spun around, eyes widening in surprise at the sudden laughing call rising from behind me, ducking to the cobbled ground just in time to avoid GLDN's wolf-blooded rollerblader as she zipped by overhead, her spurs just barely clearing my ears. At least she did something useful, grinding one of the rogue droids attempting to get at me from the side beneath her motorized wheels, before racing off, spinning and whooping as she passed by me again. "_Sorry!_"

"Watch where you're going, damn it!" I spat out a lock of hair, glaring at the retreating Faunus' back, before using _Cerberus_ to cleave one of the walking toasters up the middle in a neat, bisecting upswing, making sure to stomp the still-twitching sections to splintered sparking bits before moving on. My ears twitching as the sounds of battle rang out from all around, my nose breathing in the heady tang of acrid smoke, lubricating oils, and powdered Dust. "Son of a... How many of these fuckers did Atlas cart along with them!?"

Coco Adel maneuvered out of the way of a massive Paladin's swinging fist, chain gun screaming as she chewed into its armor plating, before sending a coy smirk my way as Yatsuhashi gave her some breathing room. "Wow, it's almost like they brought a whole army with them! _Shocking!_" Another swipe almost took her head from her shoulders, the blow passing close enough to whip her glasses from her face, only to be snatched back, and swiftly replaced by her deft hand. "Whew... Don't see why _you're _complaining! Thought you liked a good fight!?"

Seething, I turned my attention towards the other Paladin, which was currently making life difficult for Wukong and Vasilias. The agile fighters were keeping one step ahead of the heavy weapons platform, but were unable to really do much lasting damage, merely sprinting forward in long loping strides.

"_Hell_ yeah, I do!" I screamed, flaring my Semblance, and focusing it beneath my feet, uprooting a large section of ground, and driving it upwards in a move that propelled me high into the air. With a graceless twist, I brought the edge of my axe crashing into its arm joint, driving it deep into a gap in the armored sections, before finding purchase on the bucking drone, splitting the axe apart, and unloading into side of its "head" on full-auto with one of my guns. I reduced the cameras mounted there to cratered shards of glass, before chopping through the host of wires and connections linking a massive chain gun to its shoulder, like how a woodcutter might fell a tree. "But this is getting old, fast!"

I had a notion that the beret-clad Huntress agreed with me. Unfortunately, I lost track of her, as the lumbering machine bucked me off, my breath ceasing as I misjudged the distance to the ground beneath me, my trajectory meaning I would land badly. _Very _badly.

_'__Why the hell did I jump, _**_why the hell did I _****_jump!?_**_' _I flailed very much as the ground inched up to meet me. This was just embarrassing...

Thankfully, I was saved a broken neck, for the most part, by a sharp tug on the back of my sweater's hood, Murasaki having managed to follow after, and tug me around in midair, so I only landed unceremoniously on my ass, rather than... Well, anyway, enough on that. I wasn't going to give the smirking little bitch the satisfaction, practically screaming "reckless." Neither was the Paladin, for that matter, as the chain gun adorning its arm drove us apart. Curses streamed from me as fast as my mouth could form them.

_'__Give me a break, here!' _I skidded along the ground, pushing an open hand outward against the stone clattering against my Aura, diverting most of it back on our attacker with an angry snarl. Didn't do much against the metal, but the short-lived storm and the force behind it was enough to throw its targeting arrays, or however the fuck it saw us, off, and give us the time we needed to rejoin the fray.

It had been chaos from the moment the airbus had set down, immediately drawing unexpected fire from both White Fang elements already on the grounds, and, for some reason, the Atlesians own security system. That had been fun, knocking back the first wave of Faunus screaming obscenities at us, only for a bunch of robots and turret emplacements to activate, and almost catch us off guard. Probably would have, too, if not for Schnee and Belladonna, who had been present on campus when this all started.

_'__If the Atlesian's machines are going rogue, then... What if Ben...!?'_

I hastily kneecapped that thought, and shoved it in the dark recesses of my mind for later. Thankfully, I was able to vent most of my frustration with a decapitating stroke that took the heads off a pair of androids, spinning on my heels to hamstring a burly Faunus looking to catch me off guard, as if I hadn't smelt him coming from a mile away. His surprised scream of agonized pain echoed in my ears, sending a wave of warmth thrilling through me that carried me onto his fellows, as I felt the old urges start to take hold.

Belladonna might bitch over specifics, but I wasn't _killing _them, after all.I was merely making it difficult for them to hurt anyone else. At least, that was what I told myself, as flecks of blood splattered against my face. A wary Nika Lister backing away from me nearby, after probably thinking to thank me for saving her ass. Must've been the hair; could get a bit wild in a fight...

Oh yes, there was certainly _more_ than enough to keep me occupied here without worrying over my idiot of a... boyfriend?

_'__Dammit... This is gonna take some getting used to.' _I gritted my teeth, parrying a wild sword strike from one of the other grunts off the edge of one of my gun's bayonets, while I used the other to kneecap the poor little piggie with a quick burst that sent him to the stone path, screaming before I "mercifully" put him out with boot to the face that drove his pudge nose flatter than it already was. _'I swear, if you die, Benjamin Carson, I am dragging you back from whatever hell you end up in, before **gutting you myself!**'_

It was stupid. Sonny might've called it 'childish,' though it did go a long way towards making me feel better. That, and the heady scent of battle pulsing through my brain, exciting every nerve ending with a heated caress.

But... now that I thought of Sonia... Why could I still smell her so close by? The rich fragrance of her perfume tingled at the edges of my consciousness, as a sparking drone fell to my axe, while I shattered two more beneath the unseen crushing weight of my Semblance.

_'__She wants to help... Shit, **of course** she does; how could she **not!?**'_

My cousin was a romantic figure when it came to what a Huntress _should_ be. She was not the type to sit in, and let silly things like Aura and physical fatigue, or the fact that she was completely unarmed, keep her away from the action. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she thought that she should have been out fighting the Grimm as a matter of principle, there being more than enough to satisfy her appetites for action on that count. If she were at her best, I would've been okay with it. But as she was now...

_'__She's gonna get herself **killed!**' _Sonny might think herself ready to leap back into the life, but all it would take was one lucky Grimm to remove that notion, along with her head. _'That **ain't** gonna happen!'_

Suddenly, I was back in Mistral, standing amidst the chaos. My head was pounding, my mouth and nose choking with mortar and dust, as I shifted stone after stone, all the while screaming in worried fright, until I found her at last, unmoving, unresponsive..._ALL MY FAULT!_

I let out a shrieking howl of purest anger and fear at the thought of her lying in the rubble again, bleeding and helpless. The impact of my Semblance sent everything, robotic, Faunus, and Huntsman flying indiscriminately. The Huntsmen were caught off guard, but at least with their Aura they fared better than the majority of their foes. Many of the droids closest to me being shattered apart like glass, while most of the White Fang caught in the blast stirred weakly, if at all, the sight of which only exaggerating the horrific memory further.

_'__No, not again! **NOT AGAIN!**' _I stared wide eyed at their prone bodies for a few crashing heartbeats, my head shaking back and forth, as if to deny what I was seeing. _'**Please,** not again!'_

Ignoring Coco and the other's shouting my name in confusion, I sprinted towards the treeline, towards the burning school where I detected the slightest hint of the young Bordeaux. I barreled through the stunned Yatsuhashi's bulk, and outright shoved Wukong aside into his blue haired partner with my Semblance when he tried to make a grab for my arm.

"Maxine! Ack, what... What do you think you're doing!?" He cried after me as he pried himself loose of Vasilias' flailing arms, his eyes burning holes in the back of my skull, along with Murasaki's, before I was lost amidst the dark winding branches, slapping and scratching at my face with every step, despite my best attempts to bat them away with _Cerberus_. I sidestepped or blasted aside scattered trunks in my haste, her scent being the only thing guiding me forward.

I couldn't care what they thought. I simply knew I had to make sure she was safe. For her, for Aunt Carmen... and for myself...

A sudden, great upheaval shook the forest. It was not of my own making; I was sure of that. Trees rustled and creaked all around me in a deafening cavalcade, as the ground seemed to give way beneath me in a jolt that sent me stumbling forward. I was lucky I had, otherwise I might not have caught the shimmering gossamer twine, glinting razor sharp in the moonlight, and hanging vaguely at neck height, until it was far too late. The scent of blood cloyed as it was by smoke, sweat, and Grimm. Even so, it still took every ounce of my combat training, and my own natural Faunus reflexes aside, to angle my face out of its path, so in the end I only lost a few stray locks of hair, rather than my scalp, as it had been intended.

Gasping and heaving in a great breath of air, it all became clear as the full scent hit my senses, and I registered what I had just almost literally fallen into. Torn, scattered detritus and upset earth met my gaze, as if something large, or more accurately _pieces _of something large, had smashed the ground beneath, before dissolving. With a start, I even noticed a few splatters of crimson vitae dripping from the bushes in front of me. Noted what looked to be all that was left of at least a full squad of Atlesians, before a step out of place sent something wrapping about my pant leg painfully, sending me to the leaf strewn floor. Dirt filled my mouth before I was dragged unceremoniously upwards into the air, flailing all the while.

_'__Shit!'_

My weapons had slipped from my grasp in the shock and confusion of the moment, leaving me with little better option then to flail my arms, and do my best to ward off the sharp brambles, or keep from getting my head dashed against the side of a tree trunk. It was sick karma for earlier, I supposed. Despite my best efforts, I still wound up with more than my fair share of bruises and small cuts that my Aura rapidly tried to fix, as the line keeping me suspended finally settled amidst the top branches, leaving me swaying ominously, the overlarge blood and sweat-soaked sweatshirt threatening to smother me as it rode down into my face. My heart thundered in my chest as I tried, and failed miserably, to avoid looking down.

_'__Calm down, Max, just calm down... You can't let this stop you; you need to get...!' _I closed my eyes tight, mouth working frantically, before I felt something warm but distinctly foreign run across my bare stomach, sending a shudder down my front that made me gasp, and only made the swaying worse. My nostrils were filled with a sickly sweet scent. One I recognized immediately, with a thrill of terror.

My eyes shot open, meeting face to face with the pale visage of a young woman in stained, dark-colored chain and leathers, streaked liberally with red, both artificial and natural, who was hanging upside down like me, knees wrapped around a thick branch, alongside a slim, bladed rifle that hung next to her swaying within arm's reach.

The upper half of her face was obscured behind a white domino mask, same as every other White Fang grunt I'd ever faced, though this one also bore flowing red designs, the shape meant to evoke a multi eyed monster; a spider...

"Hiya, Miss Argus...or can I call you Maxi?" she said the name with an almost airy sigh, exposing her fang-like incisors as she leaned forward to graze her fingers across my exposed, olive skinned torso, tracing a long line along my pectorals, before my struggling forced her back, a wide smirk splitting her features at my rampant indignant blush. "Nice of you to drop by! He's going to be _so happy_ to see you. Your little friend, too! So... something. What was it, aga...!?"

I like to think I got payback, screaming as I lunged out with my clenched fist. I mean...it wasn't often you get to break the same nose twice in barely twenty-four hours.

* * *

**_-Rosso Garret-_**

_"...__Gold Team is currently in position overlooking Horde-A. Maintaining distance, over!..."_

_"Red-Three acknowledging. Horde-B seems to be... By Dust, they look to be veering towards Point Delta, **exactly** as the Specialist said they would! I can't believe...?..."_

"Just as you predicted, Carson. It seems they took the bait, after all," Spectre acknowledged over the roar of the engines, his voice amplified by his helmet's speakers as he stood braced against the side of the gaping hatch. He was currently overlooking the stuff of nightmares that was the Grimm horde roiling below, making their slow yet steady advance on Vale. I could only catch glimpses through my own helmet's night vision and thermal sensors, but what I saw was enough to make me sincerely glad I wasn't one of the Color-coded teams moving about on the ground. "Using the walking wounded to draw off the Grimm. An... _inspired_ stratagem, if nothing else."

"Beasties never could resist an easy meal, if they can help it. You learn that pretty quick, where I come from!" Specialist Tactician Benjamin Carson shot back without bothering to look away from his rifle. "Never anyone's favorite idea, 'specially when you're the one gettin' carted around. Damned effective, though."

"Indeed."

I couldn't help but shiver at the ease with which the sniper, a boy younger than even myself, from the looks of it, spoke about using live men as bait for the Creatures of Grimm, even if they were as relatively safe as could be had, with what remaining Bullheads that were not actively hunting down the larger, airborne Grimm moving about as ferries. A simple concept in principle: the monsters were drawn to fear like a Vacuon to water. A natural predatory instinct that drew always drew them to the points of weakest resistance; to the easiest prey.

As the younger man had put it to the ground team leaders, "Who feels more fear in a fight than the ones that bleed in it?"

He might've done well to phrase it more tactfully to the veteran soldiers, though of course, seeing as the next best plan was a singular "hold the line" final defense in hopes the far off Huntsmen dispatched earlier in the week might make it back to aid us, they weren't exactly in the best place to argue morality. To his credit, he'd only asked for willing volunteers, and even then only the ones who weren't in danger of expiring then and there.

Not a plan the General would've approved of, I think, but as the tactician had so aptly put it, it certainly was "damned effective." Already, hundreds of Grimm of various sizes and classifications had split off from the main advance into a completely separate group, now heading for where over two dozen brave souls sat waiting. Meanwhile, those that could were hard at work prepping a suitable surprise for them.

_"__This is Whiskey! Moving forward to extract the lures, over!" _Really, I had to wonder what possessed the pilots to give their ships such strange names. Redgrave's official designation was "Air Beacon," but Carson and the others all seemed to refer to the flying antique as _Lucy._

"As fast as you can _Whiskey!_ Get 'em out of there! _Juliet,_ move to assist. Over!" The young man said in response to the rapid flurry of activity over the Scroll June held to his ear, voice raised just enough to be heard over the rushing wind, and eerily calm, his eyes hidden behind his goggles. Without even bothering to listen for an acknowledgment, he trained his rifle for a few moments, before the sharp crack signaled the death of another Grimm far below. Another Alpha, I supposed. "Horde-B is disrupted! Red-Three, blow the charges on my mark, and not a second before!... Rock Star, Grimm at two o'clock!"

"Nevermore!" Specialist Spectre echoed the young man, moving quickly towards his seat, clutching at it tightly.

"Way ahead of ya! Hold on to your asses, people!" the pilot shouted back hoarsely from the cockpit, as he jerked right, fingers darting over the controls feverishly, before yanking sharply on the control-yoke of his craft. "Hold it together, Lucy! C'mon, baby,**_C'MON!_**"

Turning more on curious reflex than anything else, my heart stopped as I saw a flicker of red and white against the night sky streaking towards us, a bone rattling screech chilling my blood, before suddenly it was gone, as the entire airship lurched into a screaming dive, rolling end over end.

Gravity had suddenly become both nonexistent and utterly overwhelming all at once, as its forces battled to reassert control. My stomach reeled dangerously as the knotted straps keeping me in place dug deep into the gaps of my armor, cutting off circulation, and squeezing the air from my lungs. Emergency alerts chimed over the uproar incessantly, at the very least drowning out the sound of warping metal. I ducked my head trying to fight off the vertigo, the move saving my life, as the remnants of the droids slain early clattered across the cabin, one thudding off my helmet, and forcing stars before my eyes, before it raced out into the night to the forest below, it growing closer and closer with every moment.

It was madness. The biting rush of wind, punctuated only by the roar of the engine, Redgrave's furious swearing, and June's screaming. I would've told him to quit it, lest he bite his tongue. However, my own mouth stayed firmly shut, carefully keeping what bile that burned sour in my mouth in check, so as not to splatter my new commanding officer. Not that I was entirely certain he would've noticed at that moment, even if I had, since his attention was fixed on keeping his rifle held tightly across his chest, as he gazed out at the shifting expanse around us, adjusting and twisting his body in his jury-rigged sniper's nest of leather seat restraints, as he searched the skies.

"_Fuuuuuuuuuuck!_" Redgrave groaned, arresting the dive, and leveling us out just a few hundred feet above the tree line, easing off the throttle as we were greeted with the sight of the enormous avian Grimm's far off stomach, the beast screeching its displeasure to the skies, as it twisted in midair for another attempt. "Hah, hah... All...all lined up for ya, kid! Clip the bastard!"

Rather than slumping forward in relief as us mortal troopers did, even his fellow looking a little green around the gills, Carson merely brought his weapon to bear in an instant, and braced his leg against the side of the hatch to steady himself, tweaking his aim by hairline degrees, before depressing the trigger, eyes glowing a verdant green as the round streaked across the night sky, perforating the monster's neck cleanly, in a sudden geyser of dark fluid and a surprised squawk.

_'__Incredible...' _I gaped, momentarily struck dumb by the sight of the terrible beast tumbling from the sky, before the clatter of a firing bolt being drawn back brought me back to reality. I shook my head out, Carson holding out a spent magazine expectantly in his flesh and blood arm. _'What the...?'_

"I think... Ahem, I think we should try and avoid that happenin' again. Least for a bit. Fuckin' hell..." he said with a wry chuckle, his voice notably straining for the first time since he'd established himself acting commander of Valean operations, his counterpart even sharing the shadow of a grin at the words. Somehow, that brief bit of levity, both at the commander and at Specialist Spectre, it made them seem even more remarkable. I mean... they were merely men. "Give me a reload, would ya?"

"R-reload, sir?"

"Yeah, reload... Whatcha waitin' for, Echo? Hurry up, now; we got Grimm to kill."

_'__Echo?'_

"R-right away, sir."

With a panicked start, I glanced down at my lap, relieved to see that I'd managed to keep a firm, if white-knuckled, grip on the replacement I'd been loading for him, quickly switching the two, and gaping as the Huntsman slid it home in his weapon with practiced efficiency.

"Thank you, private."

"T-thank you, sir"

A wry smile graced his boyish features for a moment, before he resumed the stance he'd held for the past hour since the onset of our counterattack, scanning the horizon, before leaning towards the Scroll June was struggling to get back into place, as he was still caught somewhere between retching and sobbing in relief.

"Almost. Nearly there... Red-Three, roll out the welcome mat for 'em!"

A quick affirmative echoed over the speaker while we were all still in awe over swift resurgence of calm firmness in his voice. At least until our attention was drawn by a dull "thump," as the walls of a ravine I knew lead along the path the outcropping, designated "Point Delta" by the Specialist during his short briefing, exploded. The Dust charges that had lined the top of it detonated, sending ton upon metric ton of stone crashing down on the majority of the Grimm horde caught beneath, burying Beowolf and Death Stalker alike in moments, leaving only scattered survivors to be picked off by Red Team's sharpshooters.

Carson certainly seemed happy, a smirk spreading across his face as Redgrave whooped out loud. "Hell ya! Beautiful job, you lot! Whiskey, move the Lures to Point Gamma! Let's see if we can't draw a few more stragglers off the main group. Gold Team, update status..."

Already, he was sighting down the length of his weapon yet again. Another successful ambush; the latest of several similar traps in the last hour, as our people adjusted to his unorthodox tactics. Thankfully, it wasn't as hard a transition as Carson had evidently thought it would be. He'd been under the impression we would be slow to accept the commands of an outsider from some "backwater dump," as he put it. Maybe he was right, in some way, about that; some likely had felt uneasy.

Still, we were trained and used to accepting commands without context and without hesitation, especially once we saw that they actually worked. We trusted in the General above all, and if he had given authority to the young Huntsman, then it couldn't be anything other than deserved.

"Again they stray from the pack at the first sign of prey. Simple beasts," Spectre intoned, rejoining his fellow at the door, only staggering slightly from our recent thrill ride experience. "I can hope Blue Team is prepared on their end."

"I've got 'em hittin' the bastards from the rear. Better to give 'em somethin' to chase, at this point. Get their blood pumped up."

"You'd think they'd have learned by now," I said before I could help myself, blanching as Spectre turned to regard me, Carson joining him a second later after picking off another Grimm in another impressive display of marksmanship. "I-I mean we've killed hundreds already, but they keep falling for it. Why? I thought Grimm were supposed to be smart?"

"They are, after a fashion. Just like any animal," Benjamin explained, relaxing his arms as he ran his distinct metallic hand through his unkempt blonde hair "Thing is, in these numbers, they're basically a swarm, operatin' off base instinct. Follow the fear, kill what they find, and then move on. It's the Alphas that act as the brains, guidin' them along. Pick them off..." He patted the weapon in his arms lovingly, before adjusting something along the barrel.

"And the rest are left to themselves..." I finished, leading me to stare at them both in astonishment. "So even the bigger ones... the Taijitsu and the Death Stalkers... Once they let themselves get swept up, it's too late! That's...!"

"Desperate, and a delaying tactic, at best," Spectre cut me off, looking back down at the horde, more specifically those small flashes of light that signaled the troopers fighting down below. "We can't hold them back forever; not with the numbers we currently possess. The panic in Vale is simply too enticing."

Bit dour, but logical all the same. And it wasn't like he didn't have a point.

"No one said we had to, 'member?" the blonde quipped back, nudging the assassin in the leg jovially, while June and I merely stared on in shocked amazement. "We're doin' our job, _and_ holdin' out better than I'd hoped, to be honest with ya." He frowned with worry as he noticed Spectre reaching for the bladed weapons at his waist. "If you got any complaints..."

"Not at all. Despite my rank within the Special Operatives Unit, I am still, at my core, more a soldier than a strategist. My place is on the line... If you'll accept that, Commander?" Everyone, aside from the Huntsman himself, did a quick double-take, unsure if we'd heard him right. He was asking to...?

"Uh... S-sure thing, Chuckles. Long as you don't blame me if you run afoul of some Grimm."

Spectre merely nodded, and clipped of a crisp salute that the former bandit returned awkwardly, still looking as if he were waiting for the punchline. "It's been an educational experience, Specialist Carson," he said, moving back into the hold of the aircraft, rolling his shoulders. "I'm glad that mine and the General's faith in your skills was not misplaced."

Carson let out a hoarse laugh, picking at his cheek nervously, shaking his head as he went. "Heh, no problem!... Wait, you... you actually _had faith in_ _me?_"

"Of course. Was that not obvious?" We all stared at him. Even Redgrave, who was craning his neck to look at the soldier, askance.

"No... Not at _all._"

The two Specialists just sort of stared at one another awkwardly for a moment, before Spectre's voice issued out again with a somewhat shakier monotone. "Oh... Well then. My apologies." And then he was gone, startling all of us by leaping clear of the craft in a few short bounds, moonlight glinting off his armor as he fell towards the horde, weapons extending outwards as he vanished from sight amidst the shadowed branches.

"He... used his Aura, right?" The remaining Specialist gazed between June and I, face pale, and looking as if he were trying really hard to ignore our looks of startled confusion.

"Aura?... I don't think so, sir. If the stories are true, he doesn't use it. He isn't trained like a Huntsman."

"Oh... Okay. No problem, I guess... _W__hatthefuckin'helliswrongwithyoupeople!?_" He coughed hard, hitting his chest with a solid thump as he mumbled that out, before regaining his former confidence and then some, even picking off another Grimm as he went. "Alright, boys, let's see if we can't bag Blue some Grimm!"

* * *

And that we did. The next ambush falling into place flawlessly, with only one injury, as the trigger man for the detonation had sustained burns from a Taijitsu's poison spray before the trap was sprung. Thankfully, the team's medic had administered the anti-venom, and even now that lucky trooper rode with _Whiskey_ and the rest of the lures. As did the next, as Carson herded the offshoots into the natural kill-boxes of ridge lines and crevasses, making astonishing use of the battlefield's every advantage. Our people ripped into the monsters with the firepower their vehicles and heavy weapons provided. And all the while, he calmly directed the flow, like a man playing a giant game of chess, with us as the pieces, making the most of our superior mobility and logistics against the Grimm's raw numbers.

It was all going so well... Of course, it all had to end sometime... And it started with a spattering of static from the comms.

_"__Commander Carson, we're picking up strange seismic activity down here..." _Blue-One voiced over the line as we completed another pass of the battlefield. Redgrave tore two Griffons too slow to veer out of our way apart in a hailstorm of Dust-tipped death, as One's tone was distorted by static interference. _"...im... ible to... sure, but it seems to be centered... the... of the former Mountain Glenn settlement... Grimm acting..."_

"Repeat that again, Blue-One!? Your signal's breakin' up!" Carson replied, gazing up from his rifle with a concerned frown, as June tried his best to work with the Scroll and the dead line, before leaning back to speak with the pilot. "Somethin' about Mountain Glenn... Rock Star, how far out are we from Blue Team's current location!?"

"Few kilometers to the west of them, I think!" he called back, picking up on the sniper's nerves with a sense of mounting apprehension all his own. "They're a short ways out from the settlement's old borders! Last check-in had them fighting Grimm retreating from the city! Well away from the horde, the numbers were nothing they shouldn't have been able to handle! From the sounds of it, they even found some Huntsmen camped out in the city; helped them turned the tables!"

The pilot's radio crackled this time, the other teams wondering what was the matter. Even the pilots seemed to be getting antsy, if Redgrave himself was any judge, the man fidgeting in his seat as one of his counterparts took the initiative. _'Juliet to Lucy! I'm in the area, and moving for Blue's last known position! I'll see if I can't liven things up."_ The standard Atlesian Dropship variant streaked by us close enough, that I could feel the heat of its engine's exhaust tinging the air, swiftly flanked by a pair of single-man fighter variants, members of the General's last mandated patrol that had luckily been deployed before the flagship was taken, and had turned up, much to the Specialist's visible relief.

He'd had enough of our men getting picked up by the stray Griffon or Nevermore.

"Angle us around, if you can! I want to take a look myself." Easy enough order, the pilot angled the ship's thrusters, and stopped us in midair, though I still noticed he was scanning the skies for any more fliers, though most had already moved on, either having been gunned down, or were otherwise engaged by this point. Carson rolled his shoulders, settling his rifle across his lap as his hand went to the sides of his goggles, likely to adjust their magnification, as he looked out at the distant peaks that had given the failed settlement its name.

_"__I see... running Commander... more Grimm than... expected. Huntsmen... -re doing what they can, but... engaging!"_ The far-off strobing lights of the ships plummeted, spraying weapons fire, and zipping about in an attempt to support our people. While the sight was encouraging, I couldn't help but notice the trees shaking underneath us from the corners of my vision.

_"__Spectre to Commander... -son! The quakes are growi-... more frequent! The Grimm...!"_

His report was unnecessary; we heard _exactly_ what was happening with the Grimm. All over the region, howls and roars began to rise up from thousands of bloodthirsty throats, the baying shrieks of avian Grimm echoing throughout the night in triumph, as a distant rumbling shook the region, felling trees and upsetting ridgelines, while the very ground itself began to tear itself apart in response to the seismic phenomena.

I couldn't see what the Specialist Commander could, but whatever it was had the blood leaving his face before my eyes, his hand shaking as he tore the Scroll away from startled June with a desperate fervor, gaze fixed on the distant peaks. "Juliet, disengage! I repeat: _DISENGAGE!_ **_GET OUTTA THERE!_**"

_"__Sir? But our men! We're winn...!?"_ His voice cut off with a shrill scream of surprise, followed by the dull finality of static, that was drowned out further by a deafening blast, as the largest of the peaks exploded, bursting apart in a blanketing torrent of dirt and rubble, ranging from tiny pebbles, to chunks the size of buildings. The scale of destruction was both breathtaking and horrifying, the pieces carving themselves into the surrounding landscape in great plumes of tossed earth, that obscured the moon and stars for brief instants, and buried Grimm and human alike indiscriminately as it fell. Shrieking howls, and cries of alarm that were emitted over a sputtering radio was all that marked their sudden, violent passing.

I didn't need June's frantic cries and the sickening whine of the scroll to know we'd just lost most if not all of Blue team in less than a few seconds.

_"__Juliet is **down!** I repe-... Juli-... is **down!** Oh, **fu-... me!**" _the voice of one of the frantic pilots shouted over the crackling line desperately, his craft visible only by the pair of strobing lights affixed to its wings, blinking in and out of focus as it spun and fought its way through the cloying clouds of dust that threatened to clog its engines. _"Attempting to... free of debris... can do it!"_

"C'mon, man, c'mon..." Pilot Redgrave murmured, gripping the yoke of the craft in both shaking hands. "...Even her out. Easy... Just a bit more..."

I blocked him out, though I sincerely wished I hadn't. If I had, I might not have noticed that something was shifting in the epicenter of the chaos, like a newborn hatchling. Something titanic in its size, and reptilian in nature, unfurled a pair of wings the color of congealed blood, that blotted out the stars in their scope, and reveled scales the color of night, punctuated by white armored plate as thick as an airship's hull.

The unfortunate pilot only had time to cry out in terror, as his craft was plucked out of the air, and crushed between its massive jaws, before being tossed like scrap to the ground, almost as an afterthought. It's explosion as it impacted, it's Dust-powered engines igniting, only served to frame the terrible beast in even greater detail, as we watched on helplessly.

I felt the air drive itself from my lungs as it took flight, letting out a howl that shook me to my core, and made me want to cower and weep for my mother. None of my training prepared me for the experience of gazing into those eyes - those fiery crimson eyes - as it passed by us without even bothering to acknowledge our presence, the feeling of being reduced to nothing but feeble prey in the face of its ancient, brutal intelligence. I simply watched it pass, vaguely aware of Redgrave swearing frantically under his breath, as the cries and screams of injured and frightened men wailed over the radio, all the while June simply cried silently in his seat in his terror, the sour tang of fear hanging on the air. I felt tears of my own drip down my face, as a distant trumpeting call signaled the arrival of another Grimm, a Goliath, ancient and horrific as it trundled along crushing the great pines beneath its lumbering feet like twigs, or toppling them with a swing of its tusks, or great swaying trunk.

Titans in the air and on land.

Something seemed to drip from the dragon's body, like some amorphous ooze, empty and black. It showered the forests and canyons below. A third of our men in the area were likely either dead or wounded, the others terrified, and our air support hampered. Yet, even as I watched these pools of darkness, nothingness, began to coalesce, it wasn't until Grimm, shrieking and howling in the throes of their birth, began to spawn from them, that my face truly fell. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, our efforts over the course of the night had just been reduced to naught by the Grimm Dragon as it flew through the sky, and crushed what little hope I had left under the sheer weight of numbers.

This was a creature, I felt, that existed solely to exterminate... To _consume..._ To extinguish the spark of mankind forever, and was more than capable of doing just that. Atlas couldn't stand against it, the Huntsmen couldn't stand against it. We were _doomed._Doomed, as this monster and its cohorts swept us aside, like so much...

A gunshot rang out, shocking my heart back into step, as one of the newly-birthed Grimm crumpled, minus most of its skull, to the ground.

Carson was heaving, his grip on the rifle shaking not just out of fear, I realized, but anger. "What the _FUCK'S_ the matter with you lot!?" He quickly sighted another Grimm, and brought it down, same as the first. "That flyin' hell-beast just bent us over, and you're all _pissin' yourselves!?_ What, it's all good when we're winnin', but the second we get our noses bloodied, you falter and pussy out!? What happened to the _grand_ Atlesian army; the greatest force in all of Remnant!?"

_"__Specialist Carson, reign in your...!?" _Spectre, the man seemingly having survived after all, tried to speak, but he was overridden. The Sniper unhooked himself with sharp jolting movements from his nest, and stalked towards the cockpit, moving with the motion of the ship, before stumbling over the pilot's shoulder, with a robotic finger opening the frequency.

"_NO!_ I wanna know what the hell happened, if some rat from the fringe regions has to be the committed voice!? You think you're all scared!? Hell, I'm fuckin' _terrified!..._ But, Huntsman or not, do you see me complainin'?"

"But _how!?_" June whimpered, pulling off his helmet to reveal shockingly boyish features. I'd known he was a bit younger, but the current situation had only served to highlight that fact. "W-we're scattered! We don't have our drones, _or_ our heavy ordinance! H-how can you expect us to fight a Goliath!?"

"Well, I suppose someone'll need figure out a way, 'cause you know what happens if we _don't!?_" Carson rounded on him, though I noticed he kept the line open, even as he pointed back towards the direction of Vale. The very same direction the Grimm Dragon had flown, and all of the other monsters marched. "Everyone in that Kingdom, man, woman, _and_ child, is gonna _die! We_ can at least fight back, but what about _them!?_"

June sat lower in his seat, mouth set, head drooping in shame.

"Look, it's not ideal, and it ain't easy, but we have a job to do! Doin' this won't make us rich, though I wish that weren't true, and chances are good we probably might not live to see if we get remembered for our decision today... You've all trusted me, so far, and I won't make that guarantee. Not to you... But I'm askin' you all, now, as men and women with _souls,_ to keep on _fightin'..._ If not for yourself, the General, or the man standin' beside you, then do it 'cause we're all those people have left! And..." He took a deep breath, looking oddly as if he could barely believe the words coming out of his mouth. "...And I _won't _abandon them... Even if that means I have to put a bullet between the eyes of _every_ beastie from here to Forever Fall to do it."

Hums of approval began to play over the company-wide frequency, as every surviving soldier listened to his words. I even heard a few shouts of approval hastily beaten down by the Team leaders, if rather half-heartedly.

"These monsters think they've got us on the run!?... That we're finished, and lookin' to hide!?... Well, I say we show 'em _exactly_ the sort of vengeful, Grimm-killin' _dirtbags_ they're dealin' with! **_WHO'S WITH ME!?_**"

The roar over the comms was swiftly joined by every other soul on this airship. Benjamin looked taken aback, as if he'd been surprised that had actually done the trick, before a grin of utter disbelief spread across his face, as he began issuing rapid orders to the teams, assessing damage, merging squads, and handling the wounded. We'd been hurt, yes, and badly too... but the Atlesian military prided itself on regimented efficiency and speed, above all. Not just in its machines, but in its soldiers.

As long as even _one man_ remained, the gears would keep turning, and the machine would _fight on. _

We had to.

* * *

"Kid, I'm picking up something on the scanners!" Redgrave called back from his seat as he raced along the tree line, careful to keep out of reach of any opportunistic Grimm large enough to chance a blow at us. "Extreme range, but closing in fast!"

"If it's another Nevermore, set a fighter wing on it! I have to stay and monitor things here!" the sniper shouted back, making shot after impossible shot so quickly, I could barely keep him supplied with ammunition. "Unless it's another one of those damned Dragons! Honestly wouldn't be too fuckin' surprised, at this point!" What he found about the gallows humor, I had no idea. Neither did the pilot, who merely shook his head, gazing at the sensors, head cocked in confusion.

"Uh, I don't actually think it's a Grimm... It's... It's _hailing_ us!"

"Wait, _what!?_" June merely sighed and held out the Scroll for the young man to snatch away again, the blonde patching into the radio network with a swipe as he opened the holographic screen, "Unidentified aircraft, this is Benjamin Carson of the Special Operatives Unit, currently commandin' Vale's defense! If you're White Fang, kindly_ fuck off!_ If not, know your sorta flyin' into a bit of a shitstorm, and may wish to consider an alternate route! In case you haven't heard by now, there's a bit of a situation 'round these parts!"

The line was silent for several moments, before an amused voice crackled over the line.

_"Sorry, Ben. Not sure how well that 'alternate route' idea's gonna fly."_ The Huntsman lost his grip on the Scroll, and almost dropped it clear from the airship's cabin, before snatching it deftly with a mechanical hand, and then staring at the thing as if he couldn't believe his ears. _"Our ship's sort of falling apart at the seams, here."_

"_Psycho!?..._ Boss, the hell're you... Wait, _what!?_" Carson spluttered, seemingly truly at a loss for words for the first time since I'd met him. "Where the hell have you... Who's '_Our!?_'"

_"__Look, I'll... -plain later! Don't... see Tra-... -gage the Grimm!"_

"Joel!? _Joel!_ Dammit, you're breakin' up!"

_"__Just trust... and steer clear... Goliath. See you soon. I hope."_

And with that, the connection died away, leaving us in an awkward silence, as the commander stared down at the flashing "NO SIGNAL" alert, before utterly destroying the tense atmosphere, as he fell onto his back, and started laughing so hard, tears formed, and he had to remove his goggles as not to fog his vision, his hand swiftly moving to try and stem the tide.

"Specialist Carson, are you... Are you alright?"

"Ambrose... That brilliant, goddamned asshole... He _would_ just show up out of nowhere, like this," the Huntsman wheezed out between ragged breaths and renewed chuckles. "I'm gonna deck the bastard when I see him. I swear to..."

_'__Ambrose... Wait, he can't mean...?'_

I quelled the question and allowed him his ranting, silently urging June to do the same, even with Team leaders calling over the line, wondering what was going on. He just seemed so genuinely happy at that moment, it would've seemed cruel to shove him back into the thick of it.

Still, I gazed out at the oncoming form of the Goliath with a nervous wince, before I felt my eyes shift in the direction the strange signal had originated from. My eyebrows rose from behind my visor, as I saw something. A ship was rapidly approaching in the distance, at speeds I could hardly believe. Then I realized it was heading...

_'__What are they...!?'_

* * *

**_-Joel Ambrose-_**

**(Minutes Earlier)**

"Ooh, glad to see your guy's talk went well," Liz remarked as I staggered into the cramped cockpit, stepping over the mass of cabling and wires under my feet, and rubbing tentatively at my freshly bruised jaw. "And here I thought he'd be more..." She paused, her mocking grin faltering as she glanced over her shoulder into the passenger section behind me, where Jasper sat in stoic silence, head in his hands, and Dai patting at his back awkwardly "...How is he?"

"He just lost his big sister; how else _would_ he be? Hell, how would _you_ be?" I shot back, instantly regretting the anger playing clear as day in my tone. "S-sorry... I didn't mean...!?" I was cut off as the entire airship shuddered violently, my hands bracing, and my knuckles pushing against the bulkhead, though it seemed Liz had been expecting it. Her expression was all calm confidence as she fiddled with the myriad knobs and switches adorning the console for a few moments, before the craft giving one last heave, and settled into some semblance of stable flight. "...Sorry."

"Don't. It's not your fault," she brushed off, easing back into the padded seat after a few tense seconds. "Glimmer... She made her choice. She probably saved both yours and Amys' lives in the process, and allowed to Jasper to get out of there. If anything, it's my fault for not making sure Vergil was good and buried. Still, you don't see me crying; it's not gonna help us, or change what happened. Nah, now I just want to kill that blind prick all the more." I looked down, unable to meet her gaze as I pried my hand away from the fresh indent I'd made in the hull. "Blaming myself or anyone else won't bring her back. You know that as well as I do."

"Right..."

I certainly did know what she meant, as did almost every other Trapper, I expected. Most people didn't exactly pick up the sort of determination to break their minds, alter their bodies, and harden their spirits without some sort of severe motivating factor to drive us forward. We, for the most part, all knew what it was like to lose someone. It was the reason that Liz was holding back, I imagine. She hadn't much cared for Glimmer Fullmark; that was painfully obvious enough to anyone. Still, that didn't mean she'd wished this sort of pain on anyone, or would kick them while they were down. Especially not the woman's own brother.

Murderers we might be, but we could understand that, at least. We'd all been there.

She stared at me a moment longer, before turning her focus back on the task at hand, though it still seemed she wasn't done with me just yet. "And you? How're you holding up? Any news?" I winced, a reaction she still somehow caught onto in that strange way she always had, reading me like a book. "That bad, huh?"

Vale. _Of course_ she wanted to talk about Vale.

We'd been in the air for a few hours at that point, with most of us taking shifts piloting - more like trying not to crash the temperamental aircraft - or trying to get some shut eye over the roar of the engines, or keeping an eye on Jasper. Dai, on the other hand, spent much of it fiddling with his little collection of Scrolls and tech, as he tried to jury-rig a viable means of contacting the rest of the world. The unstable weather patterns of the Frontier had rendered any connection less than that of a CCT tower choppy at best, at least until we were far enough out on open waters.

That had been interesting. That inner voice of mine, or whatever the hell it was, had been just shouting in my head, admonishing me for having not killed my uncle when I'd had the chance, and claimed that others would suffer for my indecisiveness. Imagination or not, I knew he'd been right. I just had to look back at Jasper to know that. Still, it didn't mean he didn't annoy the hell out of me.

_'And I can't use a Scroll to drown him out, either...'_ I grimaced, having remembered that it had gotten broken shortly after I'd been tossed out of that portal.

After a long while of that, as well as more than a few cursing mutters, several feet of cables hooked up to the inner circuitry of the short wave transponder in the cockpit, and a few stray gouts of sparks, that left the air smelling vaguely of cooked rubber and ionized metal, Dai had finally succeeded in boosting the signal to the point that we could pick up a transmission, if not send one ourselves. Namely, transmissions in regards to the Vytal Festival Tournament, which I had almost completely overlooked in the chaos of the day's events.

I'd watched Penny go up against Pyrrha, and gaped at the horrific tragedy that had followed, if not outright crying out her name when it had happened. It had definitely been enough to wake Fullmark, as well as making the others back away, as electricity danced along my Aura. The foreboding message afterwards had just been fuel for the fire, as my thoughts had then drifted back to that strange beauty with raven dark hair, and eyes that burned like fire.

The place where my friends, my team, my girlfriend, my brother were... My _home..._ All of them were in danger, and here I was with little else to do but seethe at my own helplessness.

_'If Raven hadn't stopped me... If she hadn't dragged me away... Could I have stopped all of this?'_ I'd asked myself, as the image on every channel, every frequency, displayed the same line of photos, surveillance footage, even what looked to be a livestream of Vale in flames, ravaged by Grimm, and what appeared to be Atlas' own defense drones on the rampage, played itself out before me.

Could I have prevented this before it all happened? In the condition I'd been in after Yang's match? Probably not.

It was a stupid, pointless question... But it still...

"Grimm are tearing apart the only place left that I can call a home, and I've already lost enough people today then I'd care to." Grandfather, Penny... Their deaths had been twisted into something terrible. Something that would hurt countless others. "My friends, and what's left of my family, are stuck there too, probably fighting for their lives, and I'm...!" I let out a short growl, sparks pulsing at my fingertips, only to settle as I felt a calming pressure on my arm that was gone the moment I looked down.

"...I'm sure they're all just fine," the infiltrator spoke up, fixing me with the wry half-smirk of hers that I knew so well over her shoulder. "From what we could tell, the Atlesians are actually earning their keep and kicking some ass despite the numbers difference, and their droids screwing up. As for your team, well... I mean, let's be realistic. They've already survived a blind sociopath and your vengeful bitch of an ex's best attempts to kill them. What's a few hundred Grimm compared to that?"

It was dark humor, true, but somehow, the familiarity of her expression went a long way towards easing my nerves, and actually put a small smile on my face that she returned.

"Vengeful, huh? You dropped me off a damned cliff, remember?" I shot back with a chuckle, satisfied to see the flicker of embarrassment cross her face, before it was swiftly crushed under the mask of calm confidence and snark she usually wore. "I mean, Bastion'll occasionally hold duels of honor for slights, but I thought most people in the kingdoms just settled for leaving nasty messages on scrolls, spray painting cars; that sort of thing."

"Most people don't have access to high explosives and assault ships, big guy," Liz muttered, turning back to the controls as the ship began to shake again, riding us back into stability. "Still think you sort of deserved it... Just a little bit," she tacked on when she felt my eyes on the back of her skull. "...But _maybe_ I will take that dueling idea under advisement, next time. Sounds more fun."

"Oh really?" I said with a raised eyebrow of obvious incredulity and disbelief. We glared at each other for a few tense moments, blue eyes fixed on green and vice versa, waiting for our opposite to break... before we both burst out laughing. Liz needed a moment to steady herself and the craft, before slumping back in her seat, while I put my forehead into the armrest, trying to calm myself down, using the distraction as an anchor for at least these few moments. "Hehe... Y-you're probably right, though. I _might've_ deserved it... Just a little bit." I took a deep breath, and punched her shoulder pad gently. "I'd reconsider the duel, though. Would hate to have to embarrass you like that."

The young woman shook her head, setting her eyes back on control panel, rolling her eyes. "Heh, I think we'll just have to see about... _OH SHIT!_" The whole ship creaked ominously, as something large, squawking, and bristling with claws smashed into us headlong, practically bursting apart in a gory mess, and cracking the cockpit canopy, sending a whistling whine of cold air leaking into the cabin just over the howling sensors, the temperature dropping a few degrees in an instant. What was worse was the messy smear splattered across our window, which obscured our vision for a few heart-pounding seconds. "_Son of a...!_"

"Liz!" I cried out, stumbling back over the mess of wiring, and just managing to keep my balance, as alert klaxons and the groaning whine of over-stressed metal framework split the air, setting my teeth on edge. The window was clearing up, thankfully, or, more accurately, whatever had hit it was swiftly dissolving into a fine black mist. A fleck of the contents spilled through the damaged screen, and splattered against my cheek in a warm, foul-smelling spray. What was left vanished the moment I pulled my fingers away to get a better look. "_Please_ tell me that wasn't just what I thought it was!"

"Forces stationed along the border just took a massive nose dive!" our programmer called out, using some metal clips to keep the fringes of his dark hair from obscuring his vision as he worked. "It's a massacre out there! No one knows what just happened!"

"It was the Grimm; the hell else would it be!? Sensors are picking up heat signatures! _Lots_ _of them!..._ Thinking we just hit the Vale Border!" I was about to respond to Briar's report, when the ex-Trapper swore again, and this time banked hard to the right, almost throwing me into the side of the hull in her haste to react, as we narrowly side-swiped a monster with a razor sharp beak, and what looked like horns. "It's a whole swarm! Radar's picking up Griffons, Nevermores and... W-wha... _W-what the hell is **that!?**_"

No need to ask what she meant when she said that, as she pulled up the frozen frame still up to the main display, displaying the enormous black Dragon perched over what used to be the ruins of Mountain Glenn in the distance, covered in thick, bone-white plates, with a wingspan to put any Nevermore I'd ever seen to shame. We all gaped at it, jaws slacked open, as the cockpit was suddenly quite overcrowded. Amys let out the audible gulp the we all felt just at the sight of the great terror.

"...I've never seen anything like it..." I murmured under my breath, wracking my brain for anything that would even come _close,_ and coming up with nothing. "I knew things were bad... B-but _this..._"

"Wha... I-it's also leaking Grimm!" We turned to see Dai furiously typing away at his scattered Scrolls, eyes dancing from screen to screen, with the barely audible hum of radio chatter crying out in the small earpiece he wore, and his head twitching at every sharp sound and scattered cry of alarm. "Atlesians just called it in! That thing's breeding Grimm by the dozen, some sort of rain...?" He glanced back, putting a hand to his ear, before paling even more, if it was possible. "Oh, you've _got_ to be... Confirmed Goliath inbound! It just crossed the border! Atlesians are breaking fast!"

At that, my blood ran cold, the grip on the back of the seat strong enough to bend steel at this point. Just one Goliath had been enough to break through the great wall surrounding Bastion, scattering debris for miles, and starting an event that the city still struggled to recover from, even now decades later.

_'If even **one** of those things reaches Vale...'_

Amys beat me to the punch, voicing the thought aloud in that airy way of hers, though the effect was somewhat dampened by the trembling. "The Kingdom... is doomed... The Drake is only adding to the horde, and the Atlesians are in disarray..." She pointedly avoided looking at me, directing her statement to the others more likely to listen. The worst thing was that a small part of me couldn't quite disagree with her reasoning. "...We should turn back, try our luck in Vacuo."

"You can't be serious!" I stepped forward, forcing the issue. If they wanted to go, then fine. But I wasn't going to let the issue drop without a fight, or be ignored. "You'd abandon them; an entire Kingdom!? They need all the help they can get!"

"_Sure,_ why not? Yeah right; I'm with her." Dai spoke up, shaking his head as he reviewed the data coming in, including more than a few shots of scenic Vale in flames, before slightly flinching away at my glaring response to his sarcasm. "Look, neither of us were trained to fight Grimm! Not like you lot, anyway!" He looked to me and Jasper, "Besides, from what I've been hearing over their channels, Ironwood's gone! He got himself shot down when their droids turned! If he's Grimm chow, then what are we supposed to...!"

"We prove our worth." We all turned, Liz included, to regard Jasper, leaning against the door frame of the cockpit, who stared at his hands, fingers flexing before curling into tight fists. "There was never any guarantee on that deal going through, but even you have to admit it's the best option. Glim thought it was... It's the reason she fought so hard to get me to agree to this stupid idea." I was taken aback at that. I had originally thought it was quite the other way around, and that Glimmer was the least convinced Fullmark. "Who cares if Ironwood's in the ground or not? Either way, I'm guessing the ones in charge aren't going to turn down capable troops, especially ones like us, if we show them what we're made of. Especially at a time like this."

"But Jas, the Grimm...!" Dai tried to counter, but the larger Trapper smacked him across the forehead hard enough to crack the boys skull back, before forcing his head back down to the screen at his feet.

I almost moved to intervene until I heard the man speak, his voice dangerously low, yet audible to every one of us, even over the whining alerts. "It's not just Grimm down there, Trapper. I see _White Fang_ on those screens. I see them hurting people, and causing a panic." At the mention of the Fang, Dai gritted his teeth. Amys even snarled under her breath. Jasper was no meatheaded bruiser after all, it seemed. He could use his head, and it seems he knew more than a little about motivating his troops.

What better incentive than the thing you were conditioned to hate?

The Third Gens were barely out of training, their hatred still fresh and volatile. I'd had years with the Trappers, and months both in prison and Beacon to work through my grudge, yet even I still felt sparks dancing along my fingertips at just the name.

_'Kill them, kill them all with extreme prejudice...!'_

"Way I see it, this is the job we were _made_ for! Let the Commander's lot worry about changing the world one person at a time, spouting all that 'honor above all' and 'save the world' bullshit. As for me... Well, long as I'm killing every Faunus with a mask on that I can see, I'm happy. Especially since I'm fighting for two, now..." His grin slipped, the Trapper quickly hiding the sudden flash of sadness behind the mask he pulled from his belt. "Besides, if anyone's gonna go after the Hand, it's those grunts down there. And I don't know about you guys, but after a few hours of sleeping while on the lam, I gotta say... I'm _done_ running."

"...And if they stick us all in a cell, anyway?" Amys asked dryly, though she was still reaching for her own mask, I noticed, her voice shifting into the familiar distorted tone as she affixed it to her face. "What then, sir?"

The Second Gen Trapper seemed taken aback at the addition of 'sir,' right before taking it in stride. "Then you get to say 'I told you so.' Right before we bust out, weapons hot. Unless..." He spared a glance my way, clutching up his _Furioso_ from underneath his previous seat in a broad hand, him having walked out of the cockpit to retrieve it, "...the 'Immortal,' here, has a problem with that. Sound good, Ambrose?" He held out a hand, the other gripped tightly around the handle of his strange maul.

_'Well, at least he's motivated...'_ I sighed wearily.

I nodding at him before reaching out my own hand to clasp his wrist, and was surprised when his grip tightened, almost crushing the limb, though I was sure not to give him any reaction. Seems he wasn't entirely through being angry with me, after all, looming over me in the flashing red lights of the cabin. I didn't mind, though. Honestly, I couldn't thank him enough for what he'd just done.

"If you really mean what you're saying, Jasper, then, by all means, I'm with you," I told him after letting go of his hand. "Still, the only worry now is getting the troops back in the fight. We can't exactly turn the horde back ourselves."

Both of my fellow Trappers in the cabin lowered their heads at that, obviously not having planned that far ahead. Liz was muttering something about a failing engine, and how the craft we flew in was a "rustic piece of garbage".

Dai Jin, who had fallen away from the little huddle in the cavern, suddenly whooped, making us all jump, or, in mine and Jasper's cases, reach for weapons. His fist punched the air before he suddenly froze, and looked nervously between our surprised expressions. "Uh... Sorry. It's just that, I think the whoever's in command already pulled that bit off. Not sure who this Carson guy is, but he's got guts calling them all out like... Uh, what's up?"

The clang of heavy boot prints on the deck startled him, though not as much as when he suddenly realized I staring him dead in the face. Liz was, too, after having grabbed a struggling Amys, and practically tossing her bodily into the cockpit to take over for her before we crashed or hit something else.

"D-did I... say something weird?"

"Carson," I repeated, shaking my head slowly, trying to determine if I'd just misheard him. "You don't mean... His name isn't Benjamin, is it?"

"...Y-yeah! How'd you know?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but no word slipped out. My throat was suddenly feeling strangely dry.

"So they placed a _Huntsman-in-training_ in command, then? Because no one else was left?" my former partner spoke up, trying to make sense of the situation. "You said a Specialist operative took over command when Ironwood went down, didn't you? Did he die?"

"Not according to what I'm hearing. Benjamin Carson of the Special Operatives Unit took command right after General James Ironwood was declared MIA." He glanced between the two of us. "Way the soldiers are talking, it's only because of him they've lasted this long."

"B-but... I don't...?" We both stammered weakly over each other.

Meanwhile, Jasper seemed to have had enough of sitting around. "Sounds like that's the guy to talk to, then," Jasper interceded, pushing past us to take command again, looking eerily similar to his sister in those few moments. "Claret, put us down! Jin, open a channel to this Carson's command ship!" A resounding groan, followed by a screech that had the older Trappers wincing, and put Dai down on his knee groaning, echoed through the cabin in response. "Claret, the hell...!?"

"We... _may_ have a problem with that, sir!" Amys called back in her distorted tone, checking on and fiddling with a few of the dials and controls littering the console, before shaking her head with a heavy sigh. "That hit earlier must've damaged one of the engines, and jostled the Dust core powering the ship! We're losing speed fast, and as for landing gear..." The crack on the windshield widened ominously, silencing her with a sharp crick-crack of chipping glass shards. Jasper groaned, turning back to Dai, who, if anything, had only grown more frantic as the noise increased, teeth opening and closing in an attempt to equalize the pressure afflicting his senses, his fingers running through his bedraggled hair.

"Even if we did, we still have to find some way of dealing with that Goliath," I sighed, gazing over the whimpering boy's shoulder at the read outs. From what I could see, the only things left in the air were the Specialist's... _Ben's_ command ship, and a few fighters and dropships. All of them were too busy dealing with that Dragon, or the steadily increasing swarm of flying Grimm in the region. Meanwhile, the ground troops were rallying, but the chances were slim as to whether they had anything heavy enough that could... make a dent.

_'Maybe...'_

My eyes widened, and I looked to the spreading cracks of the cockpit's canopy, and then raised a hand to my cheek. An idea was coming to mind. A desperate, _idiotic_ idea, but one that just might do the trick, nonetheless.

"Hey." I put a firm hand on the tech's shoulder, the boy flinching, but raising his eyes to meet my own. "Those cases you grabbed from Bastion before we left... Those wouldn't happen to be..." The sudden warmth on his face, and his stammering reply gave me all the answer I needed. I clapped him on the back, while everyone else in the cabin eyed my sudden smile warily. "Set up a link to Ben! I think I might have an idea... Quick questions, does everyone have a landing strategy?"

* * *

**(Present)**

_'Oh, 'I **might** have an idea...' A__ **stupid** idea. A stupid, stupid, **STUPID** idea!'_ I thought frantically, as the stinging cold air whipped past my face, my world becoming little more than flickers of movement in the darkness as the wind roared in my ears, and the constant state of near weightlessness pushed at my insides. I could just pick up the sounds of the others, and saw signs of movement in the air before my eyes. The flash of flames a ways away told me that must've been Liz and her Dust.

Recalling my training after a few brief moments of chaos, I refocused myself, and spread out my limbs wide to steady my rapid descent, and drew upon my Aura to secure vision, the ground far below coming into sharp, and all too sudden focus. The Goliath was immediately apparent, a behemoth of moss-covered bone plates, and thick, leathery skin reshaping the landscape with every massive step, sweeping trees aside, and crushing sections of ancient forest underfoot. I'd seen them from a distance years before in training, had heard the stories from older Hunters, but it was still hard to believe anything that big could move at all. The legends depicted in Bastion's history were obviously not exaggerating in the danger they presented.

_'Here's hoping this works.'_ I narrowed my eyes, plucking _Storm Circuit_ off my belt, and holding the weapon in a tight grip, extending one of the razor sharp blades at the far end and waited, racing down further and further.

A few hundred feet...

A few dozen...

The ancient Grimm turned its crimson-tinged gaze on me, tracking my fall almost curiously. '_Yeah, pay attention to me ugly! That's right!'_

I angled myself with a few light movements, firing off one of my tethers. Relief spread across my face as the treated silver streaked like a shimmering comet, and slammed home in the meat of the monster's neck.

The trumpeting cry that rose from the beast's throat was dangerous in its own right, strong enough to set my bones creaking, and loud enough to set my ears humming with an audible whine, though throughout it all I kept my grip steady. Augmented muscle forged under the knife, tempered by training, and enhanced by Aura gripped the handle of my weapon in both hands, as gravity took its course, and I began to swing down in a wide arc, lengthening the line as sparks from the line stung at my Aura, which was already taxed just keeping my shoulders in their sockets. With a wordless cry, I swung upward, reaching the zenith of my flight, before dislodging and retracting the line, spinning in the air to face the creature.

As I'd hoped, the Goliath's attention was entirely fixed on me, its enormous trunk raising faster than I would've thought possible, seeking to swat me aside as one might dispatch a fly. It probably would have, too, if a screaming whine, growing steadily louder and louder with each passing moment, hadn't drawn its focus... Too bad it was far too late to react, as the Storm Hawk, racing as fast as its failing engines could carry it, crashed headlong into the side of its skull with a deafening boom.

Usually, even that likely would've only caused minimal damage to a monster, given their famed durability. That was why I'd had our resident demolitionist swiftly rig the craft with what I'd learned were stolen Dust charges meant for heavy construction or artillery, along with more than a fair share of his personal stock, shaping the payload so that when the crash pierced its skull, the resulting explosion would crack it open it like an egg.

The heat was intense, my body tossed back as the force sent me tumbling towards the swaying trees. My last last view of the titanic Grimm was that of it listing heavily to the side, with what was left of its head aflame, and a furious bellowing keen signaling its death throes. The monster soon dissolved into the night, as if it had never been.

Laughing, I let the force of the tethered line clicking back home in _Circuit's_ handle turn me around to the trees, bracing myself against the sudden onslaught of branches and leaves, before firing off the lines again to arrest my fall. My arms strained as the next thing I knew, I was racing for a nearby clearing, one swarming with black-furred shapes and leering red eyes.

Maybe it was the adrenaline, my Aura singing in my ears and sparking across my exposed flesh, or perhaps the knowledge I was finally so close to my goal. Whatever it was, I was unafraid. No... I was _excited._

_'**LET'S GO WILD!**'_

A moment later, my senses were assaulted by the pungent air of blood, musk, and filth, as I crashed bodily into the closest and largest of the pack, an Ursa Major. The monster's throaty roars were cut off as we tumbled and slid along the ravaged forest floor, culminating in _Circuit's_ other blade being driven deep into its throat. A momentary spark of electricity finished the Grimm as I flared my Aura, its body going slack just before the force of my impact sent me rolling off into the dirt onto my hands and knees, having lost my grip on the bladed baton, body sore in a half dozen places, with my arms and lungs heavy. But all the while, I was feeling more alive, more aware, than I had in weeks.

I shouldn't be enjoying this. The blood pounding in my ears, the familiar sharp burn of my Semblance coursing along my nerves...

**_"Don't hesitate...!"_**

My left hand was up in an instant, sending an expanding bar of silver straight through the eye socket of a Beowolf and out the other end. Meanwhile, my right arm was in motion along with my legs, propelling me upwards to drive a fierce rising palm into the underside of another of the creatures' slavering jaws, bone and sinew giving way under Aura and momentum in a spray of broken teeth and ichor. Before the keening beast could take more than a step back in retreat, I'd already driven a right hook so strong, it almost tore the flesh from its jaw. Freeing _Spark_ from its sheath and stabbing outward, the silver combat knife ripped a deep furrow up its sternum, sawing through the thick meat with sizzling ease.

A series of chained explosions echoed in the distance far behind me, along with an ground-shaking crash that set the trees around me rustling in protest, limbs and trunks creaking. My companions seemed to have made it down all right, as well, and appeared to be giving a good account of themselves. Amys likely was about as well, though from what I'd seen of her talents, I doubted the Grimm even knew what hit them. That only left...?

**_"Don't falter...!"_**

I'd misjudged the sheer mass and determination of the soulless monster, swearing as the beast toppled over on top of me in its death throes, the knife still lodged in its neck as it brought us both to the ground, the weight of it driving the air from my lungs, and forcing me into the mud in an attempt to smother me. "_Gah!_ Get... _OFF!_" I tore the serrated blade from its neck, making a foul-smelling warmth spray across my face as I stabbed again and again in an attempt to finish it off before its fellows could do the same to me. Arcs of electricity leapt outwards to singe fur, and spasm muscles. "Rrrgh, _c'mon_!"

More Grimm were coming. A pair of Beowolves lumbered forward, jaws snapping and frothing. I redoubled my efforts, and soon enough, the monster above me finally stilled, its body starting to fade back into the night, but not before they would be...

Glints of steel flickered in the air, and struck both Grimm in the neck just below the jaw, leaving them with barely enough time to snarl in pain, before the small projectiles glinted red and exploded, removing everything above the neck, and a good portion below, as well, in a shower of heat.

"Having a bit of trouble there, big guy!?" I swayed to my feet, shaking out my head to clear the ringing, as a smirking Briar alighted on the ground behind me having forgone the mask hanging at her waist, flames and cinders licking about the palms of her hands like burning feathers, remnants of the Dust Magus' attempts to navigate through the air. I knew and had seen enough of Marigold's unique brand of Dust magic to recognize _Phoenix Down_ when I saw it. It wasn't as powerful as our teacher's, but no less impressive, as the flames were gradually replaced with a fine, multicolored mist of roiling Dust that streamed around her arms and across her back. "I swear, every time I let you out of my sight, you manage to get yourself..."

"You wanna gloat, or do you want to help deal with this!?" I shot back, looking back just in time to snatch the blue and silver baton she kicked my way from the air with my free hand, answering the impish grin she wore with a hearty laugh as I spun the weight in the palm of my hand. It just felt so... _easy._ I'd forgotten the feeling in these last few months, and it was both exhilarating...and worrying, in equal measure. "You take the ones on the left."

"There's twice as many on the left, asshole."

"Dust Mage, remember?" I quipped, leading Liz to let out something between a groan and a snort, before a rumbling underfoot caught us off guard, as an enormous, ape-like monstrosity of bone-white plates and bulging muscle crashed through the undergrowth, followed by a pair of Ursa, standing right in front of me. The smell of its rancid breath hit me from where I stood as it towered over me heaving its barrel chest, casting us both in a long shadow, with the broken moon above it. "Huh... That's uh...?"

"On your right," she finished, a smug smile evident on her lips. I merely shook my head and assumed a low stance, hair standing on end from the force of the electricity coursing through my system. "Just in case you missed it."

"Noted," I replied with a deep sigh, sprinting forward, and answering the ape's roar with one of my own, leaping upwards towards its open maw with both weapons sparking, a smile etching itself out across my face seemingly without conscious effort on my part.

_'What the hell is wrong with me?'_

**-END**

_**A/N: Hey all, good to be back. Might notice I extended the timeline a bit for the battle, something as broad and epic as this doesn't feel like it would pass in minutes like it does in the show. More fun for the rest of us I guess. Big thanks to Da-Awesom-One for helping out with this monster as much as he did.**_

_**Side note, big thanks to The Baz for letting Joel and a few other characters in this fic run around in 'The White Mask' causing trouble. Special commendation to Wa7chface and for his new story The Rule of Tyrants which combines characters and elements from **__**CC-2224 Commander Cody's 'From Hunted To Hunter, The Evil of Men, and this story, pretty much throwing them into a warzone together with Elizabeth Briar as a major player. And speaking of Briar, she's also set to be fighting in judgeofhunter's ****The RWBY OC Vs Series soon. Thanks to you all and a big thanks also to everyone who's favorited, followed, and read this little hobby of mine. **_

_**Can't believe its been years and we're nearing the bitter end.**_

_**\- Mojo**_


	77. Chapter 77

**Bold - **Mask/Distorted Speech

_'Italics' - _Thought

_"Italics"_ \- Radio/Scroll

_**Beta'd by Da-Awesom-One.**_

THE WAY BACK

**_-Benjamin Carson-_**

_"We have confirmed Red Hand forces within the AO! Requesting authorization to subdue or eliminate!"_

"I'll repeat this again so you and everyone else can understand, Sergeant: _DO NOT_engage the Trappers unless provoked! And it better be some damn good provokin', too! Have I made myself clear!?" I massaged my aching skull, feeling the start of a particularly nasty headache coming on in response to this latest shitstorm Joel had oh so kindly dropped in my lap. "And careful! You haven't 'confirmed' anything more than the fact that there are new combatants facin' the Grimm, the GRIMM!"

_'Leave it to this lot to make a simple solution way more trouble than it's worth. We're in the middle of a crisis, damn it.'_

Seriously? An entire horde of bloodthirsty, slavering monsters on march, and a fuckin' dragon out of a madman's nightmares flitting about the skies as it pleased, dropping more and more of the bastards everywhere it went, and all some of the more career soldiers could think of was shooting the best spot of luck we'd had all night in the back!? Typical short-sighted idiots. Guess Atlas has to deal with them too...

_"B-but sir, I must protest! We should move to...!?"_

"You're not gonna move, or do anything without my express order, Trooper Hemlock!" I said in my best 'command' voice, dripping with righteous authority as to override any misgivings he might've thought to come back with. I'd gotten pretty damned good at it over the course of the night all things considered. Just a matter of speaking a little more from the diaphragm, doing what I could with my accent, and then just sitting back to watch the windup soldiers fall in line. Using their names helped, too. It makes them feel more accountable for their actions, and more prone to listen to sense... I hoped, anyway. It was an old trick Bill had used to wrangle in the rowdier lot back in the old days. "Have you ever encountered a Trapper Agent before, Trooper? Seen 'em in action? Fought them?"

_"Well... No. No, sir, I haven't. B-but I've heard the stories...!"_

"Oh, well, you see I _have_ fought Trappers before. I've seen what they're capable of. Hell, I've lived with one for the past few months! So let me be the one to tell you that if they wanted to do you harm, you'd know it long before now, and there wouldn't be much we could do to stop 'em in our current state!"

There we go. Drop an unsubtle reminder of the situation, and a few more tidbits to join the rumor mill I've already picked up regarding me and my own origins. Seems that soldiers tend to gossip worse than grandmothers, so adding a few hints at my own experience couldn't hurt... Although the comment about how I was supposedly the product of a "secret love affair" between General Ironwood and the beautiful Glynda Goodwitch had had my sides splitting for a good ten minutes afterward.

_"They're terrorists; criminals! Our duty is...!"_

"Is worth less than nothin', if the Grimm see us all dead in the attempt!" Okay, I was done talking semantics with this guy, especially if he was going to bring up what we should be doing. "I'd rather fight alongside Trappers, and let them test that reputation of theirs, than have to hear one more scream over that comm-line!"

Damn it, I hadn't meant it to sound that forceful. That stupid speech I'd spouted off earlier obviously must have still been getting to me. I might've lost them with the emotion, and I struggled to recover my momentum before one of them tried to...

_"Well said, Specialist Carson,"_ Spectre's voice warbled over the Scroll's speakers, now accompanied by awed mutters, and... applause? They were cheering, the renewed sounds of gunfire and explosions echoing out in the distance, as our men reengaged the Grimm both on the ground, and in the sky above sensibly, at least judging by what I could see from my perch. I heard the link adjust itself into a private connection, only heard by the Specialist and those of us on the command airship._"Our morale has improved, though our likelihood of actually stopping the Grimm is still minimal, at best."_

_'Knew the praise couldn't hold up for long...'_ I sighed wearily, though thankful at least someone still saw the primary problem.

From what information we had, the horde was currently in the process splitting down the middle with the Dragon's appearance. One half continued on their slow plodding path towards Vale, while the other pursued the flying hell-beast with a tireless haste towards Beacon itself, gaining more and more ground every second. We could only, at best, hope to stall one of them with our current force. The surviving Huntsmen from Mountain Glenn were the only reason even that much was somehow remotely possible.

_'Vale and its thousands of trapped civilians?... Or Beacon with its already stretched student populace, along with Reika and Max?...'_

It felt like I was spearing my own chest to say it, but there was no contest in a situation like this. "Carson to all remaining active units! Form a defensive perimeter along the horde's projected path into Vale! Use the ridges, trees, dig in if you have to! We_cannot_ let those monsters into the city! All ships fall back away from the Dragon; do not engage!"

_"B-but Beacon, sir! That'll leave them...!?"_One Huntresses' voice cried over the radio, joined by a chorus of others. The shock and horror in their voices only made this harder. _"They'll be exposed; the horde will...!"_

"Beacon has its own Huntsmen to defend her! If anyone can hold out 'til help arrives. it's gonna be them!" I spoke up, trying to keep my voice firm and my heart set. "Vale doesn't have that luxury, so we focus our efforts on that."

I suppose my tone must've worked, as hesitant agreements rose up over the comms with only minor grumbling. It was a bit surprising, and not completely unwelcome after a night of dealing with Atlesians and their gung-ho attitude.

_'Just focus on the present. Deal with one problem at a time... Like my team leader showin' up at the head of a bunch of killin' machines. Should probably address that.'_We'd confirmed at least two of them so far, aside from Joel himself, though many of the men were suspecting a third. Unfortunately, no one seemed able to get a confirmed sighting._ 'What the hell did you do, Psycho?'_

Joel showing up out of the blue with his... "help" might be too strong a word. Either way, it had turned things around, even if the hard liners didn't want to admit it. His plan for taking out the Goliath, if you could call "flying a strange aircraft into its face, and hoping for the best" a plan, had given us the momentum. Now it was up to Spectre and his men to run with, it and keep up the pressure.

"Oi, Rock Star, how far out are we from Psycho's position?!" I called back, downing another few refreshing gulps from a canteen Rosso passed me, thanking the weary soldier with a nod.

All the crazy stunts and combat was stressful enough on me, and I had an Aura to help keep me together. For an average trooper, the toll must have been... I shook my head, promising for likely the dozenth time tonight that this "Black Queen" was gonna pay for what she'd done, even if I had to do the deed myself.

"Projected position, you mean! Who knows if your message even got through to him!" the pilot reminded me unnecessarily, looking understandably a bit haggard as he sawed another Grimm from the air with a burst of his ship's auto-cannon. "I'm just following the monsters at this point, and the explosions...!?" One such blast buffeted the ship, as an entire line of trees burst into flames, and flew shrapnel below us, bits and pieces of timber striking the side of the hull, and scaring the hell out of poor June. "Is he... Wait, I see him! Up ahe... What the!?"

Quickly scampering over to the cockpit, I peered towards where Redgrave was looking. Sure enough, I could see the signs of heavy fighting taking place in an wide open clearing, now far clearer, it seemed, after tonight. The edges were ringed by shattered trees, and upturned debris littered the area. Not too surprising; I'd seen first hand the kind of damage just one of these warriors could inflict, let alone a group. Even as I watched, dark armored figures raced and leapt about, pursued by dozens of ravenous beasts of various types and sizes... Yet, somehow, there was no doubt in my mind who exactly was hunting who.

One of the combatants, a young man, thin from what I could see through my goggles, with dark hair whipping about his head, was sprinting with two Creeps on his heels, when he appeared to stumble over a patch of upturned roots. Rock Star swore under his breath at the sight, and made to look away. I kept my eyes forward, knowing an obvious ploy when I saw it, though it seemed the Grimm were well and truly convinced of the slip. One of the reptilian beasties surged ahead, hoping to get the first bite, and instead wound up swallowing a circular object its prey had pulled from a bulky carrying case slung over one shoulder. The monster's face was almost comical up until the point it popped like a balloon in an explosion, audible even over the roar of the ship's engines. It obscured the offending Trapper in a harsh grey smokescreen. Roaring angrily, the remaining Grimm charged into the clouded haze to avenge its fellow, and simply... vanished as the smoke was blasted away.

I registered a moment later, after our pilot's frantic course adjustment, and a scream from Echo, that something broken and mangled had soared past us, clipping our wing. I was more focused on the one responsible than my comrade's shock, however. A masked man wearing bulky armor of kevlar and plates stood where his fellow had been a moment earlier, admiring his handiwork. A hefty, smoking maul was held over his shoulder loosely, while the other ran a hand through reddish-golden hair. His partner was sprawled on the dirt behind him, obviously having dove forward to avoid the swing at the last possible second.

_"Apologies if I ruffled your feathers a bit, sir!"_ a deep voice, booming with a haughty sort of confidence that spoke of a man in his element and knew it, spoke from my Scroll. _"Give us a sec to clear things up, would ya? Things are a bit open season down here, if you haven't noticed!"_

It was all I could do not to laugh, as he was cheeky enough to shoot off a quick mocking salute, and what sounded like a violent chuckle as he cut the feed, hauling the first Trapper to his feet roughly, and shoving back into the fray, before leaping into it himself, smashing Beowolves and Ursi apart like so much glass, maneuvering that weapon of his about his person like a it was practically weightless. Skinny was right behind him trying to keep up, tossing more explosives at stragglers, while fiddling with something on his wrist.

"W-what is _wrong_ with these people?" Jude whispered weakly, as we watched them go to work clearing us a landing site. What was weird, though, was that the Grimm seemed to be dropping like flies, even though they were nowhere near the strange pair, napping and howling one moment, before falling into smoking pieces, minus a few limbs, the next. A Boarbatusk was sliced keenly in half, as if by scalpel, along the treeline, followed swiftly by some Ursa drawn by the chaos. "It's like they're actually enjoying this!"

Not really having much of an answer for him, I merely clapped him on the back, and ordered a landing, steeling myself to make a deal with Joel's Trappers...

_'Trappers, **just** Trappers. Dangerous, homicidal killin' machines that could break you like a... No. No, stay positive.'_

"Private, get a message to Trooper Hemlock, and have him gather up anyone on Red Team still standin'! Tell them meet us in the clearing, and tell him if I see _one_ raised weapon, I'm court-martialing the lot of 'em, if the Trappers don't save me the trouble!"

If nothing else, it would keep the dissenting man in plain view where I could keep an eye on him. It also wouldn't hurt to have a few extra guns, just in case this all went sour. I'd seen full well what Joel and that shield bastard Capaneus were capable of. It never hurt to have a backup plan, after all.

* * *

It was a bit of a strange relief, taking my first stumbling steps back onto solid ground after the last few hours of flips, rolls, and death-defying maneuvers Rock Star had run us through. Thankfully, I managed to avoid tripping over myself like poor Private Garrett, who went sprawling headfirst into the dirt when his legs gave way. I thought that such a thing probably wouldn't make for the best first impression to the new... "assets," I suppose would have to be the wording, I think. They're certainly not "friendlies." Not yet.

_'Ah hell, do I have to write reports now?... How many rules and regulations is this breakin'?... **STAY FOCUSED!**' _I shook my head out, drawing a concerned grimace from Garret as I helped him up.

The pair of Trappers we'd seen were standing a few yards away from our craft, having trailed back once they were satisfied the remaining Grimm were either falling back licking their wounds, or fleeing outright in search of better prey. Those disconcerting masks of theirs hid their eyes, though I knew they had to be glaring at me, or at the dozen or so armed men, bloodied and roughed up, making their way from the treeline. I'll admit, I'd been a bit nervous about Hemlock despite my reasoning, but he seemed to have himself and his men well in hand. Their weapons were at their sides, and fingers off the trigger, but ready to pop up at a moment's notice. Hopefully, if push came to shove, that notice would be coming from me, and _me_ alone.

**"So... you're Carson, right?"** It took a moment to make out that the larger of the two was speaking, the voice I'd heard over the radio distorted by the mask's filters into something twisted that made my skin want to crawl, and the scar on my thigh ache, as memories of AMBR's stint in the Badlands, and all the fun that occurred, resurfaced with a bitter aftertaste. **"Shorter than I thought you'd be. Ambrose wasn't too descriptive."** He held out a hand, obviously expecting me to come to him.

Fine. I could appease with the best of them. Although when I marched towards him, making doubly sure his weapon was affixed to a sling at his back, I did my best to make my strides seem as purposeful and dignified as my rather unassuming frame provided me. My ears listening in on the excited murmuring from Red Team swiftly giving way to the all-too expected astonished whispering and disbelieving mutters. These men had only ever heard my voice as I ordered them about from on high. Might as well not do too much to damage the image they had of me any more than my bedraggled appearance had already. I might not be as physically commanding as Ironwood had been, but there was no excuse not to try.

"Thanks... I think," I said, keeping my voice leveled as looked up at the armored brute, as his gauntleted hand met my prosthetic in a firm shake.

Psycho had height, and certainly didn't lack in muscle, but this guy looked as if he could take Winchester and break him in half between two fingers. And then there was his Aura. My team leader had told me once that people can instinctively feel and react to the Aura, the souls, of those around them. It was hard not to be a little on edge, as something about this man, both of the men, exerted an almost palpable pressure that was very similar to the feeling I used to get around Joel.

"Where's Joel?"

Stupid mask. With that thing on, reading the rogue Huntsman as he answered was practically impossible. **"Around."** He cricked his veiny neck back towards the treeline. **"He landed further out nearest the Goliath. There's more resistance from the Grimm there. Claret, if you would."**

So wrapped up was I with trying not to let the brute cower me into submission, that I almost didn't notice his grip tighten considerably on the unfeeling metal, as another hand, tanned and lighter but no less strong, seemed to appear out of thin air, and pull back my tan-colored sleeve, exposing the mess of silvery metal and circuitry beneath. My free hand shot towards the pouches at my waist, when it was pinned at my side by the same unseen individual.

"What the...!?"

My head spun, catching sight of a young woman with silver hair, with curled strands of hair on the sides of her head, and long, silver, braided tail behind her head. She was wearing the the same mask as the others, though this one was scratched up so that the lower jaw resembled a set of grinning, monstrous skull teeth, with the small red handprint embossed over the left eye. Wrapped tightly around both her arms was some sort multicolored cloth that trailed at her wrists.

_'How the hell did she get behind me!?_' There had been no warning from any of the others, as Echo had been right behind me. It was almost as if she'd...

**"Appeared from thin air? Yeah, she does that."**

Suddenly, the air was filled with the sounds of primed rifles, as Hemlock's boys brought their weapons up, and trained them on the new arrival, and me by consequence. "_Oi!_Stand down!" I cried out, seeing the hesitation in their movements, and Hemlock's bared features. The man would've made a poor poker player, his pale face and pale green eyes twitching visibly in barely restrained aggression.

"B-but, sir, you can't be...!?" Even restrained as I was, I still picked up on the hesitation in his voice. Obviously, he was not one of the people impressed with meeting me in person. He was still a soldier, though, and I was technically his superior officer... No, not even "technically." _I was_ in charge.

"_Stand down!_" I repeated with a touch more firmness this time, the man seemingly getting the hint, and dropping the muzzle of his weapon down, ordering his men to do the same with a raised palm. With the immediate danger of being shot by my own men seemingly avoided, I turned back to the Trappers. I was not too happy with the sight of Skinny checking my arm out in the same way Rosie always did at first. "What's this about!?"

**"Benjamin Carson. Son of former outlaw turned Indentured Huntsman William Carson, currently attending Beacon Academy, and serving under target Joel Ambrose as a member of Team AMBR."**Skull Face read off like a machine, her voice flat and airy without a trace of emotion in it. **"Identifying features include blonde hair, often spiked up, green eyes, and prosthetic right arm."**Her grip relaxed a moment, and then I felt the pressure leave my arm altogether. **"It's him."**

Big Guy nodded, holding his grip for a few more seconds, as if to make clear it was his choice, before releasing my hand. **"Sorry about all that. Just wanted to make sure the Atlesians weren't just sending us some proxy. If we're gonna talk. it's gonna be with the one in charge."** His hand went to his mask, releasing a series of latches and grips with practiced ease, before pulling the hand printed slab of metal and plastics away to reveal intense, storm grey eyes set in a hard, angular, weather-beaten face, that was currently plastered with a shit-eating grin to rival the best of them. What struck me was how young he looked. He barely a year or two older than I was, at most. "Plus, we wanted to see how you'd react."

"Enough games; we don't have the time. Where's...!?"

I was drawn by the sudden creaks and crashes in the undergrowth behind the Trappers, as a familiar figure with white hair, and wearing armor similar to the Trappers, but different, lighter in color, with what looked to be spots of blue paint at across parts of the chest, shoulders, and arms, leapt from the treetops, and landed in a crouch with a light crash of broken twigs. Blue eyes scanned us, before he leapt up and twisted around, brandishing a long combat knife, razor sharp on one side, and serrated on the other, in one hand, and a familiar bladed baton in the other.

My relief at seeing my friend alive and in the flesh was cut brutally short, as the thing chasing him crashed and pushed through the timber. It was a large, ape-like Grimm, almost as big as the Chimera AMBR had fought in Initiation. It was injured, burns covering a fair portion of its midnight black fur and skin. I could make out a quartet of the Huntsman's silver knives lodged in its body. Two were in the meat of its right shoulder, one was in its stomach, and another was where its eye had once been. Those were still sparking, and, if anything, only succeeding at making the beast angrier.

The sight of the behemoth looming before my leader had me reaching for _Glory_ on sheer reflex, my legs already moving to join him, as Hemlock screamed for his men to fan out and take firing positions. "_Joel!_"

"_Stay back!_"

I faltered at the words, feet stopping me in place. It was no friendly warning; it was a command from my Team Leader. The Ape had no such restriction, letting loose a deafening roar of pain and fury, before bounding forward with a speed and ferocity I hadn't expected. Swaying back and forth on its lumbering arms, it reared back before bringing the right arm down on the lone Huntsman with enough force to smash a Bullhead to splinters and send a gust of force whistling through my cloak. The soldiers gasped, though I and the Trappers were unfazed. Hell, the big guy even let loose a hum of approval at the sight of Joel twisting in the air from his leap, his body crackling visibly.

Joel landed hard on the muscled appendage, and jammed his knife into muscle to root himself before the beast knew what hit it. Pulling the weapon broke into a sudden run, using the force of the monster raising its arm to throw himself like a missile at its chest, before slamming both silver blades into its throat, and stabbing it again, and again. The direct strikes brought the monster down onto its back, choking and coughing, as the blade sliced and sizzled through meat and bone. It still wasn't dead, though, its arms reaching out to crush its attacker, but was stopped, as the former Trapper glowed with a fierce crackling energy that surged into the beast, hitting its system with the force of a lightning strike.

The smell of ozone and the acrid tang of smoking meat filled the air, as the Ape Grimm spasmed violently, almost threatening to send Joel flying, before it finally fell still and silent. Ambrose waited a second longer just to be sure, before tugging his weapons free with a bit of flourish to remove the grime, stowing them away, and making his stumbling way off the carcass as it dissolved to face the assembled group of shocked onlookers.

Leave it to Psycho to steal the show completely, and not even have the sense to play it up for effect. The casual air he had going seemed to do that bit of hard work for him, the man rolling his shoulder as he made his way towards us, looking, if anything, a little bit bashful at all the attention. I, for one, was just breathing an internal sigh of relief to see he wasn't wearing a mask like his fellows...

_'Like the lot he had flown in on,'_ I corrected myself, as I went to greet him. _'He's back, though. That's what counts.'_ Of course, Joel not reverting back to his old ways wasn't too bad, either._ 'He's **not** one of them. He's my **friend,** and teammate. My** leader...**'_

Joel nodded to me as he walked over to us. "Ben, it's... It's really good to see you." the white-haired Huntsman greeted.

At first, he had gone for the handshake. He seemed a bit taken aback when I pulled him into a back-slapping hug, as a smile widened on my face, and a relieved chuckle spilled forth from my lips. Hell, after the night I'd had, I felt I deserved it. Joel evidently thought so too, the man adding his own laugh as we broke apart, and each got a good look at the other.

"Glad to see at least _some_ things haven't completely fallen apart while I've been away. When I heard..." He trailed off, his smile slipping somewhat. "...Do Max and Reika know about... this?" His eyes shifted towards the Atlesian troops, the ones that just happened to answer to me.

The rest of the unspoken question was written on his face plain as day. In fact, I was amazed he hadn't just come right out and said it. I was grateful for that, but I might as well curb his suspicions early. I had my fair share of questions, too, after all.

_'Trappers... What the hell, Joel?'_

"They do," I shrugged wearily. "Reacted...'bout as well as you can imagine." The former Trapper snorted. At least he'd have a laugh before beating me senseless, if he were so inclined which I was sincerely hoping could wait. "Right after I asked Max out, too! It was a bit awkward after that... So I'm afraid I have to let you know that she's got first rights to tearin' me a new one... not for the beasties' lack of tryin', of course."

Joel actually seemed taken aback, his mouth working wordlessly for a few seconds, before a smile split his face; a relieved one. "About time! Still thpugh, you couldn't have chosen a better time?"

I shook my head, sparing a glance towards the patch of flattened grass where the Grimm's corpse had dissolved, before looking back to my teammate, or, more accurately, the state of him. "Tell me about it... How... How about you? You look... God-awful, actually."

The words had come out a bit blunter than I'd meant them to, but that hardly described the truth of the statement, now that I could see him up close. It had been barely twenty four hours since I'd last seen him, and that hadn't exactly been under great circumstances, either, what with that hole in his side. Strangely, Joel already wore the same look as the men on Red Team, who'd been up to their necks in Grimm without a moment's respite. His face was pale, covered in half-healed cuts and bruises, and I could see the start of heavy rings underneath almost manic eyes, his whole body seeming to slouch under an unseen weight.

"Thanks." He raised a hand to scratch at his neck, even that motion possessing something different. Something I didn't usually see in my friend.

Everything about him seemed perched on a razor's edge, dangerously volatile to an almost feral degree. That was something I hadn't witnessed from him since after that desperate fight with the Razorbacks back in the Badlands. That new armor wasn't helping matters, either. If anything, it only highlighted the nervous energy that seemed to seep off him in waves, and reminded me of a part of my friend that I was more than willing to forget.

"What the hell happened to you, Psycho? Where did you...?"

He put a hand on my shoulder to stop me, shaking his head as his eyes darted towards my troops... Damn, that still sounded weird. They shifted uncomfortably at the contact of his eyes with theirs. Not too surprising after what they'd just seen him do a minute earlier, though I did find it strange to see Private Garrett staring so intently at the Trapper, considering he'd actually been pretty calm in the face of the others. It wasn't nerves, either, from what I could read off the man after a few hours of flying through hell together, but a vested interest... In what, I had no idea.

"Not right now," he said with a note of anxious worry in his voice, a desperation I wasn't used to hearing, at least from him. "Ben, I need to know what the hell's going on. I mean, I saw the broadcast, but... Penny... Is she really...?" His hand dropped as I nodded grimly, his face twisting for a moment into a pained grimace. His hand clenched into a shaking fist, as his next words bled out in a choked whisper. "Damn it... Why her? All she ever wanted was to... It's not fair."

It was clear from his expression that he must've known beforehand about Polendina's secret, just as Ruby had. How and for how long, I had no idea, and I wasn't about to ask, especially not when I felt the telltale prickling of static at the back of my neck. "I'm sorry, Joel... There was nothin' anyone could've done for her... This 'Black Queen' bitch... She _knew._ I think she might've been rootin' around the CCT network. She's had this all planned out since the beginnin' of the year. Maybe even long before that, accordin' to Ironwood and Ozpin."

"Ironwood? Ozpin? How would... No, of course they'd know... Black Queen..." He brought a hand to his temples, sparks of electricity still dancing across his fingertips, before he composed himself... for the most part. "Where's Max and Reika? Yang, the others? Are they...?"

"_Alright,_ as far as I know. They're all fightin' back at Beacon, and holdin' strong. Situation's rough, but it's nothin' they can't handle," I said reassuringly, though judging by the Huntsman's head twitching toward the keening shriek of the far-off Grimm Dragon, I doubted the words had much effect. "The signal's spotty, but maybe Rock Star can...!?"

**"Hey, Joel!"** A distorted shout cut off my suggestion, with a voice that nagged at the corners of my awareness, and even now had my hand twitching almost instinctively towards the pouches at my belt again. The scar on my leg was absolutely aching now, as I found I recognized it.

Another masked and armored Trapper had alighted at the edges of the treeline, trailing sparkling, multicolored clumps of Dust from thick grey bracers affixed to both wrists. There wasn't much light, and from the looks of it, she'd grown out her hair a bit on the side since I'd last laid eyes on her, but the purple highlights running through her raven-colored hair, and the similarly colored sash tied about her waist, caught my eye in an instant, right before the laugh she let loose at the sight of the wrecked trees sealed the deal, and sent me over the edge.

**"I see you dealt with our little friend here. Took you long enough."** She kicked at flattened grass, seemingly at ease, even with the troopers chomping at the bit at her sudden entrance. **"And little Benny, too. Guess the reports really weren't lying, after...!?"** She stiffened instantly, circular blades ejecting into her hands, as I shouldered Joel out of the way, and brought _Glory_ to my shoulder, sighting in on that viper's forehead.

"Ben!?" I vaguely registered Joel's cry of alarm over the click and clatter of Hemlock's boys sighting in as well. A response I'd caused. One I had to stop, before it...

It all went in one ear and out the other, replaced by a sob story about a kidnapped sister, playing with my senses and my sympathies in a way that had nearly cost me my life, and the lives of my friends. All because of this lying, little...

A firm grip took hold of the barrel of my weapon, attempting to shove it away from my target, while the other tried to go for the trigger. "Ben, _don't!_ All of you, stand down! Amys, come out where we can see...!"

"What the _fuck_ is _she_ doin' here!?" I growled, my narrowing dangerously at the cursed girl. A gesture she must have returned, judging by the shifting of movement behind her mask's eye slits.

_"Sienna. Sienna Mason. I'm a Huntress-in-training..."_ I felt my teeth clench at the memory, at how easily I'd been played, the doubt that sprang forth, and the fear that I might make the wrong call...the fear _she_ hadput their

"Specialist Carson, requesting permission to fire!"

I needed to calm down, I had to... I felt a something seem to settle over my senses, my eyes blinking shut, and, for a brief moment, suddenly, instead of the dangerous Trapper in my sights, it was now someone scared, helpless, and in need of comfort. My finger eased off the trigger in utter revulsion at what I'd almost...

_"Trust me!"_

Biting the inside of my mouth hard enough to draw blood, I used the pain and sudden heat as a focus, as I gripped the stock of my weapon with enough force to dig fine grooves in the burnished metal. Her head cocked, as if surprised, realizing that her little trick wasn't going to save her, that I had a choice.

That, more than anything else, brought me back to my senses.

Hemlock already eased off as I let out a sigh and shook my head turning back to him. "Hold off, Sergeant. Weapons down. My mistake."

"Yes... Yes, sir." He shot a wary look at Briar, as though he didn't know what to think of her, before bringing his weapon down. Joel called for the Trappers to do the same, the big guy placing the maul back across his shoulder blades with a huff, while I was shocked to see the skull-faced girl from before striding from amidst Red Team, many of them leaping back with cries of alarm, as they finally seemed to realize she was amongst them.

**"Smart choice, Benny. Would hate to have to leave _another_ love bite."** The Trapper lowered her arms with a dark chuckle and a suggestive nod towards my leg. **"Always nice to leave the boys something to remember me by."**

At that, I quickly pointed a harsh metal finger towards her direction, facing her again. "You shut the hell up _right now,_ you filthy minx! Only reason you're still breathin' right now is cause' the boss _wants _you breathin'. Were it up to me, I'd be leavin' your corpse out for the Grimm!"

Oh, it would be _so_ easy. It would take just a quick shot to the leg, and another to the skull before her Aura could react and let the explosive shells do their work. Smear that snickering face across a tree somewhere...

"Ben, that's enough of that!" Joel placed himself between us, glancing nervously back at the newcomer... his ex-girlfriend. How the hell he could've possibly seen anything in her at all, I had absolutely... "You too, Liz! _Lay off!_"

Briar merely rolled her eyes, at least it looked like she had through the slits of her mask. The sharpened metal flitted about her fingers idly, as if she were bored.**"Really? 'Leave me for the Grimm,' huh? With four other Trappers here, I'd say your odds of that are slim, Benny."**

"_Liz!_"

Aw look. She was feeling all nice and secure with Ambrose around.

_'How cute.'_

"Oh, really?... Okay, let's test that, shall we?" I slung my rifle over my shoulder, and spun on my heels before Psycho could stop me, marching forward until I stood directly in front of the bulky warrior, hands on my hips. The man raised a thin eyebrow as he looked me up and down. Now that his mask was off, the guy read like an open book. He had amused bewilderment. Easy enough to work with... "You, big guy. What's your name?"

"Excuse me?"

I blinked, shaking my head, before gesturing back at the bemused infiltrator "Gah... Whatever. Not like I need your name for this, anyway." He opened his mouth, probably to retort. As if I'd let him get that far. "Listen up. If I were to, say... take my pistol, point it at her forehead, and shoot, would you be mad? Would you even care? Even a little bit?"

The question seemed to catch him off balance for a moment, but he quickly hid it under an affable smirk. That showed he was adaptable enough to read the situation. The guy was pragmatic. Not bad at all... if a bit mouthy.

"Personally?" The man glanced at Briar, amusement clear as day spreading across his face, before shrugging his broad shoulders. "I'd be laughing and clapping every second it took for her to hit the ground. Long as you keep it to her that is." The demolitionist next to him looked as if he was trying really hard not to laugh, while Amys, at least that seemed to be what she responded to, just shook her head with a dispassionate air about her.

All in all, it certainly got the Viper's attention. And her attitude. **"Jasper Fullmark, you traitorous mother-fu...!?"**

There was no love lost amongst Trappers, it seemed. Point made, and a point for me.

"_Thank you!_" I clapped the grinning murderer on the arm jovially, metal hand clanking against the thick armor on his bicep, before shooting the object of my anger my best shit-eating grin. "So you, Miss Pansie-ass Trapper, can thank your lucky stars my buddy the great and noble Joel Ambrose, here, doesn't want you dead!" All that got was a twisted sort of growl, and a raised arm. "Now, don't be gettin' any ideas, either!" I brought my own gun up, this time prepped for her little tricks, though if she brought out the Dust... No, no. I could handle her. "I'm havin' a _very_ bad day, and my trigger finger's feelin' a bit itchy, lately." As if to punctuate that note, the Grimm Dragon let loose a shrieking roar, that had ever head looking to the skies nervously.

Briar looked back at me, the hand of her raised arm tightening angrily, before harshly letting it drop to the side.**"...Fine, whatever. No ideas."**

"Good!" Psycho interposed himself again, drawing himself up to his full height, glaring down at each of us, "Glad to see we're in agreement."

Briar shrugged her shoulders and raised her arms, shooting her comrades, Joel included, a sharp sidelong glare, before marching off towards the Bullhead, finding herself standing awkwardly amongst the Atlesians of Red Team's squad, who, to their credit, kept their eyes where they, belonged scanning the treeline. I could only imagine what was going through their heads. Some of the older men might well have had children around the Trapper's age. Seeing one up close must have been an impactful sight... Especially her.

"You _can't_ be serious," I said aloud, pointedly not looking at my team leader. "Psycho, you cannot be _fuckin'_ serious!"

"It's a long, crazy story," Joel sighed, as he stepped next to me and watched her with a look I couldn't quite place from where I stood. It was somewhere between trepidation and relief. Probably because neither of us had killed one another. "But she's on our side, Ben. You don't have to worry..."

"Little bit late for that, Boss." I scratched at my cheek idly, noting with a 'tsk' of displeasure that my leg was tapping a rapid beat on the ground, something I quickly put to a stop with a bit of mental effort, before opening my mouth again. "...You trust her?"

The Huntsman took in a hesitant pause, his shoulders stiffening under that new armor of his for a brief moment, before he relaxed. "I think I do... oddly enough." I clapped him hard on the back, making sure to put just a little bit of mechanical force behind it, which was enough to put him forward a few steps, even if it felt like slapping a brick wall.

"Good enough for me, then." I flashed him a sly grin and a mock salute, before June's stammering voice brought me back to the reality of the situation, forcing me to stand up straight, and remember who was supposed to be in command of the situation.

"Urgent message on your Scroll, sir!" The still-helmeted trooper practically shoved the communications device into my chest, the young man trying and failing to avoid staring at Ambrose, who read the situation, and backed off, keeping his hands visible. I couldn't blame the guy. It wasn't everyday you see a man tear the throat out of a Grimm, and electrocuting it at the same time. "On priority channels!"

"Spectre?" I glanced down at the holo-screen, my heart kick starting in my chest at the thought of anything else going wrong tonight.

My fellow Specialist, as far as I knew, was holding the remnants of our defenses together by a thread; a thin one, aided liberally with duct tape and prayers. Utilizing a series of hit and run strikes against the horde's outliers alongside those Huntsmen and Troopers still standing after the disaster at Mountain Glenn, the soldier and his people were driving the Grimm back, and redirecting them towards a path of least resistance, i.e. Beacon Academy. It wasn't too difficult, seeing as most of the beasties were keen on following after that scaly bastard in the skies. That Dragon eyed up the combat school like a thief would a fat purse ripe for the taking.

I needn't have worried on that front. Just one look at the sender was enough to divine the contents, and set my mind reeling down a whole other track. I then actually read the message itself...

**_"Our enemy has made their move. We must make ours. Return immediately. The time has come."_**

_'So... It's really that bad, then.'_

"Beacon, sir. Directly from Headmaster Ozpin, himself!" the soldier filled me in unnecessarily, flinching back when Joel suddenly perked up. "It arrived moments ago. Pilot Redgrave is preparing the ship for takeoff, as we speak. We also have another dropship flying in to act as escort." Spectre's influence, no doubt. I couldn't say it wouldn't be appreciated, seeing as the airspace around the school was set to be a slice out of nightmares, even if I wished the man had at least warned me before dedicating another one of our birds away from the fight, stretched as they were trying to keep the Dragon at bay. "_Whiskey_ is on its way. Your orders?"

A part of me wanted to cut and run right there, or just break down over how I was supposed to spin this to my friend. Thankfully, Joel wasn't looking for an explanation. He'd just heard the word Beacon, and looked at me expectantly, waiting for my call. The feeling was... odd, though not as unpleasant as I would've imagined it being. Not that I was planning to make a habit of it. No, sir.

He had his reason for needing to be back, and I had mine. That was all he needed to know... at least for now.

"Have everyone geared up and ready to move on the moment the ship lands, Red Team included. Beacon's gonna be one hell of a party, so we might as well bring all the hands we can spare. As much as we can anyway," I ordered, trying my best to sound confident and keep my voice leveled even though I couldn't help but notice the smirk building on Joel's face, or the desire to punch him. "I trust the Trappers have no objection to taggin' along, Psycho? Long as they behave themselves, of course."

My friend opened his mouth to speak, before a low voice cut him off. "We're all for it, Carson." The big guy, Jasper, suddenly spoke up behind me, almost making me jump. How a guy his size, and in that much armor had managed to sneak up on me like that, I could only guess at. "Heard about the pest control issue you've got at that fancy school of yours." He slung a heavy arm around my shoulder with a broad grin, though I could still feel the cold air of danger oozing off the brute in waves. "Seeing as we're uniquely suited to this kind of work, and that you seem to be the one in charge, we actually had a proposition for you..." He trailed off, the fingers of his free hand spinning circles through the air.

Ah, so he wants to deal, then? That makes sense, I suppose... Though, if he thought he was going to intimidate me, he had another thing coming.

"Well, you're in luck, big guy!" I snatched his hand in a metal grip, and gave it a good shake, applying just enough pressure to make him wince, even through his armored gauntlet. "I'd be more than happy to listen to it on the flight over, along with a good rendition of where the hell you've been the whole day." I looked to my team leader at those words, who hesitated a moment before nodding, his hand twitching somewhat, as a spark ran through it.

'_Have to wonder how everyone else is doin'...'_I thought to myself as I made my way towards the airship, glancing off in the direction where I knew Beacon lay under siege. '_We're comin', guys. So hang on just a bit longer... And **please** don't do anything stupid.'_

* * *

_**-Maxine Argus-**_

"Stay... still... and fight... you... little..._BITCH!_" I cried out as I brought _Cerberus _chopping down, only to meet empty air each time, snarling as the object of my fury ducked and weaved past every frantic swing as if she were dancing, her rifle held casually behind her back as she swayed back and forth on the balls of her feet.

_'What the hell is wrong with this girl!? She's treating this like some damned game!'_ What_really_ got my blood up was that the Spider Faunus hardly even seemed bothered dodging my attacks at all. One swing even passed so close to her, that the glistening blade clipped a few hairs across her brow, before she skipped back once more with a childish giggle.

"Aw, but you're putting on such a good show!" She let herself fall back against the tree trunk behind her, cocking her head with a mocking pout that was somewhat dampened by the blood streaking her face from her nose, courtesy of my first, and only successful blow so far. "You're so spirited, letting yourself get all worked up like that. Ooh. it's so _adorable,_ I could just..." She bent forward at the waist just in time to avoid the spinning axe head embedding itself horizontally in the bark precisely where her neck had been a moment earlier. "Nice! That was a close one."

"_SHUT UP!_"

I let loose a roar, and took hold of the axe again with my Semblance, the weapon twitching once, twice, before tearing itself from the trunk in a spray of splinters as it flew back to my outstretched hand. Legs already in motion, I leapt forward, only to widen my eyes as she slipped past me yet again, looping her way around the blow and pressing herself up against my back.

"You see? _That's_ what I'm talking about." The sudden pressure and the warmth of her breath hitting my ear enough to set a chill racing down my spine. "Like a little puppy..." Eyes wide and pupils narrowed, I brought my weapon around in a wild swipe, the force of which sent me stumbling forwards along with it, when it, too, met no resistance. My breathing was heavy as I searched through the darkness cast by the branches, her scent all over the place, and tinged with the copper tang of blood. "...jumping about, chasing her tail."

"Stop playing with me!"

My ears twitched in response to something moving behind, me along with a strange whirring sound. I glanced back reflexively, and was met with a thin, serrated blade practically kissing my jugular, attached to a short spear held by a now-very much bemused White Fang tapping her bloody lip with a free hand, masked face staring at the starry night sky above.

"'_Playing_?...' Yeah, I suppose that's what I'm doing, Maxi." I gulped, feeling a cold bead of sweat drip down my brow, as the tip of the weapon traveled slowly up by throat, before tapping the the flat of the blade against underside of my jaw with enough pressure to raise my chin. "I mean how could I not be? Especially when you give me so many openings?" I could smell the pungent gore coating the weapon, the scent seeped into the metal, and shared by its wielder as she licked her lips. "Don't want this to be over too quickly, do I?"

One quick thrust, a single swipe, and it would all be over... Maxine Argus would just be another corpse, just like any other this woman had murdered. The thought of that, and the possibility that this person could find my friends... My _family..._

"The name's Charlotte, Charlotte Cerise, by the way. Leader of the Bloodhound's First Claw... but my friends call me 'Charlie.'" She bowed her head almost formally, before cocking her head to the side, "You know, counting your little stint in the trees, that's _twice_ now I could've finished you off." Suddenly the spear tip was gone, Cerise backing away with her weapon held loosely in one hand, practically begging me to attack her again. "It's a pleasure. Feel free to show me more of what you can do!"

My own grip tightened on _Cerberus_' haft, my Aura raging as I shoved outward with my free hand, focusing my energy like a cudgel, finesse overridden by need and anger both. The resulting swell of force took her in the armored chest, and sent the Faunus flying though the air, from what I saw, just before I started sprinting in the other direction. The girl had been expecting the move, and had the blow carry her, before tumbling amidst roots and shrubbery out of sight.

"Oh _that _was lovely!"

_'I don't have time for this!'_ I thought furiously, my nose and ears guiding me through the winding woods towards the smell of smoke and shattered masonry, where I still detected Sonia's scent hanging faintly in the air. Running from an opponent was galling, my instincts screaming at me to turn and fight, but that little nagging voice that so often spoke with Ben's easy tone overrode it warning caution. _'I have to find her, keep her safe! Then, if I can get back to the others...'_

A flicker of reflected moonlight was all the warning I had, before I was throwing myself to the side just in time to avoid the stabbing spear coming at my face from overhead. Cerise somehow had managed to get ahead and above me, swinging and leaping through the branches like an acrobat using her legs and weapon as leverage. The dodge was sloppy, and my shoes slipped on some of the dry leaves littering the floor, putting me down face first into some roots at the base of a great oak.

"Ooh, that's _three_ times now, Maxi! You're getting sloppy!" I spat out mouthful of leaves, as I again felt a sharp pressure at the small of my back. "If you wanted a round of fetch, you should've just said so silly."

My eyes fell on a thick fallen branch lying a few yards away while the Faunus was busy laughing at her own joke, a toothy smile spreading across my lips. "Fetch _this,_ bitch!" With a flicker of effort and sheer drive, I reached outward, and drew the chunk of wood towards us, picking up a fair bit of debris in the process. A cry of alarm followed a swift crack and impact. My head spun just in time to see Charlotte crawling to her feet, looking dazed, with her domino mask knocked to the ground, and a line of blood trickling down her pale face in its place. "_Ha!_ What'd you think of...!?"

The smile faded, however, when, instead of anger, or even a ghost of fear, the Spider Faunus was grinning wide enough to show thin, needle-like fangs. Hell, in the dim light, she almost seemed as if she were blushing!

"O... kaaay..." she grunted, brushing a thin curtain of dark hair from her face, revealing the beady dark eyes situated above her brows, each flickering with an almost manic gleam towards me. "...Now _this..._This is getting _fun!_"

I blinked and she was gone, my axe barely coming up in time to catch the end of the spear as it came rushing towards my face. The girl was far stronger than she looked, the force of the blow enough to numb my arms, and almost make me lose the tentative grip I kept on my weapon, if just barely. She could've ended it at any time, but yet she seemed hesitant to actually inflict damage.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to reflect much on this strange behavior, as I was much too busy trying to keep from getting skewered, as the woman laid into me with a ferocity and speed I could hardly keep up with, let alone defend against. If I'd thought her dancing about before had been impressive, the way she moved now only appeared to highlight her inhuman aspects, her spear form pushing me back foot by brutal foot with every thrust, slice, and spin. What was worse was that I could tell she was still "playing" with me, which only added to my desperation.

"Four... Ooh, that's five times, now... Six... Ah, almost blocked me there! Six and a half...!" Small cuts and scratches ran up and down my ruined sleeve, leaving small rivulets of blood running down my arms before my Aura could properly attend to them. She was the worst type of matchup for me, darting in and out of my range, picking me apart. If she'd just stay in for a head-on fight. I might be able to get somewhere, maybe. But as I was, I couldn't even work up the concentration to use my Semblance with any sort of effect. It was infuriating, being treated like I was some...

A thrust with the butte of the spear caught me in the stomach, and sent me hurtling off my feet through some thick brambles.

It was then as I rolled through the wet grass, coughing and doing my best not to vomit, that I realized she'd pressed me clear of the treeline. The air was clearer, if still laden heavily with smoke, the flickering flame tinged outline of the dorms visible only a few hundred yards away across the small lake centered in the garden. I fought to my hands and knees still swaying dangerously, when my stomach lurched, my head pounding like a drum.

_'Need to... to get up, and... So close...!?'_

Laughter, cold and cruel, met my ears echoing from all around me, setting my heart thundering in my chest, as I realized I was surrounded. A dozen figures, all Faunus of various breeds and types, in variations of the same gear and masks Cerise had been wearing, crowded around me in a loose circle. Some were propped on benches, or sitting perched along the stone path, or grass outcroppings, each bearing weapons and wicked smiles.

'_A fucking trap...'_ I realized dully as I clambered for my axe, splitting the weapon into its dual submachine guns, and aiming at whatever signs of movement I saw, shifting on my knees. _'Blood Hounds... The White Fang! They played me!?'_

None of the bastards even flinched, many simply laughing at the sight of me crawling around in the dirt and grass. One in particular, a shirtless bastard with goat horns sticking out from his hair, and extensive tattoos criss-crossing his exposed upper body, raised a three-pronged pitchfork as he got to his feet. All of a sudden, heat licked at my heels, embers dancing briefly in the night air, before sparking an intense ring of flames to cut me off, the lights playing hell with my vision, and choking my senses.

"Ah, Lady Argus... So glad of you to finally join us!" the goat man announced with no lack of grandstanding as he strode forward towards me, the fire seeming to part before him, as if it were alive. "We were afraid you wouldn't show. Your father will be pleased to know we've...!"

"What do you mean 'we,' Iblis!?" Cerise's voice called out from behind me, the Faunus swiping aside a few branches in her path with her spear in one hand, before stepping onto the grass. Her other hand was wiping at her blood-coated face. Many of the Faunus flinched away from her, their nerves ringing in what little of their scent I could detect, though Iblis didn't seem to chuffed, more amused than anything else. "She stumbled into my web, not yours."

"A feisty one then, by the look of things..." He motioned towards the state of her face, her nose still obviously bent at a slightly crooked angle. "If you needed help, all you needed to do was...!?"

He juked to avoid a burst of fire from my right handed weapon, the rounds instead burying themselves in the chest of an antler sporting subordinate who went down with a grunt of shock and sudden pain. There were no screams, though. That was... disconcerting. No one was in any rush to help him, either. Even Iblis, who just shut his mouth, and snorted a small gout of flame from his nostrils.

"Thank you, dear. You saved me the trouble. He would've gone on gloating all night, otherwise," Charlotte called gratefully. The goat man bristled at the words. The flames surrounding me grew more intense, and drove a few of the closer Hounds back. Sweat began to drip down my brow in earnest. "Ooh, _scary._ Look, I'm trembling."

"Well, it appears she has certainly inherited Conan's patience. A pity that she doesn't seem to possess his skill," the Blood Hound sighed dramatically, leveling his pitchfork towards me, probably thinking he looked like the most menacing monster in the world. Shame for him; I wasn't willing to give him the satisfaction. "Will you stop playing around, Charlotte, and deal with the girl, or shall I have to step in?"

Was I nervous, sitting smack dab amidst a bunch of crazed White Fang, even more screwed in the head than the usual bunch? Hell yeah. But at the mention of his name, my father's name, I felt my blood start to boil, even in comparison to the flames licking at my heels. My aim faltered as I clutched my weapons so tightly, it hurt. With a defiant snarl, I raised my weapons to both sides, sighting in on Iblis and Cerise both, though the flames played hell with my vision. I flashed my teeth as my heart hammered in my chest.

"_'Deal with me?'_ Just try it, assholes! _Come on!_" I howled, feeling the weight of my Aura pulsing through me as I took a deep breath, taking in the smoke, the blood, the...

Ah hell... Of course.

"Bold words for someone who stands..._What!?_" It seemed Iblis' fate would be to keep getting constantly interrupted, which was a blessing, as his voice was already setting my teeth on edge.

A slightly diminutive figure smashed down from the skies behind me with enough force to almost smother the flames from the dirt sent flying in her wake. Reika Murasaki extricated her gauntleted fist from the fresh crater she'd made on arrival, peering about at the assembled crowd of onlookers with the usual dispassionate air she adopted while in combat, pressured steam billowing from rivulets along the length of her armored arm.

She'd followed me after I'd made a such a scene of running off on my own, it seemed. I couldn't quite blame her. I could smell the annoyance, mixed with what might've been relief... Ben must've asked her to watch me; of course he would.

_'Overprotective idiot... When I see him again, I swear I'm gonna...'_

Even as I thought the words, I couldn't quite help the smile I bore proudly. "Took you long enough, pipsqueak. What, you get lost on the way?" I took a look back just in time to see the rising finger, a mad cackle spilling from my lips as I elbowed her in the back. "God, I hate you sometimes, you know that?"

"..." I got a nod in return, and a nasty grin to go along with it. It wasn't a bad look all together, though with the scars and the flames to add to the effect, well... Suffice it to say, I could understand Iblis' cautious step back. Hell, she was even getting to _me,_a little bit. The shrimp was practically oozing with Aura, her skin taking on a violet hue.

We didn't have much time before they came at us, Iblis and Cerise both, with weapons bared, and very much aware of the threat we posed... or at least that I posed.

I didn't mind much. Let them come._'AMBR's ready to kick some ass!'_

* * *

-_**Joel Ambrose-**_

Silence met the aftermath of my story, punctuated by the dull whine of the engines, and the sounds of creaking metal, as the airship beneath us soared towards our destination. Currently, we found ourselves skirting low over Downtown Vale, the reason being Atlas' flagship still drifting about over the city proper somewhat erratically. Apparently, it was still under the enemy's control. That had been the cause of Ironwood going down, and Ben had cautioned keeping a distance, seeing no reason to give Torchwick the opportunity to decapitate the Atlesian defense effort a second time. He also had the doors open, having his troopers aiming at the Grimm in the city below.

"Well, uh... _Wow._" Ben shook his head weakly, a mix of disbelief and sympathy written across his face as I finished speaking. It might've even been entertaining in any other circumstance, as it was rare to see the rogue struck speechless after all. Of course, I would've preferred it if the cause wasn't just an overview of my day. "You... _Damn..._ You really weren't kiddin'. You actually wound up..."

"In Bastion, yeah," I finished for him, massaging my aching arm while trying my best to avoid reliving the last few hours, dredging it all back. It was hard to believe this was all over the course of a _single day._It felt more like _weeks..._ And now I was back, and everything's changed.

I glanced towards the aft of the cabin, where Dai sat over his impromptu setup, arguing in hushed whispers with one of Ben's troopers who he'd brought along, 'Echo' or Rosso, I think he'd said his name actually was, over how to further establish a signal in these conditions. The man had been very interested in my story from start to finish, even though he'd made a good show of hiding it. Jasper was there as well, sitting along the side wall across from him, flexing his gloved hands as he listened into our conversation. I could tell by the way his head shifted every so often when our voices raised.

He had stiffened considerably when I mentioned the part about losing somebody during our escape.

Meanwhile, the girls had "decided" to take my suggestion, and hitch a ride on the other ship. Liz wasn't exactly happy about it, but I'd rationalized that it was probably better than a bullet to the brain, and a quick trip to the ground, something almost guaranteed to happen if she and the former bandit spent any more time in close proximity.

"I... Well, I know it's probably a bit hard to believe," I finished lamely, taking a deep breath.

The rogue managed a dry laugh at that, those few Red Team members he'd brought along sharing nervous looks, wary about following their commander's lead. _'Ben Carson, Specialist of Atlas... When the hell did this happen?'_ Had he always been one? Had his time in AMBR been all just one big lie? A means for the man to get close to me? Just another one one of Ironwood's lackeys sent to watch me?

I didn't want to believe it of him. That a man I considered to be one of my closest comrades, one of my _friends,_ could betray our trust like that.

"Heh, you're tellin' me! Blondie's long lost momma comes 'round to snatch you up, and somehow stick you out in the middle of the Frontier? All 'cause she apparently owed your Granddad a favor, before he... Then all this business with the Red Hand, and your..." The other man again paused for a split second, eyes darting towards the other passengers, before continuing. "...And this Violette leadin' 'em... It's a bit much to take in, Boss. What you're sayin'..."

He was still protecting me, keeping my association with my uncle under wraps. Even Jasper had noticed that, the other Trapper glancing directly at me for a moment, before looking away... Would a spy do something like that? Surely not. He had also paused when he spoke of my Grandfather, knowing that his death was likely still a sore subject for me. Atlas agent or not, I appreciated that. Unfortunately, whatever the rogue was going to say was cut off by a patch of rough turbulence before picked up by another.

"Well, that would just be crazy, right?" one of the Atlesians spoke up, a scowl playing across what features were visible underneath his helmet, as he stared at his fellows for support. "Going against the Kingdoms... I've heard those savages in the Frontier held to some archaic views, but even still, to throw themselves in with people like...!" He clamped his mouth shut as Ben shot him a harsh look, likely in response to the sparks running up my arm originating from the clenched fist over my knee, the dim red lights flickering above us. "I... S-sorry, sir, I just..."

"Thought you'd badmouth a man's home right to his face, Trooper?" the sharpshooter spat out the words angrily. "How 'bout the next time you use that mush between your ears, you think before you insult an ally!?"

"No... He's got a point." I released the pent up breath I was holding, relaxing, before giving the man an apologetic smile, and Ben a reassuring wave, more to show that the sparks had vanished. "It was foolish, but unfortunately, your average Frontiersman is nothing if not stubborn. We have to be to survive out there. Throw in the fact that we're the descendants of conquerors, and you have a fair number of them looking to regain old glories better left in the past."

"Uh... Well, you see, sir, I didn't mean anything..." the trooper spluttered, before Ben let out an exasperated groan, and went back to checking his kit, muttering to himself.

"Just keep that to yourself; he gets it!" He dismissed, before shaking his head with his metal had to his forehead. "Still... For this have happened now, of all times... Godammit, give us a fuckin' break, here!"

I sat back in my seat, ignoring the man's frantic apologies to his commander, and my teammate's whining, thinking over what I'd just said.

Bastion was trying to emulate Rowan's rapid expansion, uniting the various assorted tribes of the Frontier struggling to hold out against the soulless Grimm into something almost comparable to a Kingdom itself. It was a masterstroke on Lucas' part using her example as a symbol. Anti-Kingdom sentiment had been building for years, mostly talk behind closed doors amongst the higher echelons of our society, but talk all the same. All the Red Hand had needed to do was light the fuse, and give them a target. This time, it was just a different type of monster in their eyes... The Fang, instead of the Grimm, and the Kingdoms that had, so far, been ineffective against them.

"That reminds me... " my teammate spoke up, running the cleanest end of his tactical cloak he could find over the lenses of his goggles idly. "...That 'Black Queen' harlot mentioned somethin' in her broadcast. 'Our Kingdoms are at the brink of war, from within and without.'" I knew what he was talking about immediately. The words spoken after Penny's... after she fell. It was declaration of change, but, from that line alone, I was smart enough to guess where Ben was going with his line of thought.

"You think this woman and the Red Hand might be working together." I finished for him, thinking over the possibility myself for a moment, before continuing. "I thought about that, too... But I don't think so. They might be using each other, perhaps, given how perfect the timing, but as far gone as he is, I doubt even Violette would sanction using the Grimm as a weapon."

At least... I sincerely hoped so. The whole concept dragged up bitter memories carved into every Bastion-born Huntsman's soul to a time when soulless monsters had run rampant within our own borders. Just the thought that someone would willingly set such an event into motion was enough to make my blood boil with a vindictive fury that set the trooper next to me skirting away in his restraints.

Still, I couldn't gauge my uncle's determination to see his goal through... If it was strong enough, he might even stoop to that level one day, if he thought it would benefit his cause...

"If you say so. Still, that would mean they would've known of each other, at least. I mean, a coup, and what pretty much amounts to a declaration of war all the way out in the Frontier, happenin' hours before an event perfectly poised to keep the Kingdoms from interferin'?... Clean up in Vale is gonna tie up military resources for weeks, even if we do manage to somehow make it through the night."

"...That reminds me," I pressed him, remembering the look on his face when he'd read Ozpin's message, the flicker of guilt. "What's going on, Ben? Why would Ozpin himself be calling you back personally?" Whatever it was, it was worth dragging the Huntsman... _the Specialist _responsible for holding back as many Grimm as possible away from his duties. Something didn't ring right with that. I might not know Benjamin Carson as well as I'd thought I did, but what I did know for sure was that he wasn't one to drag himself away from where he felt he was needed, Headmaster's orders or not.

"Psycho, I can't..." I glared at him, his face twisting as he replaced his goggles, and tightened his grip on the rifle slung in front of him, metallic fingers digging into the stock. "...Joel, I know this ain't what you want to hear, but..."

**"Wait, Amys slow down... She did _what!?_"** Dai's raised voice cried, which was rare in and of itself considering how badly the echo of the cabin must be affecting his ears, the hum enough to set even my teeth on edge. I glanced over, the demolitionist leaning back from his set up, a finger rising to his ear. That meant mask to mask communication. Something wrong must have happened with the others stationed on the Dropship skirting the rooftops behind us. **"_What do you mean Liz jumped!?_"**

I was actually surprised how coordinated mine, Ben, and Jasper's reactions were, the three of us leaping to our feet, and shouting loud enough to shake the whole cabin.

_**"WHAT!?"**_

At this, Jin turned to look at all three of us.**"Liz just jumped off the ship! She jumped off into one of the rooftops behind us!"**

"Oh_ hell no!_" Ben cursed ferociously, quickly putting on his goggles. Taking out_Glory,_ he then squatted to the edge of the open door, and aimed.

I followed after him, looking over him to look behind our Bullhead. Sure enough, in the distance, Liz was running on a rooftop far away, with glowing Dust trailing behind her, signifying her using _Phoenix Down_ to land.

"_SHIT!_" Carson cried, pointing his rifle away from her. "Too windy to make a clean shot!"

Jasper had joined us looking at his fellow Trapper as she disappeared to the streets of Vale. "That dirty... She _abandoned_ us!"

I myself looked on in numb disbelief. "No, Liz... What are you...?"

The sharpshooter was more open about his feelings over the new development. "Goddamned..." He then quickly snapped to my direction. "I _knew_ we shouldn't have fuckin' trusted her, Joel!"

I held up my hand to stop him. "Ben, wait! Hold on a sec!" I then looked over at Dai, who was still talking with Amys. "Dai, what happened? Why'd she jump off?"

The demolitionist turned towards me, taking his hand off his ear. **"Amy's saying that, before she jumped off, she Liz said something... a name? She says she mentioned a name; someone called Eddy..."**

At that, my whole body froze, chills running down my spine. My face must have gone pale, too. "E-E... _EDDY!?_ Are you _sure_ she said that!?" Dai relayed the question, and nodded when she confirmed my question, much to my dawning horror as I gazed back at her. "Oh... shit...shit shit shit!"

Seeing my expression, Ben's anger had sizzled down somewhat. "Psycho, what's up? Someone you know?"

With a frightened expression, I looked back at him over my shoulder, startling him somewhat. "Remember when I said that there was a dangerous, renegade Trapper gunning for me back at the Colosseum?... It's him."

Ben frowned as he heard that, but was cut off by Fullmark's remark. "Wait a minute! There's other Trappers here, and you didn't even tell us!?"

I looked directly at his eyes, deciding to get to the truth about this new development. If worst came to worst, they may figure it out for themselves anyway. "It's _Duo!_"

Upon those words leaving my mouth, Japser's expression fell completely. Dai's shoulders fell slightly, before trembling visibly.

"D-D-_Duo!?_ Wait, Briar's fucking _here!? The little one!?_" Fullmark uttered shakily, now with a face similar to my own. "Why the fuck didn't you tell us!?"

Dai was too busy stuttering into his mask's filter to join in, likely speaking to Amys. **"I-it's Duo... He's saying Briar went after Duo!... _Briar went after Duo!_"**

Carson, more than taken aback by our strange reactions, tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention."Psycho, why the hell are y'all babblin'? Who or what's a 'Duo'?"

"Duo... He's one of the most, if not _the_ most dangerous Trapper the Red Hand's ever produced. He has the highest kill count out of all of us, right above Virgil, uncontrollable... And he's Liz's... He's her little brother."

At that, Ben's anger returned, looking away from me as he let out a growl from clenched teeth. "Are you fuckin'... Goddamn... Fuck... _FUCK!_" He then punched the side of the hull with his prosthetic arm, leaving a visible dent. "Give us a fuckin' break!"

The intercom of the ship crackled, as Redgrave's voice echoed throughout the Bullhead. _"Attention, passengers... STOP DOING THAT TO MY GIRL!"_ Cursing to himself, Carson called an apology over his shoulder.

"Ben, he's dangerous! We have to go back and...!"

The Badlander snapped back towards instantly, his anger back with a vengeance. "Like _hell_ we fuckin' will! We need to get back to Beacon! 'Sides, I'm _done_ wastin' time on that snake! If she want's to get herself killed, fine by me! Saves me the trouble of doin' it myself!"

I was about to plead, but Jas cut me off sharply with a firm nod. "I'm with the Specialist. I ain't about to stick my neck out for some deserter. Especially if it means messing with that goddamned monster of hers!"

Sending him a brief glare over my shoulders, I then looked back to Ben, my pleading eyes looking at his own furious ones as I moved to follow after her. "Ben, you don't understand! We have to...!"

Carson cut me off with a sharp tug at my collar before I'd finished speaking, pointing a metal finger directly at my face. "_NO!_ _YOU _don't understand, Joel! I've been busy lyin' to Blondie for the last few days about where you were! I can't even remember the last time I've ever shot so many excuses out of my ass!" He cried out furiously. "Well, no more! Now that you're back, I'm done coverin' your ass! You can go meet up with your girl, and tell her why you've been missin'! Because if you go after that other bitch, I'm gonna tell her the truth: you went chasin' after your ex!" With that, with an authority and anger I'd never seen from the sharpshooter, he brought his face directly to mine. "So what's it gonna be, Joel!? I'm callin' in debts!"

I almost lashed out. I came so close that it scared me, forcing me to take a moment and think. The man was angry, angry with good cause, if what he said was true. And he was right; I _did_ owe him.

_'And not only that...'_ I spared one last look at Liz's retreating back, before letting myself relax across the hard deck of the cabin._'...Yang deserves better. She needs me right now. I can't just...'_

I pushed Ben's hand away with a low growl, and marched my way up to the cockpit to grip Redgrave's seat tightly, before staring out the window towards the distant outline of Beacon Academy, refusing to look back over my shoulder. I couldn't quite be sure what I would do if I gave into the impulse. It would seem that I didn't have to, as Ben came in a few minutes later. At that point we were flying over the lake across Beacon. He had taken a few deep breaths, before speaking to me.

"Look... I'm sorry for what happened back there, alright?... I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." I took deep breaths, letting the air out of my nostrils, before inhaling the air into them again. I did this for a whole other minute. The process' effects were slow, as I could still feel sparks emitting in my hand. In that time, Ben continued to speak. "But I meant every word of what I said, Joel. Even if a deep part of you hates to hear it," he said to me. I could feel his gaze on me. "Right now, we need to have our priorities straight. Our friends need us right now, Joel. Whatever our reasons to be at Beacon are... we _can't_ let them down."

As I finally calmed myself, the sparks going away as to punctuate that point, I couldn't help but agree with him, much as it pained my sense of honor. "No... You're right... I've had everyone worried all day... I owe it to them to let them know I'm okay."

"...Or at least alive, think most would settle for that." he quipped, chuckling to himself briefly. I merely scoffed, letting a small smile cross my lips.

I then felt a hand softly grip my shoulder, snapping my eyes towards Ben. He flinched at my sudden movement, but kept his ground. He let out a loud gulp, before firmly looking me in the eyes.

"Look, Boss... If we make it out of here... I'll tell you everything I can about this." He gestured his head over to his Troopers, and I knew that he was talking about his rank with Atlas.

"'Everything you can?...' Which means you won't tell me everything because..."

"It's classified, for a big reason too." he finished, frowning heavily. "Sorry."

I snorted at his words. "Never thought I'd heard those words from you, of all people."

"Believe me, neither did I, tastes like shit..." he added with annoyed huff. "But I promise, man... We make it out alive, I'll explain to all of you guys. You, Max, and Reika..."

"We're making it out of this, Ben," I answered firmly. "I don't want to hear that tone from you."

"No, I hear you, man," he nodded, before letting go of my shoulder. "I ain't gonna weasel out of it. After the battle, I'll be straight with y'all."

"For your sake, Carson..." I then sent a harsh glare at his way, giving him an idea of what would happen if said promise was broken. "I hope that's true."

He grimaced a bit from my expression, before patting me on the shoulder with a nod. "Be ready, Boss. We're comin' in hot."

**\- END**

**-OC Voice Cast Introduced this Chapter-**

Travis Hemlock - Dameon Clarke


End file.
